Bob Crane
Bob Crane | |
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Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery | |
Occupations |
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Years active | 1950–1978 |
Spouses | |
Children | 5 |
Robert Edward Crane (July 13, 1928 – June 29, 1978) was an American actor, drummer, radio personality, and disc jockey known for starring in the CBS situation comedy Hogan's Heroes.
Crane was a drummer from age 11,
Crane's career declined after Hogan's Heroes. He became frustrated with the few roles that he was being offered and began performing in dinner theater. In 1975, he returned to television with the NBC series The Bob Crane Show, but the series received poor ratings and was cancelled after thirteen weeks. Afterward, Crane returned to performing in dinner theater and also appeared in occasional guest spots on television.
Crane was found bludgeoned to death in his
Early life
Bob Crane was born in
Crane began playing drums at the age of 11, and by junior high was organizing local drum and bugle parades with his neighborhood friends.
Career
Early career
In 1950, Crane began his career in radio broadcasting at
Crane's acting ambitions led to guest-hosting for Johnny Carson on the daytime game show Who Do You Trust? and appearances on The Twilight Zone (uncredited), Channing, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and General Electric Theater. After Carl Reiner appeared on his radio show, Crane persuaded Reiner to book him for a guest appearance on The Dick Van Dyke Show.
The Donna Reed Show (1963–1964)
After seeing Crane's performance on The Dick Van Dyke Show,
Hogan's Heroes (1965–1971)
In 1965, Crane was offered the starring role in a CBS television
After having a
Their son, Scotty, was born in 1971,[14] and they later adopted a daughter, Ana Marie. Robert Crane Jr. later revealed that his father, Bob, was not the biological father of any of Olson's children. When they were married in 1970, Patricia was already pregnant, but Bob had had a vasectomy in 1968 while he was still married to his first wife.[15] Crane and Olson separated in 1977,[13] and were mere weeks away from finalizing their divorce at the time of Crane's death in June, 1978.[16]After Hogan's Heroes
In 1968, Crane and Hogan co-stars Werner Klemperer, Leon Askin, and John Banner appeared with Elke Sommer in a feature film, The Wicked Dreams of Paula Schultz, set in the divided city of Berlin during the Cold War. In 1969, Crane starred with Abby Dalton in a dinner theater production of Cactus Flower.
Following the cancellation of Hogan's Heroes in 1971, Crane appeared in two Disney films: Superdad (1973), in the title role, and a small role in Gus (1976). In 1973, he purchased the rights to a comedy play called Beginner's Luck and began touring it, as its star and director, at the Showboat Dinner Theatre in St. Petersburg, Florida; the La Mirada Civic Theatre in California; the Windmill Dinner Theatre in Scottsdale, Arizona; and other dinner theaters around the country.[17]
Between theater engagements, Crane guest-starred in a number of television shows, including Police Woman, Gibbsville, Quincy, M.E., and The Love Boat. In 1975, he returned to television with his own series, The Bob Crane Show on NBC, which was cancelled after thirteen episodes. In early 1978, Crane taped a travel documentary in Hawaii and recorded an appearance on the Canadian cooking show Celebrity Cooks. Neither aired in the U.S. after his death the following June. His appearance on Celebrity Cooks was broadcast in Canada in late 1978, and was recreated in the biopic film Auto Focus.[1]
Private life and murder
Crane frequently videotaped and photographed his own sexual escapades.
