Kenneth Washington, who was the last surviving main cast member of the CBS series Hogan’s Heroes and also appeared on Star Trek died at the age of 89 on July 18. Until his retirementi n the late 80s the actor boasted an impressive CV with appearances on numerous classic shows such as Star Trek, I Dream of Jeannie, The Name of the Game, Petticoat Junction, The Rockford Files, the Paul Lynde Show and Dragnet 1967. He also featured in the 1973 movie Westworld.
He became iconic in Star Trek fandom for his portrayal of a character called Watkins in the third season episode of Star Trek: The Original Series entitled That Which Survives. However he was best known for playing Sergeant Richard Baker on the final season of the iconic comedy show Hogan’s Heroes. The sitcom was set in a prisoner-of-war camp in Nazi Germany during World War II and followed a group of Allied prisoners who use the camp as an operations base for sabotage and espionage activities directed against Nazi Germany.
The show, which had a huge ensemble cast including Bob Crane, Larry Hovis and Richard Dawson, ran for 168 episodes across six seasons 1965 until 1971.
Kenneth replaced Ivan Dixon as Sergeant Kinchloe on Hogan’s Heroes in 1970, but his tenure was short as the show was canceled the following year by CBS.
He became a very familiar face on screens throughout the 70s and 80s thanks to his multiple guest appearances on hit shows.
One of his last TV appearances was on The Cosby Show spin off A Different World in 1989.
He returned to education following his screen retirement and earned his college degree from Loyola Marymount University.
He went on to became a tutor there teaching a course that focused on black actors in film.
He then moved to Southwest College where he taught classes in oral interpretation and speech.
In 2001 he married Alice Marshall, the former editor-in-chief at Wave Newspapers in South Los Angeles and film reviews editor at Variety.