Ivan Nathaniel Dixon III was an American actor, director, and producer best known for his series role in the 1960s sitcomHogan's Heroes, for his starring roles in the 1964 independent drama Nothing But a Man and the 1967 television filmThe 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.
Early life and career
Ivan Nathaniel Dixon III was born in Harlem, the son of a grocery store owner. When he was young, Dixon lived in the brownstone at 518 West 150th Street in Harlem, on the same block with Josh White, Ralph Ellison, and the Hines brothers, Gregory and Maurice. He graduated from the Lincoln Academy in Gaston County, North Carolina, and went on to earn a drama degree from North Carolina Central University in 1954, where the theater troupe is now known as the Ivan Dixon Players. While at NCCU, he joined the Omega Psi Phi fraternity. 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. He was cast in two episodes of The Twilight Zone: "The Big Tall Wish" – as the lead, in a then-rare instance of a primarily black cast in a TV drama – and a key supporting role in "I Am the Night—Color Me Black". In 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. An expanded version was released as a feature film in Europe entitled The Murder Men, and became Dandridge's last screen appearance. On September 25, 1962, he portrayed Jamie Davis, a livery stable groom, in the episode "Among the Missing" of NBC's Laramiewestern series. In 1963, he played the role of John Brooks, alias Caleb Stone IV, in the Perry Mason episode "The Case of the Nebulous Nephew." In 1964, Dixon starred in the independent film Nothing But a Man, written and directed by Michael Roemer; it was Dixon's performance in this film he was most proud of. He also appeared in episodes of ABC's The Fugitive entitled "Escape into Black" and "Dossier on a Diplomat".
''Hogan's Heroes''
In his best-known role, Dixon appeared as POWStaff 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 replaced Dixon for the last year of the show's run, as a different character filling a similar role.
Film work and directing
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. Dixon's first feature film as director was the blaxploitation thriller Trouble Man. He also directed the controversial 1973 feature film The Spook Who Sat by the Door, based on Sam Greenlee's 1969 novel of the same name, about the first black CIA agent, who takes his espionage knowledge and uses it to lead a black guerrilla operation in Chicago. The New York Times wrote in 2008:
Although The Spook caused controversy and with suppression facilitated by the F.B.I., was soon pulled from theaters, it later gained cult status as a bootleg video and in 2004 was released on DVD. At that time Mr. Dixon told The Times that the movie had tried only to depict black anger, not to suggest armed revolt as a solution.
Dixon occasionally took acting parts throughout the '70s and '80s. Notable roles include Lonnie, the straw boss, in 1976's Car Wash, and a doctor and leader of a guerrilla movement in the 1987 ABCminiseriesAmerika, set in post-Soviet invasion Nebraska. He also served as Chairman of the Expansion Arts Advisory Panel of the National Endowment for the Arts in 1978.
Personal life
In 1954, the same year Dixon graduated from North Carolina Central University, he married theater student Berlie Ray. The couple had four children, sons Ivan Dixon IV, N'Gai Christopher Dixon and Alan Kimara Dixon, and daughter Doris Nomathande Dixon.
After his career as an actor and director, Dixon was the owner-operator of radio station KONI on 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. He was predeceased by sons Ivan Dixon IV and N'Gai Christopher Dixon Berlie Ray Dixon, born on April 5, 1930, in Badin, North Carolina, died on February 9, 2019, in Charlotte, at age 88.
