Actor and director Ivan Dixon died 16 March 2008 due to complications from kidney disease. Born Ivan Nathaniel Dixon 3rd on 6 April 1931 in New York City, he was best known for playing Sgt. James Kinchloe on the 1960s sitcom Hogan’s Heroes (he appeared in 145 episodes).
His daughter, Doris Nomathande Dixon, who announced his death, said her father was always pleased to be recognized as Kinchloe, but he was most proud of the 1964 movie Nothing but a Man, in which he starred, and of the 1973 film The Spook Who Sat by the Door, which he directed. In the former, he played a young black railroad worker who gives up his job to marry a minister’s daughter, and then runs into trouble for not knowing his place in the Deep South. The latter film, based on the novel by Sam Greenlee, tells the story of Dan Freeman, the first black officer in the Central Intelligence Agency. After five years of menial assignments, Freeman quits, takes what he has learned about terrorist tactics and goes to Chicago, where he tries to put together a black guerrilla operation.
Dixon graduated from North Carolina Central University in 1954 with a drama degree. His big break came in 1957 when he appeared in William Saroyan’s Cave Dwellers on Broadway. Two years later he played Joseph Asagai in Lorraine Hansberry’s Raisin in the Sun, the first play written by a black woman to be produced on Broadway.
His genre acting roles include appearances in: Amerika (1987), three episodes of The Outer Limits (1963-64), and two episodes of The Twilight Zone (1960 and 1964). His directorial work included episodes of: Quantum Leap (1989), Airwolf (1984), six episodes of The Greatest American Hero (1981-83), Wonder Woman (1979), and The Bionic Woman (1978).
Dixon is survived by his wife of 58 years, the former Berlie Ray; his daughter; and his son, Alan.