[1] Staff Sergeant Kates served as a Waist Gunner on a B-17G with the 336th Bomb Squadron, 95th Bomb Group (H), 8th United States AAF during World War II,[2] Kates earned an Air Medal with three clusters and a Distinguished Flying Cross.
[3] A life member of The Actors Studio,[4] Kates's film appearances include Judgment at Nuremberg (as Max Perkins), The Babe, and The Phantom.
He also portrayed a Jewish resistance fighter in the 1960 television play In the Presence of Mine Enemies (Playhouse 90).
[5] He was a resident actor with the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival in Cleveland, Ohio, for nine summers,[3] and he was also active in "a noteworthy run of shows" at the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts in Santa Maria, California.
[6] On February 2, 2010, complications resulting from sepsis and pneumonia led to Kates' death in a hospital in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, at age 87.