John Banner

John Banner
Banner as Master Sergeant Hans Georg Schultz on Hogan's Heroes (c. late-1960s).
Born	Jonas Banner (1910-01-28)28 January 1910 Vienna, Austria
Died	28 January 1973(1973-01-28) (aged 63) Vienna, Austria
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1939–1972
Spouse(s)	Christine

John Banner (28 January 1910 – 28 January 1973), born Jonas Banner, was an Austrian-born American film and television actor. He is best known for his role as Master Sergeant Schultz in the situation comedy Hogan's Heroes (1965–1971). Schultz, constantly encountering evidence that the inmates of his stalag were planning mayhem, frequently feigned ignorance with the catchphrase, "I see nothing! I hear nothing! I know nothing!" (or, more commonly as the series went on, "I see nothing, nothing!").

Banner was born to Jewish parents in Vienna, Austria-Hungary. He studied for a law degree at the University of Vienna, but decided instead to become an actor. In 1938, when he was performing with an acting troupe in Switzerland, Adolf Hitler annexed Austria to Nazi Germany. Banner emigrated to the United States, where he rapidly picked up English.

In 1942, he enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps, underwent basic training in Atlantic City and became a supply sergeant. He even posed for a recruiting poster. He served until 1945.

According to fellow Hogan's Heroes actor Robert Clary, "John lost a lot of his family" to the Holocaust.

Banner appeared on Broadway three times: in a musical revue called From Vienna, which ran for two months in 1939; and in two comic plays: Pastoral, in which he had a leading role, but which had a very brief run in November 1939; and The Big Two, which also ran briefly in January 1947. Early on, before he became fluent in English, he had to learn his lines phonetically.