Hogan’s Heroes star Kenneth Washington has died aged 89.
The TV and film actor was best known for playing Sergeant Richard Baker on the final season of Hogan’’s Heroes.
Created by Bernard Fein and Albert S. Ruddy, the American sitcom was set in a prisoner-of-war (POW) camp in Nazi Germany during World War II and followed around a group of Allied prisoners who use the POW camp as an operations base for sabotage and espionage activities directed against Nazi Germany.
Airing from 1965 until 1971, it ran for 168 episodes across six seasons.
A year after Washington was cast on the show, it was cancelled in 1971 by CBS.
Since the death of Robert Clary in November 2022, Washington had been the last surviving principal cast member of Hogan’s Heroes, along with Nita Talbot. His death was first reported by Variety.
Born in Ethel, Missippi, Washington’s family moved to California when he was a child, where he was then raised in San Francisco.
He later moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career, with his first (uncredited) role coming in 1956’s The Birds and the Bees. Other films he later appeared in included Changes, Hook, Line and Sinker, Westworld and Escape from DS-3.
His TV career began 12 years later in the family drama series Daktari.
Washington’s other most notable role was as Officer Miller in the police drama Adam-12, which aired from 1968 until 1975.
Throughout his career, the actor also appeared on Star Trek, I Dream of Jeannie, The Name of the Game, Petticoat Junction and Dragnet 1967.
He also featured in the 1973 movie Westworld.
Despite his string of screen credits, Washington retired from screen roles in the late 1980s.
His last TV appearance was in the 1989 show A Different World.
After leaving his acting career behind, Washington returned to school and earned his college degree from Loyola Marymount University, where he went on to teach a course focusing on Black actors in film.
Washington was married to Alice Marshall, the former editor-in-chief at Wave Newspapers in South Los Angeles and the film reviews editor at Variety.
He is survived by his wife, his three children, and three grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
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