Bob Crane

On May 20, 1949, Bob Crane married his high school girlfriend Anne Terzian. They had three children—Robert David, Deborah Anne, and Karen Leslie. After 20 years of marriage, the couple separated in April 1969, and their divorce came through in 1970.

On October 16, 1970, Bob married Patricia “Patty” Olson, a stage actress. Crane and Patty had a son named Robert Scott Crane. The couple also adopted their teenage housekeeper Ana Marie. Bob and Patty separated in December 1977.

For most of his adult life, Bob Crane was engaged in consensual sex with countless women. He often videotaped and photographed his own sexual activities. As his acting career took a downslide, his appetite for sex and pornography became more profound, which led the industry to shun him further. Realizing that he could not get rid of this behavior on his own, he sought professional counseling in 1978.

Robert Edward “Bob” Crane was born on July 13, 1928 in Waterbury, Connecticut, and was raised in Stamford. Son of Alfred Thomas and Rosemary Crane, he had an older brother, Alfred John. He was of Irish and Russian descent, and was raised in a traditional Roman Catholic household.

He began playing drums at the age of 11, and while he was in junior high school, he organized local drum and bugle parades with his neighborhood friends. He was, in fact, inspired to play the drums by watching Gene Krupa at an event.

In 1946, he graduated from Stamford High School. He had joined his high school's marching and jazz bands as well as the orchestra. He played for Connecticut and Norwalk Symphony Orchestras at youth orchestra programs.

After high school, he worked as a watch repairman and sales clerk at a jewelry/emporium store in Stamford. From 1948-50, he was in the Connecticut Army National Guard, and was honorably discharged after two years.

In 1950, Bob Crane began his broadcasting career at WLEA, a radio station broadcasting a talk radio format, in Hornell, New York. Next he moved to WBIS, a radio station licensed to serve Bristol, Connecticut, and then to WICC, a commercial AM radio station in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

In 1956, he joined CBS Radio to host a popular morning show at KNX in Los Angeles. His show quickly topped the morning ratings due to his wit and drumming skills, and guests like Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra, and Bob Hope.

He guest-hosted for Johnny Carson, an American talk show host, on the daytime game show ‘Who Do You Trust?’ and appeared on ‘The Twilight Zone’, an American television anthology series; ‘Channing’, a drama series; ‘Alfred Hitchcock Presents’, a television anthology series hosted and produced by Alfred Hitchcock; ‘General Electric Theater’, an anthology series hosted by Ronald Reagan; and ‘The Dick Van Dyke Show’a television sitcom.

Film and television actress and producer Donna Reed offered him a guest role on ‘The Donna Reed Show’. After the success of his character Dr David Kelsey, the character was incorporated into the storyline and Bob Crane became a regular cast member, beginning with the episode ‘Friends and Neighbors’. He worked full-time at KNX while he was doing ‘The Donna Reed Show’. He left the show in December 1964. He also took acting lessons in June 1964 from acting instructor Stella Adler.

Bob Crane was offered the role of Colonel Robert E. Hogan in ‘Hogan's Heroes’ in 1965. It was a television sitcom set in a German prisoner of war camp during the World War II. It ran for 168 episodes on the CBS network. Bob played the military-style drum rhythm that introduced the show’s theme song.

Bob Crane’s performance in ‘Hogan's Heroes’ received critical acclaim. The show became a super hit and ran for six seasons. It was also in the list of top ten series in its first year on the air.