Robert Clary obituary

Robert Clary at home in California in 2014. His performance in Hogan’s Heroes drew on his own wartime experience in Nazi camps, which he later spoke about in schools, universities and synagogues. Photograph: Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP

Robert Clary, who has died aged 96, brought laughs to a worldwide audience in the American TV sitcom Hogan’s Heroes, as Louis LeBeau, the proud, patriotic Frenchman among allied prisoners of war. In the second world war comedy, set in Germany and running from 1965 to 1971, his character’s skills lay in gourmet cooking – and training the Germans’ guard dogs at Stalag 13 to be friendly to the prisoners.

LeBeau was a corporal among captured air crew under the command of the American colonel Robert Hogan (played by Bob Crane). Using the camp as a base for sabotage and espionage operations, they aided the allies by sending back intelligence under the noses of their incompetent captors.