Bob Crane

Robert Edward Crane (July 13, 1928 – June 29, 1978) was an American actor, drummer, radio personality, and disc jockey known for starring in the CBS situation comedy Hogan's Heroes.

Bob Crane
Crane in Hogan's Heroes, 1969
Born
Robert Edward Crane

(1928-07-13)July 13, 1928
DiedJune 29, 1978(1978-06-29) (aged 49)
Cause of deathHomicide
Resting placeWestwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery
Occupation
  • Actor
  • drummer
  • radio host
  • disc jockey
Years active1950–1978
Spouse(s)
Anne Terzian
(m. 1949; div. 1970)

(m. 1970)
Children5

A drummer from age 11,[1] Crane began his career as a radio personality, first in New York City and then in Connecticut. Upon moving to Los Angeles, he hosted the number-one rated morning show. In the early 1960s, Crane moved into acting, eventually landing the lead role of Colonel Robert Hogan in Hogan's Heroes. The series aired from 1965 to 1971, and Crane received two 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 performing in dinner theater. In 1975, Crane returned to television in the NBC series The Bob Crane Show. The series received poor ratings and was cancelled after thirteen weeks. Afterward, Crane returned to performing in dinner theaters and also appeared in occasional guest spots on television.

While on tour in June 1978 for a dinner theater production, Beginner's Luck, Crane was found bludgeoned to death in his Scottsdale, Arizona apartment, the victim of a homicide. The murder remains officially unsolved. Due to the suspicious nature of his death and posthumous revelations about his personal life, Crane's previously uncontroversial public image suffered.[2]

Early life

Bob Crane was born in Waterbury, Connecticut, and spent his childhood and teenage years in Stamford.[3] Crane began playing drums, and by junior high was organizing local drum and bugle parades with his neighborhood friends.[3] He joined his high school's orchestra and its marching and jazz bands.[3][4] Crane also played for the Connecticut and Norwalk Symphony Orchestras as part of their youth orchestra program.[5] He graduated from Stamford High School in 1946.[3] In 1948 he enlisted for two years in the Connecticut Army National Guard and was honorably discharged in 1950.[6]

In 1949, Crane married his high-school sweetheart Anne Terzian. They had three children – Robert David, Deborah Anne, and Karen Leslie.[7]

Career

Early career

Crane in 1963

In 1950, Crane began his career in radio broadcasting at WLEA in Hornell, New York. He soon moved to Connecticut stations WBIS in Bristol, and then WICC in Bridgeport, a 1,000-watt operation with a signal covering the northeastern portion of the New York metropolitan area. In 1956, Crane was hired by CBS Radio to host the morning show at its West Coast flagship KNX in Los Angeles, California, partly to re-energize that station's ratings and partly to halt his erosion of suburban ratings at WCBS in New York City. In California, Crane filled the broadcast with sly wit, drumming, and such guests as Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra, and Bob Hope. His show quickly topped the morning ratings with adult listeners in the Los Angeles area, and Crane became "king of the Los Angeles airwaves".[8]

Crane's acting ambitions led to guest-hosting 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. After Carl Reiner appeared on his radio show, Crane persuaded Reiner to book him for a guest appearance on The Dick Van Dyke Show.

The Donna Reed Show (1963–1964)

After seeing Crane's performance on The Dick Van Dyke Show, Donna Reed offered him a guest shot on her program. After the success of that episode, his character, Dr. David Kelsey, was incorporated into the show's storyline and Crane became a regular cast member, beginning with the episode "Friends and Neighbors". Ann McCrea was cast in the series as his wife, Midge Kelsey.[9] Crane continued to work full-time at KNX during his stint on The Donna Reed Show, running back and forth from the KNX studio at Columbia Square to Columbia Studios. He left the show in December 1964.[1]

Hogan's Heroes (1965–1971)

