Hogan’s Heroes star Sigrid Valdis may have died long ago but fans are reliving her memories on TV, magazines, and the internet, reliving a career that spanned forty years. What killed Sigrid Valdis? What are her legacies? Here is everything you need to know about the late star.
Sigrid Valdis: Birth and Early Life
The birth name of Sigrid Valdis is Patricia Annette Olson. She was born on September 21, 1935, in Bakersfield, California, USA. Sigrid was raised in Los Angeles, Brentwood and Westwood. There is no information about her parents, siblings or any special gift she possessed when she was little apart from her unfurling beauty.
She attended Marymount High School and other private schools. After her graduation from high school, Valdis Sigrid moved to New York City where she started her career as a model but soon transitioned into an actress after studying at the Stella Adler Theatre School, in New York. It was in New York City that encountered fame and love.
Sigrid Valdis: Career
Sigrid Valdis lived a life that is more entertaining than her film credits. However few appearances on the screen stood out for sure. She made her acting debut in 1964 in an uncredited role in the film “Two Tickets to Paris”. In 1964, she appeared as Ruby in an NBC television anthology series “The Kraft Suspense Theater”.
In 1965, she landed the role of Miss Piecemeal on CBS science fiction television series “The Wild Wild West”. The series told the story two Secret Service agents James West and Artemus Gordon whose mission was to protect President Ulysses S. Grant and the United States from all manner of dangerous threats. Despite its commercial success and favorable reception from fans and critics, the series was canceled near the end of its fourth season as a concession to Congress over television violence.
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Sigrid later appeared in the comedy film “Marriage on the Rocks” as Kitty. The film also starred singer Frank Sinatra. Sigrid’s breakout role was on CBS televisions sitcom “Hogan’s Heroes”. She first appeared on the series as Gretchen in 1965. In 1966, Sigrid Valdis had a recurring role in the series playing the character of Hilda. The series told the story about a Nazi prisoner-of-war camp with incompetent German officers. Sigrid Valdis played the role of a sexy secretary to the camp’s commanding officer Colonel Klink. Under the watchful eyes of her boss, she was having an affair with Allied commander Colonel Robert E. Hogan. Sigrid Valdis did not continue with the show till its final season because she gave birth and decided to retire from acting. The series won two Emmy Awards out of 12 nominations.
Marriages and Sorrows
Life made Sigrid Valdis a widow twice when she was alive. Her first marriage was with New York businessman George Gilbert Ateyeh. She met George when she was a runway model and the union was blessed with a daughter Melissa.
Sigrid Valdis did not enjoy her marriage as George Gilbert Ateyah passed away in 1967. Sigrid later married Bob Crane, the actor she had a screen affair with on “Hogan’s Heroes”. Bob Crane married Sigrid on the set of the series while co-star Richard Dawson served as Crane’s best man.
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The marriage with Bob Crane was blessed with Ana Sarmiento, daughter and a son, Scott. She had three stepchildren from Crane’s earlier marriage to Anne Terzian: Karen, Deborah, and Robert David Crane However, Bob Crane was brutally murdered which forced her to move from Los Angeles to Seattle where she settled with her son Scott. Later, it was revealed that Bob Crane had been addicted to pornography and documented his sexual exploits on video. There’s even a film about the life of Bob Crane here actress Maria Bello played the role of Sigrid Valdis. With the loss of her second husband and deteriorating health, Sigrid Valdis moved back to her childhood home in Westwood Los Angeles.
Net worth, death, and legacies
Sigrid Valdis lived a simple life. She was not active in the show business for a very long period because on her scale of preference, keeping the home meant so much to her than an acting career. It is difficult to state how much she left behind. Some sites put her net worth to about around 36 million dollars while some settled at 6 million dollars. But we can bet, the actress net worth wasn’t even close to these figures because, during the time she was active, the entertainment industry was not driven by money like it is nowadays.
Sigrid Valdis died on October 14, 2007, from lung cancer in Anaheim, California. She was 72. Before her demise, she managed a tribute website dedicated to her late husband Bob Crane where she answered questions about the cast of “Hogan’s Heroes” and of course about her marriage to Bob Crane.
Image Source: PixCove
