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Leon Askin

Leon AskinAKA Leo Aschkenasy

Born: 18-Sep-1907
Birthplace: Vienna, Austria
Died: 3-Jun-2005
Location of death: Vienna, Austria
Cause of death: unspecified
Remains: Buried, Zentralfriedhof, Vienna, Austria

Gender: Male
Religion: Jewish
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Actor

Nationality: Austria
Executive summary: General Burkhalter on Hogan's Heroes

Military service: US Army

Leon Askin's family could not afford to send him to school full-time, so he studied acting at night school while working as a bookkeeper and salesman. He worked as an actor and director in Vienna and parlayed that into a steady work at the famous Louise Dumont Theater in Düsseldorf, Germany. Because of his ethnicity Askin was fired in 1933, and subsequently arrested and beaten.

He returned to Vienna, then fled to Paris in 1938 when the Nazis took Austria. His parents were imprisoned and killed in a Nazi concentration camp. In Paris, Askin was put into a French internment camp -- not for being Jewish, but for being from Nazi-controlled Austria. He applied to emigrate to America, and arrived in New York in 1940, where the Austrian Leo Aschkenasy became the American Leon Askin and served in the Army Air Corps during World War II.

As an actor, Askin was often cast as the bad guy with a foreign accent in American movies and TV shows from Mission: Impossible to The Monkees. His most famous role was on the prisoner-of-war sitcom Hogan's Heroes, as General Burkhalter, the big Nazi who was always threatening to send Col. Klink to the Russian front.

Father: Samuel Aschkenasy
Mother: Malvine Aschkenasy
Wife: Mimi
Wife: Annelies "Lies" Ehrlich

    Allied Internment Camp Inmate
    Austrian Ancestry
    Jewish Ancestry
    Risk Factors: Obesity

    TELEVISION
    Hogan's Heroes

    FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
    Odd Jobs (1984)
    Frightmare (Jan-1983) · Wolfgang
    Airplane II: The Sequel (10-Dec-1982) · Moscow Anchorman
    Going Ape! (10-Apr-1981)
    Doctor Death: Seeker of Souls (Oct-1973)
    Genesis II (23-Mar-1973)
    The World's Greatest Athlete (14-Feb-1973)
    Hammersmith Is Out (12-May-1972)
    The Maltese Bippy (18-Jun-1969) · Axel Kronstadt
    A Fine Pair (10-May-1969)
    Guns for San Sebastian (20-Mar-1968)
    The Wicked Dreams of Paula Schultz (3-Jan-1968)
    The Perils of Pauline (2-Aug-1967) · Commissar
    The Caper of the Golden Bulls (21-Jun-1967)
    Double Trouble (5-Apr-1967) · Insp. de Groote
    What Did You Do in the War, Daddy? (31-Aug-1966) · Col. Kastorp
    Do Not Disturb (22-Dec-1965) · Langsdorf
    John Goldfarb, Please Come Home (24-Mar-1965)
    Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace (30-Nov-1962)
    One, Two, Three (15-Dec-1961) · Peripetchikoff
    Mistress of the World (14-Apr-1960)
    The Last Blitzkrieg (30-Jan-1959)
    Spy Chasers (31-Jul-1955) · Col. Baxis
    Son of Sinbad (31-May-1955)
    Carolina Cannonball (28-Jan-1955)
    Valley of the Kings (21-Jul-1954) · Valentine Arko
    Secret of the Incas (28-May-1954) · Anton Marcu
    Knock on Wood (14-Apr-1954) · Gromeck
    Veils of Bagdad (7-Oct-1953)
    The Robe (16-Sep-1953) · Abidor
    China Venture (7-Sep-1953) · Wu King
    South Sea Woman (3-Jun-1953) · Pierre Marchand
    Desert Legion (20-Apr-1953) · Maj. Vasil
    Road to Bali (19-Nov-1952) · Ramayana

Official Website:
http://www.askin.at/


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