In June 1978, Crane was living in the Winfield Place Apartments in Scottsdale during a run of Beginner's Luck at the Windmill Dinner Theatre. On the afternoon of June 29, his co-star Victoria Ann Berry entered his apartment after he failed to show up for a lunch meeting, and discovered his body.[23] Crane had been bludgeoned to death with a weapon that was never identified, though investigators believed it to be a camera tripod. An electrical cord had been tied around his neck.[24]
Crane's funeral was held on July 5, 1978 at
Investigation
The Scottsdale Police Department had no homicide division in 1978, so it was ill-equipped to handle such a high-profile murder investigation. The crime scene yielded few clues; no evidence was found of forced entry, and nothing of value was missing. Detectives examined Crane's extensive videotape collection, which led them to Carpenter who had flown to
In 1990, Scottsdale Police Detective Barry Vassall and Maricopa County Attorney's Office Investigator Jim Raines[28] re-examined the evidence from 1978 and persuaded the county attorney to reopen the case.[29] DNA testing was inconclusive on the blood found in Carpenter's rental car, but Raines did discover an evidence photograph of the car's interior that appeared to show a piece of brain tissue. The actual tissue samples recovered from the car had been lost, but an Arizona judge ruled that the new evidence was admissible.[29] In June 1992, Carpenter was arrested and charged with Crane's murder.[30][31]
Trial
At the 1994 trial, Crane's son Robert testified that Crane had repeatedly expressed a desire to sever his friendship with Carpenter in the weeks before his death. He said that Carpenter had become "a hanger-on" and "a nuisance to the point of being obnoxious".[32] "My dad expressed that he just didn't need Carpenter kind of hanging around him anymore," he said.[27] Robert testified that Crane had called Carpenter the night before the murder and ended their friendship.[33]
Carpenter's attorneys attacked the prosecution's case as circumstantial and inconclusive. They presented evidence that Carpenter and Crane were still on good terms, including witnesses from the restaurant where the two men had dined the evening before the murder. They noted that the murder weapon had never been identified or found; the prosecution's camera tripod theory was sheer speculation, they said, based solely on Carpenter's occupation. They disputed the claim that the newly discovered evidence photo showed brain tissue, and alleged that the police work had been sloppy, such as the mishandling and misplacing of evidence—including the crucial tissue sample itself.[28] They pointed out that Crane had been videotaped and photographed in sexual relations with numerous women, implying that any one of them might have been the killer.[33] Other potential suspects proposed by defense attorneys included angry husbands and boyfriends of the women, and an actor who had sworn vengeance after a violent argument with Crane in Texas several months earlier.[27]
Carpenter was acquitted,[34][35][36][37][38][39][40] and he continued to maintain his innocence until his death in 1998.[41] After the trial, Robert speculated publicly that his father's widow Patty Olson might have had a role in instigating the crime. "Nobody got a dime out of [the murder]," he said, "except for one person," alluding to Crane's will, which excluded him, his siblings, and his mother, with Crane's entire estate left to Olson. He repeated his suspicions in the 2015 book Crane: Sex, Celebrity, and My Father's Unsolved Murder.[42] Maricopa County District Attorney Rick Romley responded, "We never characterized Patty as a suspect," adding "I am convinced John Carpenter murdered Bob Crane."[12] Officially, Crane's murder remains unsolved.[41]
Later DNA testing
In November 2016, the Maricopa County Attorney's Office permitted Phoenix television reporter John Hook to submit the 1978 blood samples from Carpenter's rental car for retesting, using a more advanced DNA technique than the one used in 1990.[43] Two sequences were identified, one from an unknown male, and the other too degraded to reach a conclusion.
