Ivan Nathaniel Dixon III

 Ivan Nathaniel Dixon III (April 6, 1931 – March 16, 2008)

He was an actor, director, and producer best known for his series role in Hogan's Heroes, for his role in the 1967 television film The Final War of Olly Winter, and for directing many episodes of television series. Active in the civil rights movement since 1961, he served as a president of Negro Actors for Action. In 1957, Dixon appeared on Broadway in William Saroyan's The Cave Dwellers, following this in 1959 with an appearance in Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun. In 1958, he was a stunt double for Sidney Poitier in the film The Defiant Ones, and went on to television roles on The Twilight Zone (in the episodes "The Big Tall Wish" and "I Am the Night—Color Me Black"), Perry Mason, and other series. On February 20, 1962, Dixon co-starred with Dorothy Dandridge in the "Blues for a Junkman" episode of Cain's Hundred, which was the highest-rated episode of the series. n his best-known role, Dixon appeared as POW Staff Sergeant James "Kinch" Kinchloe in the ensemble cast of the television sitcom Hogan's Heroes. "Kinch" was the communications specialist, a translator of French, and Hogan's default second in command. Dixon played Kinchloe from 1965 to 1970, the only one of the series' long-time cast not to remain for the entire series. Kenneth Washington succeeded Dixon for the last year of the show's run, albeit with a different character name. From 1970 to 1993, Dixon worked primarily as a television director on such series and TV-movies as The Waltons, The Rockford Files, The Bionic Woman, The Eddie Capra Mysteries, Magnum, P.I., and The A-Team. After his career as an actor and director, Dixon was the owner-operator of radio station KONI (FM) in Maui.

In 2001, he left Hawaii for health reasons and sold the radio station in 2002. Ivan Dixon died on March 16, 2008, aged 76, at Presbyterian Hospital in Charlotte, North Carolina, of complications from kidney failure.