In 1965, Crane was offered the starring role in a television situation comedy set in a World War II POW camp. Hogan's Heroes involved the sabotage and espionage missions of Allied soldiers, led by Hogan, from under the noses of the oblivious Germans guarding them. The show was a hit, finishing in the top ten in its first year. The distinctive military-style snare drum rhythm that introduces the show's theme song was played by Crane himself. The series lasted for six seasons, and Crane was nominated for an Emmy Award in 1966 and 1967. In 1968, he became romantically involved with cast member Patricia Olson, who played Hilda under the stage name Sigrid Valdis. Crane divorced Terzian in 1970, just before their 21st anniversary, and married Olson on the set of the show later that year, with Richard Dawson serving as best man.[10][11] Their son, Scotty, was born in 1971,[12] and they later adopted a daughter, Ana Marie. The couple separated in 1977, but according to several family members, reconciled shortly before Crane's death.[11]

After Hogan's Heroes

In 1968, Crane and series co-stars Werner Klemperer, Leon Askin, and John Banner appeared with Elke Sommer in a feature film, The Wicked Dreams of Paula Schultz, set in the divided city of Berlin during the Cold War. In 1969, Crane starred with Abby Dalton in a dinner theater production of Cactus Flower.

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 1973, he purchased the rights to a comedy play called Beginner's Luck and began touring it, as its star and director, at the Showboat Dinner Theatre in St. Petersburg, Florida; the La Mirada Civic Theatre in California; the Windmill Dinner Theatre in Scottsdale, Arizona; and other dinner theaters around the country.[13]

Between theater engagements, Crane guest-starred in a number of TV shows, including Police Woman, Gibbsville, Quincy, M.E., and The Love Boat. In 1975, he returned to television with his own series, The Bob Crane Show on NBC, which was cancelled after thirteen episodes. In early 1978, Crane taped a travel documentary in Hawaii and recorded an appearance on the Canadian cooking show Celebrity Cooks. Neither aired in the U.S. following his death. His appearance on Celebrity Cooks did air in Canada in late 1978, and was recreated in the biopic film Auto Focus.[1]

Private life and murder

Crane frequently videotaped and photographed his own sexual escapades.[14] During the run of Hogan's Heroes, Dawson introduced Crane to John Henry Carpenter, a regional sales manager for Sony Electronics, who often helped famous clients with their video equipment.[15] The two men struck up a friendship and began going to bars together. Crane attracted many women due to his celebrity status and introduced Carpenter to them as his manager. Later, Crane and Carpenter would videotape their joint sexual encounters.[16] 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 recorded until informed by Scottsdale police after Crane's murder.[17] 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 videotaping women after Hogan's Heroes had run its course.[18]

Apartment 132A of the Winfield Place Apartments (now condominiums) where Crane was murdered
A funeral wreath on the door of apartment 132A
Crane and Valdis's gravestone, bearing the banner "Hogan and Hilda, Together Forever"

In June 1978, Crane was living in the Winfield Place Apartments in Scottsdale, during a run of Beginner's Luck at the Windmill Dinner Theatre. On the afternoon of June 29, Crane's co-star Victoria Ann Berry entered his apartment (after he failed to show up for a lunch meeting) and discovered his body.[19] Crane had been bludgeoned with a weapon that was never identified, though investigators believed it to be a camera tripod. An electrical cord had been tied around his neck.[20]

Crane's funeral, on July 5, 1978, was held at St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church in Westwood, Los Angeles. 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, Robert Clary, and Crane's son, Robert. He was interred in Oakwood Memorial Park in Chatsworth, California.[21] Olson later had his remains relocated to Westwood Village Memorial Park in Westwood, and was buried beside him (under her stage name, Sigrid Valdis) after her death from lung cancer in 2007.[22]

