1. Ivan Nathaniel Dixon III was an American actor, director, and producer best known for his series role in the 1960s sitcom Hogan's Heroes, and for his starring roles in the 1964 independent drama Nothing But a Man and the 1967 television film The Final War of Olly Winter.
Active in the civil rights movement from 1961, Dixon served as a president of Negro Actors for Action.
Ivan Nathaniel Dixon III was born in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, New York, the son of a grocery store owner and his wife, who together later owned a bakery.
Ivan Dixon's parents separated when he was young, and he lived at his mother's apartment while working in his father's grocery store.
Ivan Dixon's father, named Ivan, fought with distinction in World War I and read Yiddish.
Ivan Dixon graduated from Lincoln Academy, a private black boarding school in Gaston County, North Carolina.
Ivan Dixon subsequently earned a drama degree in 1954 from North Carolina Central University, a historically black college.
Ivan Dixon later studied drama at Case Western Reserve University, in Cleveland, Ohio, followed by the American Theatre Wing after returning to New York City.
Ivan Dixon appeared on stage, and in both movies and TV series or specials.
In 1957, Ivan Dixon appeared on Broadway in William Saroyan's The Cave Dwellers.
In 1962, Ivan Dixon co-starred with Dorothy Dandridge in the "Blues for a Junkman" episode of Cain's Hundred; it was the highest-rated episode of the series.
On September 25,1962, Ivan Dixon portrayed Jamie Davis, a livery stable groom, in the episode "Among the Missing" of NBC's Laramie western series.
In 1964, Ivan Dixon starred in the independent film Nothing But a Man, written and directed by Michael Roemer; Ivan Dixon said he was most proud of this performance.
Ivan Dixon appeared in two episodes of ABC's The Fugitive: "Escape into Black" and "Dossier on a Diplomat".
Ivan Dixon played Kinchloe from 1965 to 1970, the only one of the series' long-time cast who did not stay for the entire series run.
Ivan Dixon was nominated for an Emmy Award for his performance in the TV movie The Final War of Olly Winter.
Ivan Dixon directed the controversial 1973 feature film The Spook Who Sat by the Door, based on Sam Greenlee's 1969 novel of the same name.
At that time Mr Ivan Dixon told The Times that the movie had tried only to depict black anger, not to suggest armed revolt as a solution.
Ivan Dixon occasionally took acting parts throughout the 1970s and '80s.
Ivan Dixon played a doctor and leader of a guerrilla movement in the ABC miniseries Amerika, set in post-Soviet invasion Nebraska.
In 1978, Ivan Dixon served as Chairman of the Expansion Arts Advisory Panel of the National Endowment for the Arts.
In 1954, the same year Ivan Dixon graduated from North Carolina Central University, he married theater student Berlie Ray.
Ivan Dixon died on March 16,2008, aged 76, at Presbyterian Hospital in Charlotte, North Carolina, of complications from kidney failure.
Ivan Dixon was predeceased by sons Ivan Dixon IV and N'Gai Christopher Dixon.
Ivan Dixon's widow Berlie Ray Dixon, born on April 5,1930, in Badin, North Carolina, died on February 9,2019, in Charlotte, at age 88.