John Banner (January 28, 1910, Vienna - January 28, 1973, Vienna) was a Jewish Austrian actor. Ironically, he is best known for his role as a World War II German soldier, the comedic Sgt. Hans Schultz on the television situation comedy Hogan's Heroes. Schultz was constantly encountering evidence that the inmates of his Stalag prison camp were planning mayhem, and he was aware that he would be better off if he pretended ignorance: thus his constant catchphrase "I know nothing! Nothing!"blank">http://mikesnoise.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/schultz.jpg One episode of "Hogan's Heroes" is titled "At Last: Schultz Knows Something".

Banner was born in Vienna, Austria. Because of his Jewish heritage, he was transported to a concentration camp before being released out of occupied Germany. Fortunately for him, Banner's time in the concentration camp was during the early stages of Nazi rule, when Jewish extermination policies were not yet fully implemented.

In 1938, Banner, a trim 180 pounds, worked with an acting troupe in Switzerland and found he could not return to his native Austria because he was a Jew. He went to America and though unable to speak a word of English was hired as a Master of Ceremonies. Banner learned his words phonetically and soon mastered the English language.

Before Banner came to acting, he studied law for two semesters. His feature film credits include over 40 films and his first was Pacific Blackout. He was usually cast as a Nazi spy because of his accent and teutonic features. This was especially hard for Banner whose family had been wiped out in Nazi Concentration Camps.

In the 1950's Banner's weight had gone up to 280 pounds, and he made over 70 television appearances in the next two decades, including _Mr. Ed, The Lucy Show, Perry Mason, The Partridge Family, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (The Neptune Affair 1964). In 1954 he played Bavarro in the Rocky Jones, Space Ranger series. Banner had previously played other Germans, Rudolph Hess in Operation Eichmann (1961) and Gregor Strasser in Hitler in 1962. He also had a small role in a color episode of Adventures of Superman, playing a somewhat hapless character that to some extent anticipated his Sgt. Schultz characterization. Banner was loved by all the cast of Hogan's Heroes (as told by those still alive on the recently issued DVD sets) and without effort became the main character of every scene he played in. He told TV Guide in 1967 that he saw Schultz as a representative of goodness in every generation.

Banner died of an abdominal hemorrhage on his 63rd birthday in Vienna. He was buried at the cemetery in Mauer in Liesing, the 23rd Bezirk of Vienna. His grave can be found under Gruppe 57 Reihe 2 Nummer 26.

John Banner, who achieved television immortality for his portrayal of the Luftwaffe prison-camp guard Sergeant Schultz in the TV series "Hogan's Heroes" (1965), was born on January 28, 1910 in Vienna, the capital of what was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The 28-year-old Banner, who was Jewish, was forced to abandon his homeland after the 1938 Anschluss (union) between Nazi Germany and Austria, which occurred while he was engaged in a tour of Switzerland with an acting company. Unable to return to Austria due to Hitler's anti-Semitic policies of persecution, he emigrated to the United States as a political refugee. Soon after reaching the States, Banner -- who was completely ignorant of the English language -- was hired to emcee a musical revue. He had to learn his lines phonetically, but the total immersion paid off in that he rapidly picked up English. His accent and "Nordic" look ironically meant that he was typecast in several films as Nazis during the 1940s. He survived the war playing the very villains who were murdering his family who had been left behind in Austria, all of whom perished in concentration camps. The Banner who had emigrated to the US weighed a trim 180 lbs., but eventually, he added another 100 lbs. to become the roly-poly character actor that America would come to know and love. The 280-lb. Banner became a character actor who appeared regularly in movies and on TV, specializing in foreign-official types, such the Soviet Ambassador in the Fred MacMurray comedy Kisses for My President (1964). In 1965, Bing Crosby Productions cast Banner as Sgt. Schultz in the wartime sitcom Hogan's Heroes, a take-off on _Billy Wilder_'s Stalag 17 (1953) but with more humor and less drama. The bumbling Dutch uncle that Banner assayed was a continent apart from the wickedly evil Nazis he specialized in during the war. Spectacularly inept as a guard of Allied prisoners of war, Sgt. Schultz was prone to ignoring the irregularities that transpired in the fictive Stalag 13, bellowing "I know nothing! I see nothing! NOTHING!" John Banner enjoyed the role but demurred when accused of portraying a "cuddly" Nazi. He told TV Guide, "I see Schultz as the representative of some kind of goodness in every generation." Banner, along with _Werner Klemperer_, ["Colonel Klink"] (who like Banner was a Jewish refugee from Hitler playing a comical, bumbling Nazi in "Hogan's Heroes"), co-starred with _Bob Crane (I)_ ["Colonel Hogan"] in Wicked Dreams of Paula Schultz, The (1968), a bizarre movie "comedy" about a defecting East German athlete. The picture bombed and the trio went back to turning out the highly popular series without losing too much pride or momentum. After the cancellation of "Hogan's Heroes" in 1971, Banner was signed for another TV show set in the past, "Chicago Teddy Bears, The" (1971), which used the Prohibition era as its setting. Banner's Uncle Latzi was a close cousin of Schultz, but lightning did not strike twice and the series was canceled after 13 episodes. John Banner died on his 63rd birthday, January 28, 1973, in his hometown of Vienna. He lives on as the inimitable Sgt. Schultz to the legions of "Hogan's Heroes" fans who now span the generations.