'Hogan's Heroes' actress Cynthia Lynn dead at 76

Hogan's Heroes actress Cynthia Lynn died earlier this week at age 76. Lynn's daughter Lisa Brando confirmed to the Today show on Thursday that her mother died on Monday from multiple organ failure caused by hepatitis. "This happened suddenly and unexpectedly," Brando said. Lynn appeared as the character Fraulein Helga, Colonel Klink's secretary, on Hogan's Heroes. The actress also made appearances in Mission: Impossible, The Odd Couple, and The Six Million Dollar Man. The Hogan's Heroes star was involved with Marlon Brando in the early 1960s, and daughter Lisa Brando was born from the relationship. Multiple accounts say the pair became intimate on the set of Bedtime Story, but Lisa insisted the two met while the actor was on a break from his film Mutiny on the Bounty. "They met and conceived me before they did Bedtime Story," Lisa said. Lynn had written an autobiography with actor Edward Ansara in 2002. Escape to Freedom: An Autobiography of Cynthia Lynn follows the actress from her 1937 birth in Latvia to her eventual career in the U.S. Lynn's relationship with Heroes star Bob Crane is one subject touched upon in the book. Lisa Brando has set up an Indiegogo campaign to raise funds for her mother's memorial at Forest Lawn Cemetery in California.