He was attending law school at the University of Vienna (Austria) when he decided to have fun and join an acting troupe out of Switzerland in 1938. Not long after this, Hitler annexed Austria (The Sound of Music) and a lot of his family scattered with him sailing to the United States to start a new life. He very quickly learned English. All of his family members who stayed in Austria, died in concentration camps. Fortunately, his parents made it out.
In 1942, John joined the United States Army Air Corp where he became a supply sergeant. At the time he weighed around 170 pounds, and the Corp used him on one of their recruiting posters. After the war was over, he performed on Broadway, usually in comedies.
He is credited with 40 feature films including one called: Once Upon a Honeymoon, starring Cary Grant and Ginger Rogers. In the movie he played a German captain. I guess he was demoted when he was transferred to Stalag 13. 😁
Banner was on over 70 television shows including: The Lone Ranger, Father Knows Best, Mister Ed, Perry Mason, The Untouchables, The Lucy Show, and the Man from U.N.C.L.E. His last television appearance was on The Partridge Family in 1972, right before he retired in France with his French wife, Christine. By the way, a lot of the television shows he acted in occurred at the same time he was filming Hogan's Heroes which ran from 1965 to 1971.
Unfortunately, a year after he retired, he died of a burst abdominal aortic aneurysm. He was celebrating his 63rd birthday with family and friends in Vienna when it occurred. He and Christine never had children.
I'm a HUGE fan of Hogan's Heroes, and of course, Sergeant Schultz. When I decided to feature him in this post, I had no idea how successful his acting career was as it spanned 34 years and included a lot of popular movies and television shows. He was a very good and highly intelligent man. He said his weight gain came from his French wife's cooking and that he would've never have gotten the role on Hogan's Heroes if he wasn't overweight at the time. By the way, because he improvised a lot of his actions, facial expressions, and words on the show, his fellow actors were often laughing and unable to say their lines, and they'd have to reshoot the scenes. The film crew probably wasn't happy with him. Thanks for the very funny memories, Johann!