Pat Hingle

American actor (1924–2009)

Alyce Faye Dorsey

(m. 1947; div. 1972)

Julie Wright

(m. 1979)

Children5

Martin Patterson Hingle (July 19, 1924 – January 3, 2009) was an American character actor who appeared in stage productions and in hundreds of television shows and feature films. His first film was On the Waterfront in 1954. He often played tough authority figures. Hingle was a close friend of Clint Eastwood and appeared in the Eastwood films Hang 'Em High, The Gauntlet, and Sudden Impact. He also portrayed Jim Gordon in the Batman film franchise from 1989 to 1997.

Early life

Hingle was born 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.^{[citation needed]} He attended Weslaco High School, where he played tuba in the band.^[2]^[3] Hingle enlisted in the United States 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 in 1949. As a Navy Reservist, he was recalled to the service during the Korean War and served on the escort destroyer USS Damato.^[1]

Career

Hingle began acting in college, and after graduating, he moved to New York and studied at HB Studio^[4] and the American Theatre Wing. In 1952, he became a member of the Actors Studio. This led to his first Broadway show, End as a Man.^[5]

On Broadway, Hingle performed the role of Gooper in the original Broadway production of Tennessee Williams's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955). He played the title role in Archibald MacLeish's award-winning Broadway play J.B. (1958), receiving rave reviews.^[6]

In February 1959, while playing J.B. on Broadway, Hingle was seriously injured in an accident. He was trapped in the elevator of his West End Avenue apartment building when it stalled between the second and third floors. The elevator stopped four feet above the landing, within reach, and Hingle tried to jump to the second floor. He missed and fell back down the elevator shaft, plunging 30 feet to the bottom. 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.^[7]

On the strength of his performance in J.B., Hingle had been offered the title role of the 1960 film Elmer Gantry, but he lost it to Burt Lancaster because of his injuries. His recovery took months, and at first he could not walk without a cane.^[6]

Hingle appeared in the 1963 Actors Studio production of Strange Interlude, directed by Jose Quintero, and That Championship Season (1972). He earned a Tony Award nomination for his performance in Dark at the Top of the Stairs (1957).^[5] In 1997, he played Benjamin Franklin in the Roundabout Theatre revival of the musical 1776, with Brent Spiner and Gregg Edelman.^[6]

Hingle's first film role was an uncredited part as bartender Jock 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.^[8]

Another notable role was as the father of Warren Beatty's character in Splendor in the Grass (1961). Hingle was widely known for portraying the father of Sally Field's title character Norma Rae (1979).^[5] He also played manager Colonel Tom Parker in John Carpenter's TV movie Elvis (1979).^[9]

Hingle had a long list of television and film credits to his name dating to 1948. Among them were two episodes of The Fugitive (1964), Carol for Another Christmas (1964), Nevada Smith (1966), Mission: Impossible (1967), The Invaders (1967), Hang 'Em High (1968), The Gauntlet (1977), 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), Cheers (1993), The Land Before Time (1988), Wings (1996), and Shaft (2000). He 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, "The Incredible World of Horace Ford", as the title character.^[10] He guest-starred in the TV series Matlock, In the Heat of the Night, and Murder, She Wrote. In 1980, he appeared in the short-lived police series Stone with Dennis Weaver.^[11]

Hingle played Commissioner Gordon in the 1989 film Batman and its three sequels. He is one of only two actors to appear in the four Batman films from 1989 to 1997; the other is Michael Gough.^[12]

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 .^[5]

Personal life

Hingle married Alyce Faye Dorsey on June 3, 1947. They had three children. The couple later divorced. In 1979 Hingle married Julia Wright. He and his second wife had two children.^{[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 2008. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered in the Atlantic Ocean.^[5]