This testing consumed all of the remaining DNA from the rental car, making further tests impossible. Hook's investigation turned up two blood vials, samples from Crane and Carpenter, located in evidence storage at the Maricopa County Attorney's Office. Carpenter voluntarily gave a sample to Scottsdale Police when he was questioned in 1978. Crane's blood vial was recovered during his autopsy the day after the murder. Both were used as comparison samples for Hook's DNA tests on the blood stains found in Carpenter's rental car.[44]
Auto Focus
Bob Crane's life and murder were the subject of the 2002 feature film Auto Focus directed by Paul Schrader and starring Greg Kinnear as Crane. The film is based on the book by The Murder of Bob Crane author Robert Graysmith and was described as "brilliant" by critic Roger Ebert. It portrays Crane as a happily married, church-going family man who succumbs to Hollywood's celebrity lifestyle after becoming a television star. He meets John Carpenter, played by Willem Dafoe, and learns about the new home video technology. He then descends into a life of strip clubs, BDSM, and sex addiction.[45]
Crane's son Scotty challenged the film's accuracy in an October 2002 review. "During the last twelve years of his life," he wrote, "[Crane] went to church three times: when I was baptized, when his father died, and when he was buried." His son further stated that Crane was a sex addict long before he became a star, and that he may have begun recording his sexual encounters as early as 1956. There was no evidence, he said, that Crane engaged in BDSM; there were no such scenes in any of his hundreds of home movies, and Schrader admitted that the film's BDSM scene was based on his own experience while writing Hardcore.[46] Before production on Auto Focus was announced, Scotty and Olson had tried to sell a rival script titled F-Stop or Take Off Your Clothes and Smile, but interest ceased after Auto Focus was announced.[47]
In June 2001, Scotty launched the website bobcrane.com. It included a paid section featuring photographs, outtakes from his father's sex films, and Crane's autopsy report that proved, he said, that his father did not have a
Filmography
Film
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1961 | Return to Peyton Place | Peter White | Uncredited |
1961 | Man-Trap | Ralph Turner | |
1964 | The New Interns | Drunken Prankster at Baby Shower | Uncredited |
1968 | The Wicked Dreams of Paula Schultz | Bill Mason | |
1972 | Patriotism | Narrator | Short film |
1973 | Superdad | Charlie McCready | |
1976 | Gus | Pepper | His final film role |
Television
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1953 | General Electric Theater | [citation needed] | Episode: "Ride the River" |
1959 | Picture Window | Jerry McEvoy | Unaired pilot |
1961 | The Twilight Zone | Disc Jockey | Episode: "Static", uncredited |
1961 | General Electric Theater | Harry | Episode: "The $200 Parlay" |
1962 | The Dick Van Dyke Show | Harry Rogers | Episode: "Somebody Has to Play Cleopatra" |
1963 | The Alfred Hitchcock Hour | Charlie Lessing | Season 1 Episode 15: "The Thirty-First of February" |
1963 | Channing | Prof. Arlen | Episode: "A Hall Full of Strangers" |
1963–65 | The Donna Reed Show | Dr. Dave Kelsey | 62 episodes |
1965–71 | Hogan's Heroes | Col. Robert E. Hogan | 168 episodes |
1966 | The Lucy Show | Himself | Episode: "Lucy and Bob Crane" |
1966 | Password | Himself | Game Show Contestant / Celebrity Guest Star |
1967 | The Green Hornet | Uncredited Non Speaking Role | Episode: "Corpse of the Year, Part 1" |
1967 | The Red Skelton Show | Col. Hogan | Episode: "Freddie's Heroes" |
1969 | Arsenic and Old Lace | Mortimer Brewster | Television film |
1969 | Love, American Style | Howard Melville | Episode: "Love and the Modern Wife" |
1971 | Love, American Style | Mark | Episode: "Love and the Logical Explanation" |
1971 | Love, American Style | [citation needed] | Episode: "Love and the Waitress" |
1971 | The Doris Day Show | Bob Carter | Episode: "And Here's... Doris" |
1971 | Night Gallery | Ellis Travers | Episode: "House – with Ghost" |
1972 | The Delphi Bureau | Charlie Taggart | Television pilot |
1974 | Tenafly | Sid Pierce | Episode: "Man Running" |
1974 | Tattletales | Himself | Game Show Contestant / Celebrity Guest Star |
1974 | Police Woman | Larry Brooks | Episode: "Requiem for Bored Wives' |
1975 | The Bob Crane Show | Bob Wilcox | 14 episodes |
1976 | Joe Forrester
|
Alban | Episode: "The Invaders" |
1976 | Ellery Queen | Jerry Crabtree | Episode: "The Adventure of the Hardhearted Huckster" |
1976 | Spencer's Pilots | Cozens | Episode: "The Search" |
1976 | Gibbsville | Lawyer | Episode: "Trapped" |
1977 | Quincy, M.E. | Dr. Jamison | Episode: "Has Anybody Here Seen Quincy?" |
1977 | The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries | Danny Day | Episode: "A Haunting We Will Go" |
1978 | The Love Boat | Edward 'Teddy' Anderson | Episode: "Too Hot to Handle/Family Reunion/Cinderella Story", (final television appearance) |
Awards and nominations
Year | Award | Category | Title of work | Nominated/Won |
---|---|---|---|---|
1966 | Primetime Emmy Award
|
Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series | Hogan's Heroes | Nominated[52] |
1967 | Primetime Emmy Award | Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series | Hogan's Heroes | Nominated[53] |
References
- ^ ISBN 978-0991033072.
