Bob Crane

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Bob Crane
Bob Crane Sigrid Valdis Hogans Heroes 1969.JPG
Bob Crane with future wife Sigrid Valdis on Hogan's Heroes
Born Robert Edward Crane
(1928-07-13)July 13, 1928
Waterbury, Connecticut, U.S.
Died June 29, 1978(1978-06-29) (aged 49)
Scottsdale, Arizona, U.S.
Cause of death Homicide
Resting place Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery
Nationality American
Education Stamford High School
Occupation Actor, disc jockey
Years active 1950–1978
Spouse(s) Anne Terzian (m. 1949–1970)
Sigrid Valdis (m. 1970–1978)
Children 4
Website
www.bobcrane.com

Robert Edward "Bob" Crane (July 13, 1928 – June 29, 1978) was an American actor and disc jockey.

Crane began his career as a disc jockey in New York and Connecticut before moving to Los Angeles where he hosted the number-one rated morning show. In the early 1960s, he moved into acting. Crane is best known for his performance as Colonel Robert E. Hogan in the CBS sitcom Hogan's Heroes. The series aired from 1965 to 1971, and Crane received two Primetime Emmy Award nominations for his work on the series.

After Hogan's Heroes ended, Crane's career declined. He became frustrated with the few roles he was being offered and began doing dinner theater. In 1975, he returned to television in the NBC series The Bob Crane Show. The series received poor ratings and was canceled after 13 weeks. Afterwards, Crane returned to performing in dinner theaters and also appeared in occasional guest spots on television.

While on tour for his play Beginner's Luck in June 1978, Crane was found bludgeoned to death in his Scottsdale apartment, a murder that remains officially unsolved.

Contents

Early life [edit]

Bob Crane was born in Waterbury, Connecticut, but he spent his childhood and teenage years in Stamford, Connecticut.[1] He graduated from Stamford High School in 1946.[1] Music was important to Crane, and he started playing drums early in life. By junior high, he was organizing local drum and bugle parades with his neighborhood friends in Stamford.[2] Later, he became involved in his high school marching and jazz bands, as well as in the school's orchestra.[3] He also played for the Connecticut Symphony and the Norwalk Symphony Orchestras as part of the youth orchestra program.[4] On June 21, 1948, Bob enlisted in the National Guard and was honorably discharged on May 1, 1950.[5]

Career [edit]

Early career [edit]

In 1950, Crane started his broadcasting career at WLEA in Hornell, New York. He soon moved to WBIS in Bristol, Connecticut, followed by WICC in Bridgeport, Connecticut. This was a 1,000-watt operation with a signal covering the northeastern portion of the New York metropolitan area where he remained until 1956. At that time CBS radio network executives plucked Crane out partly to help stop his huge popularity from affecting the suburban ratings of their New York flagship WCBS, and partly to re-energize their flagging West Coast flagship KNX in Los Angeles. Crane moved his family to California to host the morning show at KNX. He filled the broadcast with sly wit, drumming, and guests such as Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra, and Bob Hope. It quickly became the number-one rated morning show with adult listeners in the Los Angeles area, with Crane known as "The King of the Los Angeles Airwaves."

Crane's acting ambitions led to his subbing for Johnny Carson on the daytime game show Who Do You Trust? and appearances on The Twilight Zone (uncredited), Channing, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and General Electric Theater. When Carl Reiner appeared on his show, Crane persuaded him to book him for a guest shot on The Dick Van Dyke Show, where he was noticed by Donna Reed, who suggested him for the role of neighbor Dr. Dave Kelsey in her eponymous sitcom from 1963 through 1965.

Hogan's Heroes (1965–1971) [edit]

In 1965, Crane was offered the starring role in a television comedy pilot about a German P.O.W. camp. Hogan's Heroes became a hit and finished in the Top Ten in its first year on the air. The series lasted six seasons, and Crane was nominated for an Emmy Award twice, in 1966 and 1967. During its run, he met Patricia Olson, who played Hilda under the stage name Sigrid Valdis. He divorced his wife of twenty years and married Olson on the set of the show in 1970. They had a son, Scotty (Robert Scott), and adopted a daughter named Ana Marie.

