And this... Man. Who would have thought Oberst Klink was so talented!? I never did.
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By the time Hogan's Heroes ended in 1971, Klemperer had made his mark so distinctively as to emerge forever from the shadow of his famous great conductor father. From now on, the cultural icon which would overshadow his career and by which he would be defined would be the one of his own creation: Colonel Wilhelm Klink.
"Sure, an actor takes a chance associating himself with a role for a long time," he'd observed in 1966, when the show's immense popularity was making household names of its leading characters. "But I'm a character actor. Character actors usually survive that sort of risk better."
Appearances in The Wicked Dreams of Paula Schultz (1968) and Wake Me When the War Is Over (1969) served to reinforce his optimism. By 1971, he was more in demand than ever. He was flooded with lucrative offers. But of the multitude of characters he had already played and the many more he was capable of portraying, only one was any longer of interest as far as the movie and television industries were concerned. All of the offers were for characters like Klink.
He responded like a true Klemperer, for whom refusal to be pigeonholed and willingness to take risks for the sake of artistic principle are family traits. He turned all the offers down, despite the financial rewards they offered, and returned to live performance.
But it was hardly a matter of taking up where he'd left off 15 years before. Two great loves would enter his life in this period, never to depart. One was Kim Hamilton, a noted performer in her own right. As to the other: "There is this musical addiction that I have," he stated in interview. "It always seems to come to the foreground. Music has always been a conflict. I've always been a frustrated musician."
Yet music was something he'd carefully avoided when its sole definition to him, and of "Klemperer" to the public, had been Otto Klemperer. With his own name (or at least that of his comic masterpiece) universally recognized, and his father's death in 1973, this Klemperer could finally with confidence enter the musical arena.
He sang opera. In Johann Strauss Jr.'s waltz-filled celebration of the glories of Vienna, die Fledermaus, he took on the vocally demanding role of the Russian aristocrat Prince Orlofsky.* He toured with Lehar's operetta The Merry Widow. Also, with the Metropolitan Opera, he appeared in the non-singing role of Pasha Selim in Mozart's Abduction from the Seraglio.
He appeared in musicals. His critically-acclaimed portrayal of the archly droll Max Detweiler in The Sound of Music was such a success that he repeated it in numerous productions. His "touchingly understated" performance as the Jewish shopkeeper Herr Schultz in Cabaret earned him a Tony nomination.
In Master Class, a play about the state vs. artistic liberty which pitted Stalin against the two leading Russian composers of the day, he performed the piano compositions of Prokofiev as the character of Prokofiev.
He provided commentary for Live from Lincoln Center: Mostly Mozart broadcasts, and served as concert host for such productions as the Music from Austria's Imperial Cities radio concert series broadcast worldwide from Vienna.
He actively supported musical organizations. For the Young Musicians Foundation of Los Angeles, he served as director and president. He also served as "devoted board member and musical conscience" of the New York Chamber Symphony , which said of him, "His attendance at rehearsals was often critical, for his extraordinary love of music was coupled with a critical ear."
And, yes, he did conduct on occasion: the Melbourne Symphony, the California Jr. Symphony, the Los Angeles Young Musicians Foundation, and the Kansas City youth orchestra, among others.
But it was as narrator that he built his reputation as authoritative interpreter of the classical repertoire—a repertoire he did much to expand. While he provided narration for such well-known works as Peter and the Wolf, works rescued from undeserved obscurity—such as Goethe's Egmont, for which Beethoven composed the incidental music, including its famous overture; Lelio, Berlioz's sequel to his renowned Symphonie Fantastique; and Schoenberg's monumental opera Gurrelieder—became his specialty.
