Dixon, Ivan

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Ivan Dixon

1931-2008

Actor, director

Most people know Ivan Dixon for his portrayal of Sergeant James Kinchloe on the popular television sitcom Hogan's Heroes. But Dixon's stage and screen career encompassed many more substantial roles than the one for which he is remembered. During the 1950s and 1960s his stage and film work in productions such as A Raisin in the Sun and Nothing but a Man vividly and poignantly depicted the struggles of black life in America. Following his stint as a television actor, when he appeared on a number of popular series, he went on to become a successful director, both in television and in film. Among his generation, Dixon stands as one of the most important black screen actors and directors.

Ivan Nathaniel Dixon III was born in New York City on April 6, 1931, the son of grocery store owners Ivan N. Dixon Sr. and Doris Nomathande. As a young man, he dropped out of high school and was sent by his mother to the Lincoln Academy, an African-American boarding school in Gaston County, North Carolina, where he developed an early interest in drama. He continued his studies at North Carolina Central University, Durham, earning a degree in drama in 1954. That same year he married Berlie Ray, who was also a drama student.

Dixon spent time pursuing graduate studies at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, while also teaching on the staff of Karamu House, a local black theater. Finally, he moved to New York City, where he honed his craft at the American Theater Wing. Dixon made his Broadway debut in 1957, acting in a production of William Saroyan's existentialist play The Cave Dwellers.

Two years later he landed the role of Joseph Asagai in Lorraine Hansberry's groundbreaking drama A Raisin in the Sun, which ran from 1959 to 1960. The production was notable as the first Broadway play written by a black woman and the first to have a black director, Lloyd Richards. In the play Asagai, a Nigerian exchange student, urges Beneatha Younger to embrace the burgeoning "back to Africa" philosophy and to reclaim her African heritage. Dixon acted opposite Sidney Poitier (playing the lead role of Walter Lee Younger), who became a lifelong colleague and friend.

Dixon and Poitier worked together on the silver screen in the films Something of Value (1957), The Defiant Ones (1958)—in which Dixon was Poitier's stunt double—and Porgy and Bess (1959) before reprising their roles in the film version of A Raisin in the Sun in 1961.

In 1964 Dixon starred in the independent picture Nothing but a Man. He played the character of Duff Anderson, an Alabama railroad worker who quits his job to marry a schoolteacher and minister's daughter, played by the jazz singer Abbey Lincoln. The film depicts Anderson's struggle to maintain his dignity in the racially charged Deep South. Even though the movie was not a commercial hit, critics praised its brutal yet honest representation of black life in America and, in particular, Dixon's strong performance. The actor felt that it was the most important role of his career.

Besides his film work, Dixon became a fixture on the small screen, acting in a number of popular television shows during the 1960s, including The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, Perry Mason, Dr. Kildare, I Spy, and The Fugitive. The sitcom Hogan's Heroes, set in a World War II German prisoner of war camp, brought Dixon the greatest fame. He played the character of Sergeant James "Kinch" Kinchloe, an American radio technician with a knack for mimicking his Nazi captors, from 1965 to 1970. Dixon distinguished himself as one of the few black actors to play a leading character on television. Nonetheless, he didn't enjoy playing Kinchloe, so he left the program after five seasons, the only original cast member to depart before the show's end. Before his departure, Dixon made a notable appearance in 1967 on CBS Playhouse in the television special The Final War of Olly Winter, for which he received an Emmy Award nomination.

While Dixon's work on Hogan's Heroes may not have satisfied his ambitions as a thespian, it did expose him to life behind the camera. On the set he had the opportunity to observe the show's directors and to learn about the production process. Dixon enjoyed acting, but he believed his true passion was directing. During the 1970s and 1980s he directed episodes of the television series The Waltons, Starsky and Hutch, McCloud, The Rockford Files, Magnum, P.I., The A-Team, and In the Heat of the Night.

Dixon's most important directorial work was the 1973 film The Spook Who Sat by the Door, based on the novel by Sam Greenlee. Dixon produced the picture as well, raising more than $1 million from black investors. The film depicts Dan Freeman, the first black man to be admitted to the ranks of the Central Intelligence Agency. After five years of working low-level assignments, Freeman leaves the agency and takes the guerilla tactics he learned into Chicago's black community, organizing militant bands of black "Freedom Fighters."

The film was considered so incendiary that its distributor, United Artists, pulled the film from theaters within weeks, allegedly at the urging of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation. Dixon responded that he had intended to portray black anger in the film, but that he did not advocate revolution as a remedy to America's racial problems. The film was rarely seen until its release on DVD in 2004.

Besides his work as an actor and director, Dixon sought to open up opportunities for blacks to advance in the entertainment industry. In the 1960s, as he became active in the civil rights movement, Dixon served as president of Negro Actors for Action, an organization that aimed to integrate television. Later, in the 1980s, he helped form a committee of the Directors Guild of America to address the concerns of minorities.

At a Glance …

Born Ivan Nathaniel Dixon III on April 6, 1931, in New York, NY; died on March 16, 2008, in Charlotte, NC; son of Ivan N. Dixon Sr. and Doris Nomathande; married Berlie Ray, 1954; children: Ivan N. Dixon IV (deceased), N'Gai Christopher Dixon (deceased), Alan Kimara Dixon, and Doris Nomathande Dixon. Education: North Carolina Central University, BA, drama, 1954; graduate studies at Case Western Reserve University; attended American Theater Wing.

Career: Stage, television, and screen actor, 1957-91; film and television director, 1970-93.

Memberships: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; Directors Guild of America; Negro Actors for Action; Screen Actors Guild.

Awards: Emmy Award nomination, 1967, for The Final War of Olly Winter; received four National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Image Awards; Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame; National Black Theatre Award; Paul Robeson Pioneer Award, Black American Cinema Society.

For his achievements on the stage and screen, Dixon was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame. He was the recipient of four National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Image Awards, in addition to the National Black Theatre Award and the Paul Robeson Pioneer Award given by the Black American Cinema Society. Dixon struggled with kidney disease in the final years his life. He died at age seventy-six as a result of a brain hemorrhage and kidney failure on March 16, 2008, in Charlotte, North Carolina.