In addition to playing the drums on the theme song, Crane's musical talent can also be seen in the sixth season episode "Look at the Pretty Snowflakes," where he has an extended drum solo during the prisoners' performance of the jazz standard "Cherokee".

In 1968, during the run of Hogan's Heroes, Crane and series costars Werner Klemperer, Leon Askin, and John Banner appeared, with Elke Sommer, in a feature film called The Wicked Dreams of Paula Schultz. The setting was the divided city of Berlin inside East Germany. Paula Schultz was being tempted to defect to the West, with Crane encouraging her to do so. Klemperer and Banner were involved as East German officials trying to keep Paula in the East.

Post-Hogan's Heroes [edit]

Following the cancellation of Hogan's Heroes in 1971, Crane appeared in two Disney films, Superdad (1973) in the title role and Gus (1976) in a cameo.

In 1973, Crane purchased the rights to Beginner's Luck, a play that he starred in and directed. The production toured for five years, predominantly at dinner theaters around the country.[6] During breaks he guest starred in a number of TV shows, including Police Woman, Quincy, M.E., and The Love Boat. A second series, 1975's The Bob Crane Show, was canceled by NBC after three months.

At the time of his death Crane had recently taped a travel documentary in Hawaii, and had recorded an appearance on the Canadian cooking-talk show Celebrity Cooks. Neither was aired. (Crane's appearance on Celebrity Cooks was recreated in the biopic Auto Focus.)

Dinner theatre [edit]

Crane became a fixture on the dinner theatre scene and performed there for ten years. In 1969, he starred with Abby Dalton in Cactus Flower. He also performed in Send Me No Flowers, but his most popular performances were in Beginner's Luck, which he toured at The Showboat Dinner Theatre in St. Petersburg, Florida, La Mirada Civic Theatre in California, and the Windmill Dinner Theatre in Scottsdale, Arizona. Crane was performing at the Windmill at the time of his death.

Personal life [edit]

Marriages and children [edit]

In 1949, Crane married his high school sweetheart Anne Terzian. They had three children — Robert David, Deborah Ann, and Karen Leslie. The couple divorced in 1970.[7]

Later that year, Crane married his Hogan's Heroes co-star Sigrid Valdis on the set of the series.[8] They had a son, Scotty.[9] Valdis and Crane separated in 1977, but reportedly reconciled shortly before his death.[8]

Friendship with Carpenter [edit]

Crane frequently videotaped and photographed his own sexual escapades.[10] During the run of Hogan's Heroes, Richard Dawson introduced Crane to John Henry Carpenter, a regional sales manager for Sony Electronics who often helped famous clients with their video equipment.[11] The two men struck up a friendship and began going to bars together. Crane attracted women due to his celebrity status and introduced Carpenter as his manager. Later, they would videotape their sexual encounters.[12] While Crane's son Robert later insisted that all of the women were aware of the videotaping and consented to it, some, according to one source, had no idea that they had been filmed until informed by Scottsdale police after Crane's murder.[13] Carpenter later became national sales manager at Akai, and arranged his business trips to coincide with Crane's dinner theater touring schedule so that the two could continue seducing and videotaping women. At some point, however, the friendship began to deteriorate.[14]

Death [edit]

Crane's grave

In June 1978, Crane was living in the Winfield Place Apartments in Scottsdale, Arizona while appearing in Beginner's Luck at the Windmill Dinner Theatre. On the afternoon of June 29 Crane's co-star Victoria Ann Berry found his body in his apartment after he failed to show up for a lunch meeting.[15] Crane had been bludgeoned to death with a weapon that was never found, though investigators believed it to be a camera tripod. An electrical cord had been tied around his neck.[16]

Crane's funeral was held on July 5 at St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church in Westwood. An estimated 200 family members and friends attended, including Patty Duke, John Astin, and Carroll O'Connor. Pallbearers included Hogan's Heroes producer Edward Feldman, co-stars Larry Hovis and Robert Clary, and Crane's eldest son, Robert. Crane was interred in Oakwood Memorial Park in Chatsworth, California.[17]

More than 20 years after his death, Crane's widow, Sigrid Valdis, had his remains exhumed and transported approximately 25 miles southeast to Westwood Village Memorial Park in Westwood. After her death from lung cancer in 2007, Valdis was buried next to him.

