Ivan Nathaniel Dixon III (April
6, 1931 – March 16, 2008) He was an actor, director, and producer best known
for his series role in Hogan's Heroes, for his role in the 1967 television film
The Final War of Olly Winter, and for directing many episodes of television
series. Active in the civil rights movement since 1961, he served as a
president of Negro Actors for Action.
In 1957, Dixon appeared on
Broadway in William Saroyan's The Cave Dwellers, following this in 1959 with an
appearance in Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun. In 1958, he was a stunt
double for Sidney Poitier in the film The Defiant Ones and went on to
television roles on The Twilight Zone (in the episodes "The Big Tall
Wish" and "I Am the Night—Color Me Black"), Perry Mason, and
other series. On February 20, 1962, Dixon co-starred with Dorothy Dandridge in
the "Blues for a Junkman" episode of Cain's Hundred, which was the
highest-rated episode of the series. n his best-known role, Dixon appeared as
POW Staff Sergeant James "Kinch" Kinchloe in the ensemble cast of the
television sitcom Hogan's Heroes. "Kinch" was the communications
specialist, a translator of French, and Hogan's default second in command.
Dixon played Kinchloe from 1965
to 1970, the only one of the series' long-time cast not to remain for the
entire series. Kenneth Washington succeeded Dixon for the last year of the
show's run, albeit with a different character name. From 1970 to 1993, Dixon
worked primarily as a television director on such series and TV-movies as The
Waltons, The Rockford Files, The Bionic Woman, The Eddie Capra Mysteries,
Magnum, P.I., and The A-Team. After his career as an actor and director, Dixon
was the owner-operator of radio station KONI (FM) in Maui. In 2001, he left
Hawaii for health reasons and sold the radio station in 2002. Ivan Dixon died
on March 16, 2008, aged 76, at Presbyterian Hospital in Charlotte, North
Carolina, of complications from kidney failure.