Ivan Nathaniel Dixon III (April 6, 1931 – March 16, 2008) was an American actor, director, and producer best known for his series role in the 1960s sitcom Hogan's Heroes, and for his starring roles in the 1964 independent drama Nothing But a Man and the 1967 television film The Final War of Olly Winter. In addition, he directed many episodes of television series. Active in the civil rights movement from 1961, Dixon served as a president of Negro Actors for Action. Early life and education Ivan Nathaniel Dixon III was born in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, New York, the son of a grocery store owner and his wife, who together later owned a bakery. His parents separated when he was young, and he lived at his mother's apartment while working in his father's grocery store. His father, also named Ivan, fought with distinction in World War I and read Yiddish. When he was young, the family lived in a brownstone at 518 West 150th Street in Harlem, on the same block with Josh White, writer Ralph Ellison, and the tap dancing Hines brothers, Gregory and Maurice. He graduated from Lincoln Academy, a private black boarding school in Gaston County, North Carolina. He subsequently earned a drama degree in 1954 from North Carolina Central University (NCCU), a historically black college. Its theater troupe is now known as the Ivan Dixon Players in his honor. While at NCCU, he joined the Omega Psi Phi fraternity. Dixon also later studied drama at Case Western Reserve University, in Cleveland, Ohio, followed by the American Theatre Wing after returning to New York City. Career Dixon appeared on stage, and in both movies and TV series or specials. In 1957, Dixon appeared on Broadway in William Saroyan's The Cave Dwellers. In 1959 he performed 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 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; it was the highest-rated episode of the series. An expanded version was released as a feature film in Europe