The actor-director Ivan Dixon has died at the age of 76. As an actor, Dixon appeared in A Raisin in the Sun on Broadway and served as Sidney Poitier's stunt double in The Defiant Ones; he also starred in the 1964 Nothing but a Man, an early example of an indie drama with a predominantly African-American cast, which was to become one of the first films selected for inclusion in the National Film Registry. He probably became best known, though, as a regular cast member of the wacky-antics-in-a-World-War-II-P.O.W.-camp sitcom, Hogan's Heroes. That series ran from 1965 to 1970; after it went off the air, Dixon continued to act — he was especially impressive in the 1976 ensemble comedy Car Wash — but he mostly concentrated on directing. His first film as a director was the 1972 blaxsploitation movie Trouble Man, a Shaft knockoff starring Robert Hooks that's best remembered for its theme song, a hit for its composer-singer Marvin Gaye.
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