Sigrid Valdis

ANAHEIM, California (AP) - The actress who played Col. Klink's sexy blond secretary Hilda on "Hogan's Heroes" and married the show's star, Bob Crane, has died. She was 72.

Patricia Crane died on Oct. 14, a spokeswoman for the Orange County coroner's office confirmed Monday. On stage, Crane was known as Sigrid Valdis.

Crane died of lung cancer at her daughter Ana Sarmiento's home, her son said.

Crane played Hilda for five seasons on "Hogan's Heroes," the 1965-71 CBS situation comedy about Allied prisoners in a World War II German POW camp. Hilda and Bob Crane's Col. Hogan flirted playfully in front of the screen, but in 1970 were married for real - on the show's set.

Eight years later, Crane was found bludgeoned to death in an apartment in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Patricia Olson was born in 1935 in Bakersfield, California, and grew up in the Westwood area of Los Angeles, finding both runway and print modeling jobs as a teenager.

After graduating high school, she moved to Europe and then to New York City, where she studied acting and continued her modeling career.

Her film credits include "Our Man Flint," "Two Tickets to Paris," "Marriage on the Rocks," and "The Venetian Affair." In addition to "Hogan's Heroes," she appeared on other television series, including "The Wild Wild West" and "Kraft Mystery Theater."

She retired from acting after her son's birth in 1971. She moved from the Los Angeles area after Crane's death in 1978. In 1998, she joined the cast of her son's syndicated weekly sketch comedy radio show, "Shaken, Not Stirred," which originated in Seattle.

In 2004, she returned to live in her childhood home in Westwood.

In addition to her son and daughter from her marriage to Crane, the twice-widowed actress is survived by a daughter from her first marriage, Melissa Smith; and five grandchildren.
Copyright © 2007 The Associated Press