Investigation [edit]

According to an episode of A&E's Cold Case Files, police officers who arrived at the scene of the crime noted that Carpenter called the apartment several times and did not seem surprised that the police were there, which raised suspicions. The car Carpenter had rented the previous day was impounded. In it, several blood smears were found that matched Crane's blood type. DNA testing was not available at that time. Due to insufficient evidence, Maricopa County Attorney Charles F. Hyder declined to file charges.

Murder case reopened [edit]

In 1990 the Maricopa County Attorney re-opened Crane's murder case; investigators reexamined and retested the evidence found in June 1978.[18] Although DNA testing of the blood found in Carpenter's rental car was inconclusive, Detective Jim Raines discovered an evidence photograph of the car's interior that appeared to show a piece of brain tissue. The blood and tissue samples themselves, which had been found in Carpenter's car the day after Crane's murder, had been lost; but an Arizona judge ruled that the new evidence was admissible.[18] In June 1992 Carpenter was arrested and charged with Crane's murder.[19][20]

Trial [edit]

At Carpenter's 1994 trial Crane's son Robert testified that in the weeks before his father's death, Crane had repeatedly expressed a desire to sever his friendship with Carpenter. Carpenter had become, "a hanger-on," he said, and "a nuisance to the point of being obnoxious".[21] The night before his death, Crane reportedly called Carpenter and ended their friendship.[22]

Defense attorneys attacked the prosecution's case as circumstantial and inconclusive. They denied the claim that Carpenter and Crane were on bad terms just before the slaying, and they labeled the determination that a camera tripod was the murder weapon as sheer speculation, based on Carpenter's occupation. They also disputed the claim that the rediscovered photo showed brain tissue, noting that authorities did not have the tissue itself. The defense pointed out that Crane had been videotaped and photographed in compromising sexual positions with numerous women, implying that a jealous person or someone fearing blackmail might have been the killer.

Carpenter was found not guilty. He maintained his innocence until his death on September 4, 1998. Crane's murder remains officially unsolved.[23]

Auto Focus [edit]

Crane's life and murder were the subject of the 2002 film Auto Focus, directed by Paul Schrader and starring Greg Kinnear as Crane. The film, based on Robert Graysmith's book The Murder of Bob Crane: Who Killed the Star of Hogan's Heroes?, portrays Crane as a happily married, church-going family man and popular Los Angeles disc jockey who suddenly becomes a Hollywood celebrity, and subsequently declines into sex addiction.

Scotty, Crane's son with Sigrid Valdis, attacked the film's accuracy. In an October 2002 piece on the movie, Scotty wrote that his father had only been to church three times in the last dozen years of his life, including his own funeral. There was no evidence, he said, that Crane engaged in BDSM; director Paul Schrader told Scotty that the BDSM scene was based on his own personal experience (while writing Hardcore), not Crane's. Scotty also wrote that his father and John Carpenter did not become close friends until 1975. Crane was a sex addict long before he became a star, he said, and may have begun recording his sexual encounters as early as 1956.[24]

Scotty and his mother, Sigrid Valdis, shopped a rival script alternately entitled F-Stop and Take Off Your Clothes and Smile, but interest ceased after Auto Focus was announced.[25]

At the time of the article denouncing Auto Focus, Scotty Crane was operating the Web site bobcrane.com, which launched in June 2001. The site included a paid section that featured outtakes from his father's pornographic films, photographs, and Crane's autopsy report, which, according to Scotty, disproved the allegation that his father had a penile implant.[13][26][27] The site has since been renamed "Bob Crane The Official Web Site", and no longer includes a pay wall or controversial material.

