Life and Career
Askin was born Leon Aschkenasy into a Jewish family in Vienna, the son of Malvine (Susman) and Samuel Aschkenazy.
Askin emigrated to the United States in 1940 and, after the war, went to Hollywood, invariably portraying foreign characters who speak English with a strong accent. Askin appeared as the Russian composer Anton Rubinstein in a Disneyland anthology episode of the life of Peter Tchaikovsky. Fans of the television series Adventures of Superman recall his portrayals of an eastern European diamond smuggler in a black-and-white episode, and as a South American prime minister in a color episode. He appeared in 20th Century Fox's biblical epic The Robe as a Syrian guide named Abidor. In 1960, he appeared in the film Pension Schöller, and the following year was prominently featured in Billy Wilder's film One, Two, Three, co-starring with James Cagney. He gained wide recognition and popularity by appearing as the stern General Albert Burkhalter in the sitcom Hogan's Heroes in the late 1960s.
Askin made a guest appearance on Daniel Boone in its 1969 episode "Benvenuto... Who?" as Roquelin. Between 1977 and 1979, he appeared in Steve Allen's PBS series, Meeting of Minds, portraying Martin Luther and Karl Marx. In 1979 he portrayed the character Mr. Hoffmire of Hoffmire’s Bakery, judging a pie contest in an episode in the third season of Three’s Company titled, “The Bake-off”. In 1982 he had a brief appearance as a Moscow Anchorman in the film Airplane II: The Sequel.
Askin died in Vienna on June 3, 2005, at the age of 97.
Read more about this topic: Leon Askin
Famous quotes containing the words life and/or career:
“What had really caused the women’s movement was the additional years of human life. At the turn of the century women’s life expectancy was forty-six; now it was nearly eighty. Our groping sense that we couldn’t live all those years in terms of motherhood alone was “the problem that had no name.” Realizing that it was not some freakish personal fault but our common problem as women had enabled us to take the first steps to change our lives.”
—Betty Friedan (20th century)
“Whether lawyer, politician or executive, the American who knows what’s good for his career seeks an institutional rather than an individual identity. He becomes the man from NBC or IBM. The institutional imprint furnishes him with pension, meaning, proofs of existence. A man without a company name is a man without a country.”
—Lewis H. Lapham (b. 1935)