John Banner, a Jew, fled his native Austria in 1938 after the Nazi Anschluss. Years later he got his revenge by playing the buffoonish German sergeant Hans Schultz in the popular American TV series Hogan's Heroes. Schultz's nervous catch-phrase, "I know nothing! Nooooothing!" is still in pop culture circulation. Banner had character roles in many movies, including To The Victor (1948), Never Say Goodbye (1956) and The Interns (1962); he played Nazi Rudolf Hess in Operation Eichmann (1961).
Banner's co-stars on Hogan's Heroes included Bob Crane as Hogan and Richard Dawson as Newkirk.
Career Highlights: 36 Hours, Operation Eichmann, The Blue Angel
First Major Screen Credit: The Argyle Secrets (1948)
Biography
Actor John Banner was forced out of his native Austria in 1938 when Hitler marched in. Though most familiar to filmgoers and TV viewers as a man of considerable heft, he was a trim 180 pounds when, while touring with an acting troupe in Switzerland, he found he couldn't return to Austria because he was Jewish. Banner came to America as a refugee; though unable to speak a word of English, he was almost immediately hired as emcee for a musical revue, From Vienna, for which he had to learn all his lines phonetically. Picking up the language rapidly, Banner was cast in several films of the 1940s, starting with Pacific Blackout. Because of his accent and Teutonic features, he most often played Nazi spies -- a grim task, in that Banner's entire family in Austria was wiped out in the concentration camps. Tipping the scales at 280 pounds in the 1950s, Banner worked steadily as a character man in films and on television; he can be seen as a variety of foreign-official types on such vintage TV series as The Adventures of Superman and Rocky Jones, Space Ranger. In 1965, Banner was cast as Sgt. Schultz in the long-running wartime sitcom Hogan's Heroes. A far cry from the villainous Nazis he'd played in the 1940s, Schultz was a pixieish, lovable blimp of a man who'd rather have been working as a toymaker than spending the war guarding American POWS, and who, to protect his own skin, overlooked the irregularities occurring in Stalag 13 (which as every TV fan knows was Colonel Hogan's secret headquarters for American counterespionage) by bellowing "I know nothing! I see nothing! Nothing!" John Banner enjoyed playing Schultz, but bristled whenever accused of portraying a cuddly Nazi: "I see Schultz as the representative of some kind of goodness in every generation," the actor told TV Guide in 1967. As to the paradox of an Austrian Jew playing a representative of Hitler's Germany, Banner replied, "Who can play Nazis better than us Jews?" Or who could play them funnier than John Banner? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Johann Banner
28 January 1910(1910-01-28) Vienna, Austria
Died
28 January 1973 (aged 63)
Vienna, Austria
Occupation
Actor
Years active
1940–1972
John Banner (born Johann Banner; 28 January 1910 – 28 January 1973) was an Austrian-born American actor. He is best known for his role as a World War IIGerman soldier, the comedic Sergeant Schultz on the television situation comedyHogan's Heroes (1965-1971). Schultz was constantly encountering evidence that the inmates of his Stalag prison camp were planning mayhem, and he was aware that he would be better off if he pretended ignorance: thus his constant catch phrase "I know nothing! Nothing!"[1] One episode of Hogan's Heroes is titled "At Last: Schultz Knows Something."
Banner was born in Vienna, Austria. In 1938, Banner, a trim 180 pounds (80 kg), worked with an acting troupe in Switzerland and found he could not return to his native Austria because he was Jewish. He emigrated to the United States and, though unable to speak a word of English, was hired as a Master of Ceremonies. Banner learned his words phonetically and soon mastered the English language. From 1942 to 1945, Banner served in the U. S. Army Air Force.
Before Banner came to acting, he studied law for two semesters. His feature film credits include over 40 films and his first was Pacific Blackout. He was usually cast as a Nazi spy because of his accent and Teutonic features. This was especially difficult for Banner, as his family had been wiped out in Nazi concentration camps.
1950s and Hogan's Heroes
In the 1950s Banner's weight had gone up to 280 pounds, and he made over 70 television appearances in the next two decades, including Mr. Ed, The Lucy Show, Perry Mason, The Partridge Family, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (TV series) (Hot Line 1964),The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (The Neptune Affair 1964). In 1954 he played Bavarro in the Rocky Jones, Space Ranger series. Banner had previously played other Germans: Rudolph Höss in Operation Eichmann (1961) and Gregor Strasser in Hitler in 1962. In 1956, he played a train conductor in an episode of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents", appearing in a scene with future fellow co-star Werner Klemperer, who played a spy. He also had a small role in a color episode of Adventures of Superman, playing a somewhat hapless character that to some extent anticipated his Sgt. Schultz characterization. In 1971, he appeared as Uncle Latzi in the short lived TV sitcom The Chicago Teddy Bears. Banner was loved by all the cast of Hogan's Heroes (as told by those still alive on the recently issued DVD sets) and without effort became the main character of every scene in which he played. He told TV Guide in 1967, "Schultz is not a Nazi. I see Schultz as the representative of some kind of goodness in any generation."
Death
Banner died of an abdominal hemorrhage on his 63rd birthday in Vienna in 1973. He was buried at the cemetery in Mauer. His grave can be found under Gruppe 57 Reihe 2 Nummer 26 (as John Banner's tombstone was removed since his death, his grave is at the site of a Johann Hübner).