Filmography [edit]

Film
Year Title Role Notes
1961 Return to Peyton Place Peter White Uncredited
1961 Man-Trap Ralph Turner
1964 The New Interns Drunken Prankster at Baby Shower Uncredited
1968 The Wicked Dreams of Paula Schultz Bill Mason
1972 Patriotism Narrator Short film
1973 Superdad Charlie McCready
1976 Gus Pepper
Television
Year Title Role Notes
1953 GE True Episode: "Ride the River"
1961 The Twilight Zone Disc Jockey Episode: "Static"
1961 GE True Harry Episode: "The $200 Parlay"
1962 The Dick Van Dyke Show Harry Rogers Episode: "Somebody Has to Play Cleopatra"
1963 The Alfred Hitchcock Hour Charlie Lessing Segment: "The Thirty-First of February"
1963 Channing Episode: "A Hall Full of Strangers"
1963-1965 The Donna Reed Show Dr. Dave Kelsey 62 episodes
1965-1971 Hogan's Heroes Col. Robert E. Hogan 168 episodes
1966 The Lucy Show Himself Episode: "Lucy and Bob Crane"
1967 The Red Skelton Show Col. Hogan Episode: "Freddie's Heroes"
1969 Arsenic and Old Lace Mortimer Brewster Television film
1969-1971 Love, American Style Various roles 3 episodes
1971 The Doris Day Show Bob Carter Episode: "And Here's... Doris"
1971 Night Gallery Ellis Travers Episode: "House-With Ghost..."
1972 The Delphi Bureau Charlie Taggart Television pilot
1974 Tenafly Sid Pierce Episode: "Man Running"
1974 Police Woman Larry Brooks Episode: "Requiem for Bored Wives'
1975 The Bob Crane Show Bob Wilcox 13 episodes
1976 Joe Forrester Episode: "The Invaders"
1976 Ellery Queen Jerry Crabtree Episode: "The Adventure of the Hardhearted Huckster"
1976 Spencer's Pilots Cozens Episode: "The Search"
1976 Gibbsville Lawyer Episode: "Trapped"
1977 Quincy, M.E. Dr. Jamison Episode: "Has Anybody Here Seen Quincy?"
1977 The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries Danny Day Episode: "A Hunting We Will Go"
1978 The Love Boat Edward 'Teddy' Anderson Episode: "Too Hot to Handle/Family Reunion/Cinderella Story"

Award nominations [edit]

Year Award Category Title of work
1966 Primetime Emmy Award Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series Hogan's Heroes
1967 Primetime Emmy Award Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series Hogan's Heroes

References [edit]

