Pat Hingle

Martin Patterson "Pat" Hingle (July 19, 1924 – January 3, 2009) was an American actor.

Hingle was born Martin Patterson Hingle in Miami, Florida (some sources say Denver, Colorado), the son of Marvin Louise (née Patterson), a schoolteacher and musician, and Clarence Martin Hingle, a building contractor.^[1] Hingle enlisted in the U.S. Navy in December 1941, dropping out of the University of Texas. He served on the destroyer USS Marshall during World War II. He returned to the University of Texas after the war and earned a degree in radio broadcasting.

Hingle began acting in college, and after graduating he moved to New York and studied at the American Theater Wing. In 1952 he became a member of the Actors Studio. That led to his first Broadway show, End as a Man.^[2]

On Broadway, he originated the role of Gooper in the original Broadway production of Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955). He played the title role in the award winning Broadway play J.B. by Archibald MacLeish(1958). He appeared in the 1963 Actors Studio production of Strange Interlude, directed by Jose Quintero, and That Championship Season (1972). He won a Tony Award nomination for his performance in Dark at the Top of the Stairs (1957).^[2]

Hingle's first film role was an uncredited part as a bartender in On the Waterfront (1954). Later in his career he was known for playing judges, police officers, and other authority figures. He was a guest star on the early NBC legal drama Justice, based on case histories of the Legal Aid Society of New York, which aired in the 1950s.^[3]

Another notable role was as the father of the character played by Warren Beatty in Splendor in the Grass (1961), which was directed by Elia Kazan, who was also the director of On the Waterfront. He was also widely known for portraying the father of the title character, played by Sally Fields, in Norma Rae (1979).^[2]

Hingle had a long list of television and movie credits to his name, going back to 1948. Among them are Hang 'Em High (1968), Sudden Impact (1983), Road To Redemption (2001), When You Comin' Back, Red Ryder? (1979), Brewster's Millions (1985), Stephen King's Maximum Overdrive (1986), The Grifters (1990), Citizen Cohn (1992), The Land Before Time (1988), Wings (1996), and Shaft (2000). Hingle played Dr. Chapman in seven episodes of the TV series Gunsmoke (1971), and Col. Tucker in the movie Gunsmoke: To the Last Man (1992). In 1963, Hingle guest-starred in an episode of The Twilight Zone called "The Incredible World of Horace Ford" as the title character. In 1980, he appeared in the short lived police series Stone with Dennis Weaver.^[4]

He is probably best known in recent times for playing Commissioner Gordon in the 1989 film Batman, and its three sequels. Along with Michael Gough, he was one of only two actors to appear in the four Batman films from 1989 to 1997.

In November 2007, he created the Pat Hingle Guest Artist Endowment to enable students to work with visiting professional actors at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.^[2]

Hingle married Alyce Faye Dorsey, on June 3, 1947 and had children Jody, Billy, Molly. The couple later divorced and in 1979 Hingle married Julia Wright. He had three children with his first wife and two children with his second. ^[1]

In 1960, he had been offered the title role in Elmer Gantry, but Burt Lancaster filled the part because Hingle had been in a near fatal accident. He was caught in his West End Avenue apartment building in an elevator that had stalled between the second and third floors. He crawled out and sought to reach the second floor corridor but lost his balance and fell fifty-four feet down the shaft. He fractured his skull, wrist, hip, and most of the ribs on his left side. He broke his left leg in three places and lost the little finger on his left hand. He lay near death for two weeks, and his recovery required more than a year.^{[citation needed]}

Hingle died at his home in Carolina Beach, North Carolina, of myelodysplasia on January 3, 2009; he had been diagnosed with the disease in November 2006. His ashes were scattered into the Atlantic Ocean.^[2]

This article contains a list of miscellaneous information. Please relocate any relevant information into other sections or articles. (May 2013)

• (1955) Guest starred in "The Allentown Incident" of the CBS anthology series Appointment with Adventure
• (1957) Played Warren Selvy in "The Night of the Execution" on Alfred Hitchcock Presents.
• (1962) Played Mitchell A. Grandin on the TV show The Untouchables (1959 TV series) on the episode 'The Case Against Eliot Ness' - Season 3, episode #83
• (1963) Had a role on an episode of the TV show The Fugitive ('Search in a Windy City' - Season 1, episode 19)
• (1964) Played Will Carey, an antisocial man who dies in Daniel Boone (Season 1, episode 14)
• (1966) Played Fred Gibson, a Wild West promoter in The Andy Griffith Show
• (1967) Played an alien prophet in The Invaders (Season 2, episode 11)
• (1968) Starred as Victor Franz in the premiere production of The Price by Arthur Miller
• (1970) Played Grady Fring in Norwood
• (1976) Played Dr. Grant Ormsbee on Season 9, Episode 4 of the popular TV series Hawaii Five-O
• (1977) Played Maynard Josephson, an old friend of Police Officer Shockley (Clint Eastwood) in The Gauntlet (film). He warns Shockley of the gauntlet, but is shot dead by shooters from a nearby building and Shockley is hit in the leg.
• (1979) Played Colonel Tom Parker in the film Elvis the Movie with Kurt Russell
• (1980) Appeared in an episode of M*A*S*H as Colonel Daniel Webster Tucker on the episode "April Fools."
• (1983) Played San Paulo Police Chief Lester Jannings in the fourth Dirty Harry installment, Sudden Impact
• (1985) Played Mr. Boyce in The Falcon and the Snowman
• (1985) Played the Sheriff in Steven Spielberg's "Amazing Stories" (Season 1, Episode 11) titled "Santa '85"
• (1995) Played Horace in The Quick and the Dead
• (1995) Played Boss Tom Pendergast in Truman with Gary Sinise
• (1997) Played Benjamin Franklin in a revival of the musical 1776
• (1997) Played Bill Watson in the 4-episode made for TV epic The Shining on ABC
• (2002) Was a regular cast member of ABC's series The Court
• (2006) Appeared in Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, as the original owner of Dennit Racing

• Pat Hingle at IMDb
• Pat Hingle at the Internet Broadway Database
• Pat Hingle at Find a Grave
• AP Obituary in The Charlotte Observer

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