Investigation

The Scottsdale Police Department, which was small at the time, had no homicide division and was ill-equipped to handle such a high-profile murder investigation. The crime scene yielded few clues; no evidence of forced entry was found, and nothing of financial value was missing. Detectives examined Crane's extensive videotape collection, which led them to Carpenter, who had flown to Phoenix on June 25 to spend a few days with Crane. Carpenter's rental car was impounded and searched. Several blood smears were found that matched Crane's blood type; no one else known to have been in the car, including Carpenter, tested for that type. (DNA testing was not yet available.) With no other significant material evidence, the Maricopa County Attorney declined to file charges.[23]

In 1990, Scottsdale Police Detective Barry Vassall and Maricopa County Attorney's Office Investigator Jim Raines, a former Phoenix homicide investigator,[24] re-examined the evidence from 1978 and persuaded the county attorney to reopen the case.[25] Although DNA testing of the blood found in Carpenter's rental car was inconclusive, Raines discovered an evidence photograph of the car's interior that appeared to show a piece of brain tissue. The actual tissue samples recovered from the car had been lost, but an Arizona judge ruled that the new evidence was admissible.[25] In June 1992, Carpenter was arrested and charged with Crane's murder.[26][27]

Trial

At the 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. He said Carpenter had become "a hanger-on" and "a nuisance to the point of being obnoxious".[28] "My dad expressed that he just didn't need Carpenter kind of hanging around him anymore," he said.[23] Robert testified that Crane had called Carpenter the night before the murder and ended their friendship.[29]

Carpenter's attorneys attacked the prosecution's case as circumstantial and inconclusive. They presented evidence, including witnesses from the restaurant where the two men had dined the evening before the murder, that Carpenter and Crane were still the best of friends. They noted that the murder weapon had never been identified or found; the prosecution's camera tripod theory was sheer speculation, they said, based solely on Carpenter's occupation. They disputed the claim that the newly discovered evidence photo showed brain tissue, and presented many examples of "sloppy work" by police, such as the mishandling and misplacing of evidence—including the crucial tissue sample itself.[24] They pointed out that Crane had been videotaped and photographed in compromising sexual positions with numerous women, implying that any one of them, fearing blackmail, might have been the killer.[29] Other potential suspects proposed by defense attorneys included angry husbands and boyfriends of the women, and an actor who had sworn vengeance after a violent argument with Crane in Texas several months earlier.[23]

Carpenter was acquitted.[30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37] He continued to maintain his innocence until his death four years later, in 1998.[38] After the trial, Crane's son, Robert, speculated publicly that Olson, his father's widow, might have had a role in instigating the crime. "Nobody got a dime out of [the murder]," he said, "except for one person," alluding to Crane's will, which excluded him, his siblings, and his mother, with the entire estate left to Olson. Crane's son repeated his suspicions in a 2015 book, Crane: Sex, Celebrity, and My Father's Unsolved Murder.[39] The case's prosecutor, Maricopa County District Attorney Rick Romley, responded, "We never characterized Patty as a suspect," adding, "I am convinced John Carpenter murdered Bob Crane."[10] Officially, Crane's murder remains unsolved.[38]

Later DNA testing

In November 2016, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office permitted Phoenix television reporter John Hook to submit the 1978 blood samples from Carpenter's rental car for retesting, using a more advanced DNA technique than the one used in 1990.[40] Two sequences were identified, one from an unknown male, and the other too degraded to reach a conclusion. This testing consumed all of the remaining DNA from the rental car, making further tests impossible.[41]

Auto Focus

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 a book on Crane's murder written by Zodiac author Robert Graysmith, was described as "brilliant" by critic Roger Ebert. The film portrays Crane as a happily married, church-going family man and popular Los Angeles disc jockey who succumbs to Hollywood's celebrity lifestyle after becoming a television star. When he meets Carpenter, played by Willem Dafoe, and as a result of their friendship learns about then-new home video technology, he descends into a life of strip clubs, BDSM, and sex addiction.[42]