  1. ^ a b Altamont Enterprise and Albany County Post, Friday, February 13, 1970, p. 1, "Glittering Stars to Appear on Telethon," [1]; A&E "Bob Crane Biography" [2];"TV Radio Mirror," October 1967, pp. 33, 76-79.; Stamford High School; Stamford Historical Society, Stamford, CT.
  2. ^ Altamont Enterprise and Albany County Post, Friday, February 13, 1970, p. 1, "Glittering Stars to Appear on Telethon," [3]; A&E "Bob Crane Biography" [4]; "TV Radio Mirror," October 1967, pp. 33, 76-79; Stamford High School, Class of 1946 Alumni.
  3. ^ Altamont Enterprise and Albany County Post, Friday, February 13, 1970, p. 1, "Glittering Stars to Appear on Telethon," [5]; A&E "Bob Crane Biography" [6]; "TV Radio Mirror," October 1967, pp. 33, 76-79; TV Star Parade, January 1966, "The Unlikeliest Hero of Them All," pp. 8, 70-71; Stamford High School, Stamford, CT.
  4. ^ "TV Radio Mirror," October 1967, pp. 33, 76-79; Bridgeport Symphony Orchestra, formerly Connecticut Symphony Orchestra, Bridgeport, CT; Stamford High School, Class of 1946 Alumni.
  5. ^ Newark Advocate, July 24, 1965, "Crane Gambles $150,000," p. 7; Stamford National Guard records, Stamford, CT.
  6. ^ Noe, Denise: [7] TruTV Crime Library, The Bob Crane Case.
  7. ^ "'Hogan's Heroes' Star Bob Crane Beaten to Death". Youngstown Vindicator. June 30, 1979. p. 6. Retrieved December 15, 2012. 
  8. ^ a b "Sigrid Valdis, 72". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. November 22, 2007. p. 8E. Retrieved 15 December 2012. 
  9. ^ "Colonel Hogan has bounced back". Eugene Register-Guard. April 20, 1975. Retrieved December 15, 2012. 
  10. ^ Rubin, Paul (April 21, 1993). "THE BOB CRANE MURDER CASE PART ONE". phoenixnewtimes.com. p. 2. Retrieved December 15, 2012. 
  11. ^ (Katz 2010, p. 288)
  12. ^ Kim, Eun-Kyung (November 1, 1994). "Crane's friend acquitted". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. pp. A–8. Retrieved December 15, 2012. 
  13. ^ a b Wilonsky, Robert (July 18, 2001). "Klinky Sex". sfweekly.com. Retrieved December 15, 2012. 
  14. ^ (Katz 2010, p. 289)
  15. ^ "Actor Bob Crane Beaten To Death". The Milwaukee Sentinel. July 30, 1978. p. 1. Retrieved 15 December 2012. 
  16. ^ Kim, Eun-Kyung (September 13, 1994). "Trial reruns TV star's love life". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. pp. A–8. Retrieved December 15, 2012. 
  17. ^ "Family, friend mourn Crane". Kingman Daily Miner. July 6, 1978. p. 6. Retrieved December 15, 2012. 
  18. ^ a b "Crane case to go forward". The Bulletin. March 12, 1993. Retrieved December 15, 2012. 
  19. ^ "How did Bob Crane die, anyway?". straightdope.com. May 8, 2008. Retrieved December 15, 2012. 
  20. ^ Balazs, Diana (September 12, 1998). "Suspect in killing of 'Hogan's Heroes' actor Bob Crane". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. pp. A–12. Retrieved December 15, 2012. 
  21. ^ "Bob Crane's son testifies in trial". The Telegraph (October 4, 1994). pp. A–2. Retrieved December 15, 2012. 
  22. ^ (Philbin 2012, p. 191)
  23. ^ (Newton 2009, p. 95)
  24. ^ Crane, Scotty. "Raging Bullshit: Auto Focus Is Not My Dad's Story". The Stranger. Retrieved 14 August 2011. 
  25. ^ "The Truth About Bob Crane". Morty's TV.com. Retrieved 14 August 2011. 
  26. ^ Ebert, Roger (October 24, 2002). "Sons take sides in biopic dispute". The Hour. p. D5. Retrieved December 15, 2012. 
  27. ^ "A star is porn". theage.com.au. July 4, 2003. Retrieved 15 December 2012. 

Works cited [edit]

  • Katz, Hélèna (2010). Cold Cases: Famous Unsolved Mysteries, Crimes, and Disappearances in America. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 0-313-37692-1
  • Newton, Michael (2009). The Encyclopedia of Unsolved Crimes (2 ed.). Infobase Publishing. ISBN 0-8160-7818-1
  • Philbin, Tom (2012). The Killer Book of Cold Cases: Incredible Stories, Facts, and Trivia from the Most Baffling True Crime Cases of All Time. Sourcebooks, Inc. ISBN 1-402-25356-7

Further reading [edit]

  • The Murder of Bob Crane by Robert Graysmith, published by Crown Publishers, New York, NY, 1993
  • "The Bob Crane Story: Everything but a Hero," by A.O. Scott, New York Times, October 4, 2002

External links [edit]

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