‘Peyton Place’ and ‘The Wire’ Actor Robert Hogan Dies at 87

Robert Hogan, the veteran TV actor whose career spanned six decades, has passed away at age 87.

According to his family’s obituary in the New York Times, Hogan died at his home in Maine on May 27 following complications from pneumonia. He had been diagnosed with Vascula Alzheimer’s in 2013. However, he was determined to successfully live with the illness, still taking on work and thriving many years after his diagnosis with the help of his wife, novelist Mary Hogan, and organizations like the Alzheimer’s Association.

Born in Jamaica, Queens, Hogan was a gifted athlete in high school, and after graduating, he joined the U.S. Army to serve in Korea. After his honorable discharge, he returned home to study engineering at New York University; however, following advice from a professor, Hogan decided to change paths and pursue a career in the arts, being accepted into New York’s prestigious American Academy of Dramatic Arts.

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It didn’t take long for Hogan to find work in the film and television industry; throughout his six-decade career in California and New York, he appeared in more than 100 TV series. He portrayed numerous recurring characters on programs such as As the World Turns, Days of Our Lives, Law & Order, and Murder, She Wrote. In 1998, he won the Outer Critics Circle Award for his portrayal of attorney Clarence Darrow in Never the Sinner. The next year, he played a U.S. Marine in Aaron Sorkin’s original Broadway production of A Few Good Men.

One of his earliest roles came in 1965 in Hogan’s Heroes, whose titular character was named after Hogan by his friend and the show’s co-creator, Bernard Fein. A year later, he would have a guest spot in ABC’s Batman before taking on the recurring role of the Rev. Tom Winter in the popular soap opera Peyton Place. One of his other more memorable roles was Louis Sobotka, the father of Pablo Schreiber’s Nick Sobotka, in the second season of The Wire.

In more recent years, Hogan had appeared in several Off-Broadway plays, including Boy (2004), The Accomplices (2007), and Mourning Becomes Electra (2009). He was also featured briefly in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood — Leonardo DiCaprio‘s character praises “Bobby Hogan” as he watches a scene from a 1965 episode of The F.B.I. featuring the late actor.

Hogan is survived by his wife Mary, his children from his first marriage to Shannon Hogan, Chris, Stephen, and Jud, and grandchildren Susanna and Liam.