[5] In 1942, Banner enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps, underwent basic training in Atlantic City and became a supply sergeant.

In the late 1950s, a still-slim Banner portrayed Peter Tchaikovsky's supervisor on a Disneyland anthology series about the composer's life.

This followed a scene with fellow Hogan's Heroes actor Leon Askin (General Burkhalter) as Nikolai Rubinstein.

In 1953, he had a bit part in the Kirk Douglas feature film The Juggler as the witness of an attack on an Israeli policeman by a disturbed concentration camp survivor.

In 1954, he had a regular role playing Bavarro in the children's science-fiction TV series Rocky Jones, Space Ranger.

The year before the premiere of Hogan's Heroes, Banner portrayed a World War II German "home guard" soldier in 36 Hours (1964), starring James Garner.

Although it was a serious role in a war drama, Banner still displayed some of the affable nature that became his defining character trait the following year in Hogan's Heroes.

The comedy series Hogan's Heroes, in which Banner played Sergeant Hans Schultz, the role for which he is most often remembered, debuted on the CBS Television Network in 1965.

[citation needed] The character of Schultz is a bumbling, but ultimately lovable, German guard at a World War II prisoner-of-war camp.

In 1968, during the series' run, Banner co-starred with fellow Hogan's Heroes actors Werner Klemperer, Leon Askin, and Bob Crane in the Cold War comedy The Wicked Dreams of Paula Schultz, starring Elke Sommer in the title role.

After Hogan's Heroes was cancelled in 1971, Banner starred as the inept gangster Uncle Latzi in a short-lived television situation comedy, The Chicago Teddy Bears.