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"ACHTUNG!...please" John Banner plays the most huggable Nazi on TV TV Guide May 6, 1967 - May 12, 1967 by Dick Hobson Pages 16-17
U.S. TV's first lovable, huggable German since World War II - Schultzy, der dummkopf turnkey of Hogan's Heroes - is played by actor John Banner, 57, an Austrian Jew who at 28 was driven out of Europe when Hitler's Anschluss took over Austria, and whose entire family was wiped out in the Nazis' "Final Solution to the Jewish Questions." When the series premiered last season the role of POW camp guard Sergeant Schultz provoked more criticism than any other. Critics protested that the role of Schultz depicts Hitler's "Master Race" as harmless - a breed of old buffoons, hopeless oafs, easygoing simps. Banner's answer for that : "You think Schultz is stupid? Notice that he survives." The critics carped about his "amorality" - Schultz will go either way, with the German captors or with the Allied prisoners. (Scared of being sent to the Russian front, his most characteristic line is, "I know nothing, nothing!") Producer ED Feldman readily admits that "Schultz is in the category of those who don't take sides. But," he adds, "that also means he's not to be considered one of the Heroes." Critics went on to complain that Schultz is nothing less than a "cuddly Nazi." Banner's reply: "There is no such thing as a cuddly Nazi. Maybe Goering was cuddly to his wife; he wasn't cuddly to the city of Rotterdam. I would refuse to a play a sympathetic Nazi. Schultz is not a Nazi. I see Schultz as the representative of some kind of goodness in any generation. That's apparently the way the viewers feel about him as well. To them he's a Hero like any other. Banner gets a deluge of fan mail, especially from youngsters, mostly pre-teeners, who vote him their favorite on the show. "How did you get fat or is it pillows?" they write. "Please send me a picture of your great self." "What is your favorite food, music, clothes, reading, dream, color, hobby, song, meat, sport, and flower?" Says Banner: "It amazes me, the response from kids. Beautiful blondes don't write me. It's always kids. I go over big with them. I'm not a father figure. I'm more the good uncle. It's so touching." Says Heroes star Bob Crane: "To my kids he's Santy Claus." Banner has no offspring of his own but he adores children, reads every letter addressed to him and answers each one himself. There is comradely fraternization among the Heroes on and off the set. "We joke a lot about the way John steals scenes from us," says co-star Robert Clary. "They can't upstage me. It's a physical impossibility!" chides Banner with reference to his great girth. According to co-star Werner Klemperer: "Every Friday night, after the show on TV, our phones are busy. Robert calls John. John calls me. Everybody says everybody else is great. We all do it to each other." Banner's wife, Christine, is French and a gourmet cook and when no dining on veal kidneys flambe or the like at home in Sherman Oaks, Cal., Banner is apt to be found at one of his five favorite restaurants: Scandia, La Rue, Chasen's, Perino's, or La Chaumiere- quite possibly the five best in the Los Angeles Basin. It might be noted that Banner weighs in at 280 pounds. He was 100 pounds lighter in 1938 when, finishing an acting engagement in Zurich, Switzerland, he found he couldn't go home: Hitler's army had marched into Austria. So he came to the United States as a refugee. Though he spoke not a word of English he was immediately cast as master of ceremonies of a musical revue, "From Vienna," at the Music Box Theater in New York City, and he had to memorize every word of his patter phonetically. In his subsequent long Hollywood career as character actor, Banner has had occasion to play a great number of Nazis. "Who can play Nazis better than us Jews?" But certainly never a "cuddly Nazi," and nothing riles him more today than the suggestion that "Sergeant Schultz," or "Schultzy," as he is called by the Heroes, is an instrument of Hitlerism. Imagine his dismay when he recently received a fan letter from a pre-teen admirer who, in ignorance of world politics of the Thirties and Forties, naively ended his letter with a friendly "Heil Hitler!" Click on the image to see a larger version.
Last Modified : Fri 16 May 2008 8:09 AM
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