An imdb excerpt:
John Banner, who achieved television immortality for his portrayal of the Luftwaffe prison-camp guard Sergeant Schultz in the TV series "Hogan's Heroes" (1965), was born on January, 28, 1910 in Vienna, the capital of what was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The 28-year-old Banner, who was Jewish, was forced to abandon his homeland after the anschluss between Nazi Germany and Austria. The anschluss (union) of Hitler's Germany and Austria occurred in 1938 while he was engaged in a tour of Switzerland with an acting company. Unable to return to Austria due to Hitler's anti-semitic policies of persecution, he emigrated to the United States as a political refugee.
Soon after reaching the States, Banner -- who was completely ignorant of the English language -- was hired to emcee a musical revue. He had to learn his lines phonetically, but the total immersion paid off in that he rapidly picked up English. His accent and "Nordic" look ironically meant that he was typecast in several films as Nazis during the 1940s. He survived the war playing the very villains who were murdering his family who had been left behind in Austria, all of whom perished in concentration camps.
Oh my god!!! Do you know that you kept me glued till the end of your article? Great man, you should be taking lessons to write the way you did. Your flair of the language is beyond my imagination!
Posted by: Generic Viagra | 01/21/2011 at 05:03 AM