- ^ France, Lisa Respers (November 15, 2016). "We still don't know who killed Bob Crane". CNN.
- ^ Hind Posz, Darcie. "Robert E. Crane of Hogan's Heroes and his Hogan and Crean Ancestors of Waterbury and Stamford." Connecticut Ancestry, Vol. 64, no. 1 (August 2021): 31-40.
- ^ TV Radio Mirror, October 1967, pp. 33, 76–79.; Stamford High School; Stamford Historical Society, Stamford CT.
- ^ TV Star Parade, January 1966, "The Unlikeliest Hero of Them All," pp. 8, 70–71; Stamford High School, Stamford, CT.
- ^ "Bob Crane's 'Instant' Success Story". Nashua Telegraph. June 25, 1966. p. 3. Retrieved May 9, 2021.
- ^ TV Radio Mirror, October 1967, pp. 33, 76–79; Bridgeport Symphony Orchestra, formerly Connecticut Symphony Orchestra, Bridgeport CT; Stamford High School, Class of 1946 Alumni.
- Newark Advocate, July 24, 1965, "Crane Gambles $150,000," p. 7; Stamford National Guard records, Stamford CT.
- Youngstown Vindicator. June 30, 1979. p. 6. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
- ^ "Bob Crane Biography". Biography.com. Archived from the original on October 27, 2015. Retrieved November 4, 2015.
- ^ Rice, Lynette (August 26, 2019). "The Tragic, Unsolved Murder of Hogan's Heroes Star Bob Crane". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved September 6, 2021.
- ^ a b Tresniowski, A. (November 2, 2002). What About Bob? People Magazine archive, retrieved November 3, 2015.
- ^ a b "Sigrid Valdis, 72". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. November 22, 2007. p. 8E. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
- ^ "Colonel Hogan has bounced back". Eugene Register-Guard. April 20, 1975. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
- ISBN 9780813160757.
- ISBN 9780813160757.
- ^ Noe, Denise: [3] Archived August 13, 2008, at the Wayback Machine TruTV Crime Library, The Bob Crane Case.
- ^ Rubin, Paul (April 21, 1993). "THE BOB CRANE MURDER CASE PART ONE". Phoenix New Times. p. 2. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
- ^ (Katz 2010, p. 288)
- ^ Kim, Eun-Kyung (November 1, 1994). "Crane's friend acquitted". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. p. A–8. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
- ^ a b Wilonsky, Robert (July 18, 2001). "Klinky Sex". sfweekly.com. Archived from the original on December 23, 2010. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
- ^ (Katz 2010, p. 289)
- ^ "Actor Bob Crane Beaten To Death". La Crosse Tribune. La Crosse, Wisconsin. AP. July 30, 1978. p. 5. Retrieved January 20, 2024 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ Kim, Eun-Kyung (September 13, 1994). "Trial reruns TV star's love life". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. p. A–8. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
- ^ "Family, friend mourn Crane". Kingman Daily Miner. July 6, 1978. p. 6. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
- ^ Bob Crane Biography. biography.com Archived October 27, 2015, at the Wayback Machine, retrieved November 3, 2015.
- ^ a b c Rubin, P. (April 28, 1993). The Bob Crane Murder Case, Part Two. Phoenix New Times archive, retrieved November 3, 2015.
- ^ a b Rubin, P. (May 5, 1993). The Bob Crane Murder Case, Part Three. Phoenix New Times archive, retrieved November 4, 2015.
- ^ a b "Crane case to go forward". The Bulletin. March 12, 1993. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
- ^ "How did Bob Crane die, anyway?". straightdope.com. May 8, 2008. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
- ^ Balazs, Diana (September 12, 1998). "Suspect in killing of 'Hogan's Heroes' actor Bob Crane". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. p. A–12. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
- ^ "Bob Crane's son testifies in trial". The Telegraph. October 4, 1994. p. A–2. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
- ^ ISBN 1-402-25356-7p. 191
- ^ "Actor Bob Crane died a gruesome death. Anchor's book takes another look". USA Today. Retrieved May 4, 2018.