Crane's son with Olson, Scotty, challenged the film's accuracy in an October 2002 review. "During the last twelve years of his life," he wrote, "[Crane] went to church three times: when I was baptized, when his father died, and when he was buried." His son further stated that Crane was a sex addict long before he became a star and that he may have begun recording his sexual encounters as early as 1956. There was no evidence, he claimed, that Crane engaged in BDSM; there were no such scenes in any of his hundreds of home movies, and Schrader admitted that the film's BDSM scene was based on his own experience (while writing Hardcore).[43] Before production on Auto Focus was announced, Scotty and Olson had shopped a rival script alternatively titled F-Stop or Take Off Your Clothes and Smile, but interest ceased after Auto Focus was announced.[44]

In June, 2001, Scotty launched the website bobcrane.com. It included a paid section featuring photographs, outtakes from his father's sex films, and Crane's autopsy report that proved, he said, that his father did not have a penile implant as stated in Auto Focus.[17][45][46] The site was renamed "Bob Crane: The Official Web Site", but is now abandoned. The "official" Bob Crane website was maintained by CMG Worldwide. The website no longer exists.[47]

Filmography

Film

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

Television
Year Title Role Notes
1953 General Electric Theater Episode: "Ride the River"
1959 Picture Window Jerry McEvoy Unaired pilot[48]
1961 The Twilight Zone Disc Jockey Episode: "Static", uncredited[49]
1961 General Electric Theater Harry Episode: "The $200 Parlay"[50]
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 Prof. Arlen Episode: "A Hall Full of Strangers"
1963–65 The Donna Reed Show Dr. Dave Kelsey 62 episodes
1965–71 Hogan's Heroes Col. Robert E. Hogan 168 episodes
1966 The Lucy Show Himself Episode: "Lucy and Bob Crane"
1966 Password Himself Game Show Contestant / Celebrity Guest Star
1967 The Green Hornet Uncredited Non Speaking Role Episode: "Corpse of the Year, Part 1"
1967 The Red Skelton Show Col. Hogan Episode: "Freddie's Heroes"
1969 Arsenic and Old Lace Mortimer Brewster Television film
1969 Love, American Style Howard Melville Episode: "Love and the Modern Wife"[51]
1971 Love, American Style Mark Episode: "Love and the Logical Explanation"[52]
1971 Love, American Style Episode: "Love and the Waitress"[53]
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 Taggett Television pilot
1974 Tenafly Sid Pierce Episode: "Man Running"
1974 Tattletales Himself Game Show Contestant / Celebrity Guest Star
1974 Police Woman Larry Brooks Episode: "Requiem for Bored Wives'
1975 The Bob Crane Show Bob Wilcox 13 episodes
1976 Joe Forrester Alban 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", (final appearance)

Awards and nominations

Year Award Category Title of work Nominated/Won
1966 Primetime Emmy Award Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series Hogan's Heroes Nominated[54]
1967 Primetime Emmy Award Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series Hogan's Heroes Nominated[55]

