Veteran TV and stage actor Robert Hogan, who appeared in shows ranging from “All My Children” to “The Wire” in a career spanning six decades, died May 27 at his coastal Maine home, his family announced in The New York Times.
The cause of death was complications from pneumonia. He was 87.
Hogan appeared in more than 100 primetime shows as well as nearly every daytime drama on the air in his career. His extensive television resume includes “Hogan’s Heroes,” “The Donna Reed Show,” “The Twilight Zone,” “I Dream of Jeannie,” “Laverne & Shirley,” “Gunsmoke,” “The Manhunter,” “Operation Petticoat,” “One Day at a Time,” “Peyton Place” “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” and “The Wire” (playing retired shipwright Louis Sobotka, Frank Sobotka’s elder brother).
Hogan had more than a coincidental name relationship to “Hogan’s Heroes,” the CBS comedy in which he guest starred twice (in 1965 and 1970). According to Brenda Scott Royce’s book, “Hogan’s Heroes: Behind the Scenes at Stalag 13,” show co-creator Bernie Fein named the title character, Colonel Robert Hogan, after his actor friend. The real Hogan was even considered for the lead role of the wise-cracking senior-ranking POW.
“But name alone was not enough to land Hogan the role of his colonel namesake,” the book states. “Hogan was an unknown actor at the time and CBS wanted to go with a ‘name’ actor.”
The role was offered to actor Van Johnson, who turned it down, and eventually Robert Crane, who played the character from 1965 to 1971.
Hogan made multiple appearances on “Law & Order,” guest starred on “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” in 2011, and appeared twice on “Law & Order: Criminal Intent.”
Hogan also worked on many daytime soap operas, including “The Young Marrieds,” “General Hospital,” “Days of Our Lives,” “Another World,” “As the World Turns,” “All My Children” and “One Life to Live.”
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He played a little bit of everything, and his characters include helicopter pilot Lt. “Smilin’ Jack” Mitchell. on “M*A*S*H,” to a Marine in the original Broadway cast of Aaron Sorkin’s “A Few Good Men.”
Hogan was so ever-present, he gets a shoutout in Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”: Leonardo DiCaprio’s Rick Dalton calls out “Bobby Hogan” and praises his work while watching Hogan guest star on a 1965 episode of “The F.B.I.”
Hogan is survived by his wife of 38 years, Mary Hogan, three children from a previous marriage to artist Shannon Hogan and two grandchildren.