- ^ "The Private Passions of Bob Crane". ABC News. January 6, 2006. Retrieved May 4, 2018.
- ^ Hirschberg, Lynn (September 29, 2002). "First came the sitcom. Then came the murder. Then came the pornographic Web site. Now here comes the Hollywood biopic!". The New York Times. Retrieved May 4, 2018.
- ^ Rubin, Paul (April 21, 1993). "The Bob Crane Murder Case Part One". Phoenix New Times. Retrieved May 4, 2018.
- ^ Berger, Leslie; Malnic, Eric (June 3, 1992). "Man Held in Crane's Death Was a Suspect From Day 1 : Crime: Authorities say he phoned the actor's apartment but reached police investigating case". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved May 4, 2018.
- ^ France, Lisa Respers (November 14, 2016). "We still don't know who killed Bob Crane". CNN. Retrieved May 4, 2018.
- ^ "Cold Case: Bob Crane's Secret Life Implicated". NBC Los Angeles. May 5, 2012. Retrieved May 4, 2018.
- ^ ISBN 0-8160-7818-1
- ISBN 081316074X
- ^ Kimball, Lindsay (November 15, 2016). "New DNA Evidence Proves Hogan's Heroes Star Bob Crane's Murderer Is Still Unknown". People. Retrieved November 16, 2016.
- ^ "'Hogan's Heroes' star Bob Crane's murder still a mystery despite new DNA tests". FoxNews.com. November 15, 2016. Retrieved November 16, 2016.
- ^ Ebert, R. (September 2, 2002). "Auto Focus" Captures Star's Downfall. RogerEbert.com archive. Retrieved November 15, 2013.
- ^ Crane, Scotty. "Raging Bullshit: Auto Focus Is Not My Dad's Story". The Stranger. Retrieved August 14, 2011.
- ^ "The Truth About Bob Crane". Morty's TV.com. Retrieved August 14, 2011.
- ^ Ebert, Roger (October 24, 2002). "Sons take sides in biopic dispute". The Hour. p. D5. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
- ^ "A star is porn". The Age. July 4, 2003. Retrieved December 15, 2012.
- ISBN 9780813160757.
- ^ "Bob Crane – The Official Licensing Website of Bob Crane". Bob Crane. Retrieved May 4, 2018.
- Emmys.com. Retrieved September 6, 2021.
- Emmys.com. Retrieved September 6, 2021.
Further reading
- Lynette Rice (August 26, 2019). "The tragic, unsolved murder of Hogan's Heroes star Bob Crane". MSN.
- Katz, Hélèna (2010). Cold Cases: Famous Unsolved Mysteries, Crimes, and Disappearances in America. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-0-313-37692-4.
- Hook, John. "Who Killed Bob Crane? The Final Close-Up". Brisance Books Group (2016). ISBN 9781944194253
- Crane, Robert and Fryer, Christopher. Crane: Sex, Celebrity, and My Father's Unsolved Murder. University Press of Kentucky (2015). ISBN 081316074X
- Crime and Investigation Network. "Murder in Scottsdale : The Death of Bob Crane". Video. Published May 30, 2014.
- Ford, Carol M., Young, Dee, and Groundwater, Linda. Bob Crane: The Definitive Biography. AuthorMike Ink (2015). ISBN 0991033078
- Fox 10 Phoenix (KSAZ-TV). Who killed Bob Crane? A closer look at evidence in the 1978 murder investigation. Videos. Published November 14, 2016.
- Graysmith, Robert. The Murder of Bob Crane: Who Killed the Star of Hogan's Heroes?. ISBN 0517592096
- Scott, A.O. "The Bob Crane Story: Everything but a Hero". The New York Times, October 4, 2002
External links
- Official website
- Bob Crane at IMDb
- Bob Crane at the TCM Movie Database
- Bob Crane at AllMovie