References

  1. Ford, C.M. (2015). Bob Crane: The definitive biography. Wilbraham MA: AuthorMike Ink. ISBN 978-0991033072.
  2. France, Lisa Respers (November 15, 2016). "We still don't know who killed Bob Crane". CNN.
  3. Altamont Enterprise and Albany County Post, Friday, February 13, 1970, p. 1, "Glittering Stars to Appear on Telethon," Archived 26 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine; A&E "Bob Crane Biography" ;TV Radio Mirror, October 1967, pp. 33, 76–79.; Stamford High School; Stamford Historical Society, Stamford CT.
  4. TV Star Parade, January 1966, "The Unlikeliest Hero of Them All," pp. 8, 70–71; Stamford High School, Stamford, CT.
  5. 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.
  6. Newark Advocate, July 24, 1965, "Crane Gambles $150,000," p. 7; Stamford National Guard records, Stamford CT.
  7. "'Hogan's Heroes' Star Bob Crane Beaten to Death". Youngstown Vindicator. June 30, 1979. p. 6. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
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  13. Noe, Denise: Archived 13 August 2008 at the Wayback Machine TruTV Crime Library, The Bob Crane Case.
  14. Rubin, Paul (April 21, 1993). "THE BOB CRANE MURDER CASE PART ONE". phoenixnewtimes.com. p. 2. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
  15. (Katz 2010, p. 288)
  16. Kim, Eun-Kyung (November 1, 1994). "Crane's friend acquitted". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. p. A–8. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
  17. Wilonsky, Robert (July 18, 2001). "Klinky Sex". sfweekly.com. Archived from the original on December 23, 2010. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
  18. (Katz 2010, p. 289)
  19. "Actor Bob Crane Beaten To Death". The Milwaukee Sentinel. July 30, 1978. p. 1. Retrieved 15 December 2012.
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  28. "Bob Crane's son testifies in trial". The Telegraph. October 4, 1994. p. A–2. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
  29. 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 p. 191
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  33. Hirschberg, Lynn (29 September 2002). "First came the sitcom. Then came the murder. Then came the pornographic Web site. Now here comes the Holly wood biopic!". Retrieved 4 May 2018 via NYTimes.com.
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  35. Berger, Leslie; Malnic, Eric (3 June 1992). "Man Held in Crane's Death Was a Suspect From Day 1 : Crime: Authorities say he phoned the actor's apartment but reached police investigating case". Retrieved 4 May 2018 via LA Times.
  36. France, Lisa Respers. "We still don't know who killed Bob Crane". cnn.com. Retrieved 4 May 2018.
  37. "Cold Case: Bob Crane's Secret Life Implicated". nbclosangeles.com. Retrieved 4 May 2018.
  38. Newton, Michael (2009). The Encyclopedia of Unsolved Crimes (2nd ed.). Infobase Publishing. ISBN 0-8160-7818-1
  39. Crane R, Fryer C. Crane: Sex, Celebrity, and My Father's Unsolved Murder. University Press of Kentucky (2015), pp. 200–209. ISBN 081316074X
  40. Kimball, Lindsay (November 15, 2016). "New DNA Evidence Proves Hogan's Heroes Star Bob Crane's Murderer Is Still Unknown". People.com. Retrieved November 16, 2016.
  41. "'Hogan's Heroes' star Bob Crane's murder still a mystery despite new DNA tests". FoxNews.com. November 15, 2016. Retrieved November 16, 2016.
  42. Ebert, R. (September 2, 2002). "Auto Focus" Captures Star's Downfall. RogerEbert.com archive. Retrieved November 15, 2013.
  43. Crane, Scotty. "Raging Bullshit: Auto Focus Is Not My Dad's Story". The Stranger. Retrieved 14 August 2011.
  44. "The Truth About Bob Crane". Morty's TV.com. Retrieved 14 August 2011.
  45. Ebert, Roger (October 24, 2002). "Sons take sides in biopic dispute". The Hour. p. D5. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
  46. "A star is porn". theage.com.au. July 4, 2003. Retrieved 15 December 2012.
  47. "Bob Crane – The Official Licensing Website of Bob Crane". Bob Crane. Retrieved 4 May 2018.
  48. "'Picture Window' – Bob Crane's Debut Television Performance (1959)". vote4bobcrane.org. February 9, 2012. Retrieved November 16, 2016.
  49. "Bob Crane, Radio's Man of 1000 Voices, Appears on 'The Twilight Zone' / March 1961". vote4bobcrane.org. May 27, 2012. Retrieved November 16, 2016.
  50. "The $200 Parlay". TV.com. Retrieved November 16, 2016.
  51. "Love and the Modern Wife". TV.com. Retrieved November 18, 2016.
  52. "Love and the Logical Explanation". TV.com. Retrieved November 18, 2016.
  53. "Love and the Waitress". TV.com. Retrieved November 18, 2016.
  54. Emmy Awards 1966
  55. Emmy Awards 1967

Further reading

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