Hogan's Heroes Trivia: Why Cynthia Lynn left her role as Helga

Cynthia Lynn as Helga

Cynthia Lynn is well known for portraying Fräulein Helga, the pretty secretary to Colonel Wilhelm Klink (Werner Klemperer), during the first season of the television series Hogan's Heroes (1965–1966).

The sitcom was set in a Nazi German prisoner-of-war camp during World War Two. Helga was known for sitting at her desk with her blonde pigtails and infectious smile.

She was quiet, flirty, and Colonel Klink and his comrades all seemed smitten with her. Helga stole a few kisses with Bob Crane's character, Colonel Robert E. Hogan, and sometimes allowed Hogan and his men to gain the upper hand on her boss by not revealing their plans.

Lynn's career

Lynn had other roles in addition to Hogan's Heroes. Her credits include the comedy films Bedtime Stories and Honeymoon Hotel, both from 1964. She also appeared in several TV shows: Mission: Impossible, The Odd Couple, To Trap a Spy, Gidget Grows Up, The Six Million Dollar Man, Dr. Kildare, Surfside 6, and Love American Style. Her final role was in an episode of Harry O, Sound the Trumpets in 1975.

Off-screen drama between Crane and Lynn

According to information in Lynn's autobiography, Escape to Freedom, the chemistry between Helga and Hogan is real because she has an affair with Crane while working on the show. In 1997, the actress admitted to Entertainment Tonight to the affair and how it caused problems in both of their marriages.

According to Rick Nineg in the video below, Lynn's husband found out about the affair and asked her to leave the show. Lynn says she did not return for a second season on Hogan's Heroes because she wanted to save her marriage.

Lynn's replacement married Bob Crane

Unfortunately, the couple split up only three months later. Crane's first marriage also ended, and he went on to marry Lynn's replacement, Sigrid Valdis. She was still married to Crane at the time of his controversial death in 1978.

Helga was replaced by Hilda (Sigrid Valdis), who remained for the next five seasons. Lynn then returned to the series for two additional episodes, "Will the Blue Baron Strike Again" in 1968 and "Easy Come, Easy Go" in 1971.

It was implied during that first season that Helga was having an affair with Colonel Hogan, and the same was true of Hilda. Valdis later married Bob Crane.

Cynthia Lynn from birth to death

The actress was born Zinta Valda Ziemelis on April 2, 1937, in Riga, Latvia, which borders Russia, Lithuania, Belarus, and Estonia. In 1945, when she was eight, Lynn and her mother, Alisa, fled the country before the Soviet Union could occupy Latvia.

The duo traveled to the United States in 1950, as chronicled in the 2002 book, Escape to Freedom: An Autobiography of Cynthia Lynn (co-written with Edward Ansara).

Lynn died on March 10, 2014, at age 76, from multiple organ failure after being stricken with hepatitis. She is survived by her daughter, Lisa Brando, whose father was Marlon Brando. She also has a son, Anthony Tutini, from another father, Lee Tutini Sands.

A final consideration

Had Lynn's husband not asked her to leave the hit series, she may have been with the show until the end. Considering she and her spouse divorced just three months after her departure, she might have been the new Mrs. Bob Crane, and their lives may have turned out differently.

At this point, there is no way to know for certain but: Although Cynthia Lynn appeared only in the first season of Hogan's Heroes, her character Helga lives on in the hearts of the series' fans.