Selected TV credits and filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1954	On the Waterfront	Jocko	Uncredited
1957	Alfred Hitchcock Presents	Warren Selvy	Season 3 Episode 13: "Night of the Execution"
	The Strange One	Harold Koble
	No Down Payment	Herman Kreitzer
1960	Wild River	Narrator	Voice, Uncredited
1961	Splendor in the Grass	'Ace' Stamper
1962	The Untouchables	Mitchell A. Grandin	TV series Season 3 episode "The Case Against Eliot Ness"
1963	The Untouchables	Barney Howe / Barney Retsick	TV series Season 4 episode "Junk Man"
	The Twilight Zone	Horace Ford	TV series Episode "The Incredible World of Horace Ford"
	The Ugly American	Homer Atkins
	All the Way Home	Ralph Follet
1964	Invitation to a Gunfighter	Sam Brewster
1964	Carol for Another Christmas	Ghost of Christmas Present
1965	Daniel Boone	Will Carey	TV series Episode "The Returning"
1965	The Fugitive	Sheriff Joe Bob Sims	TV series Episode "Nicest Fella You'd Ever Want to Meet"
1966	Nevada Smith	'Big Foot'
1966	The Andy Griffith Show	Fred Gibson	TV series Season 6 episode "Wyatt Earp Rides Again"
1967	Mission: Impossible	R.J. McMillan	TV series Season 1 episode "The Confession"
1967	The Invaders	Brother Avery	TV series Season 2 episode "The Prophet"
1968	Sol Madrid	Harry Mitchell
	Jigsaw	Lew Haley
	Hang 'Em High	Judge Adam Fenton
1970	Bloody Mama	Sam Adams Pendlebury
	WUSA	Bingamon
	Norwood	Grady Fring
1971	Gunsmoke	Dr. John Chapman	TV series 7 episodes after Milburn Stone ("Doc") had heart surgery
1972	The Carey Treatment	Captain Pearson
1973	Kung Fu	General Thoms	TV series Season 1, episode 6 "The Soul is the Warrior"
	One Little Indian	Captain Stewart
	Happy as the Grass Was Green	Eric Mills
1974	The New Land	Cadbury	TV series Episode "The Word is: Mortal" (never aired)
	The Six Million Dollar Man	Senator Hill	TV series Episode "Pilot Error"
	The Super Cops	Inspector Novick
	Nightmare Honeymoon	Mr. Binghamton
1975	Hawaii Five-O	Ormsbee	TV series Episode "The Defector"
1976	Independence	John Adams
1977	The Gauntlet	Detective Maynard Josephson
1977	Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo	'Doc' Hodgins	TV movie
1979	Elvis	Colonel Tom Parker	TV movie
	When You Comin' Back, Red Ryder?	Lyle Stricker
	Norma Rae	Vernon
	Disaster on the Coastliner	John Marsh	TV movie
1980	Running Scared	Sergeant McClain
	MASH*	Colonel Daniel Webster Tucker	TV series Season 8 episode "April Fools"
	Stone	Chief Gene Paulton	TV series
1983	Going Berserk	Ed Reese
	Running Brave	Coach Bill Easton
	Sudden Impact	Chief Lester Jannings
1984	Magnum, P.I.	Garwood Huddle	TV series Season 5 episode "The Legacy of Garwood Huddle"
	In 'n Out	Oscar Milstone
	The Act	Frank Boda
1985	The Falcon and the Snowman	Charles Boyce
	Amazing Stories	The Sheriff	TV series Episode "Santa '85"
	The Lady from Yesterday	Jim Bartlett	TV movie
	Brewster's Millions	Edward Roundfield
	The Rape of Richard Beck	'Chappy' Beck	TV movie
1986	Maximum Overdrive	Bubba Hendershot
1986	Murder, She Wrote	Retired Lieutenant Barney Kale	TV series Episode "Unfinished Business"
1987	Baby Boom	Hughes Larabee
1988	The Land Before Time	Narrator / Rooter	Voice
1988	War and Remembrance	Admiral William "Bull" Halsey	TV miniseries
1989	Batman	Commissioner Jim Gordon
1990	The Grifters	'Bobo' Justus
	The Kennedys of Massachusetts	PJ Kennedy	TV miniseries
	Murder, She Wrote	Lieutenant James Ignatius O'Malley	TV series Episode: "O'Malley's Luck"
1991	Murder, She Wrote	Captain Zach Franklin	TV series Episode: "Thicker Than Water"
1992	Gunsmoke: To the Last Man	Colonel Tucker	TV movie
	Batman Returns	Commissioner Jim Gordon
	Citizen Cohn	J. Edgar Hoover
1993	Cheers	Gus O'Malley	TV series Episode "The Last Picture Show"
1993	In the Heat of the Night	Daddy Roy Eversole	TV series Episode "A Step Removed"
1994	Lightning Jack	U.S. Marshal Dan Kurtz
1994	In the Heat of the Night	Daddy Roy Eversole	TV series Episode "Poor Relations"
1995	The Quick and the Dead	Horace the Bartender
1995	Batman Forever	Commissioner Jim Gordon
1996	Wings	Jack Hackett	TV series 1 episode
	Larger than Life	Vernon
	Bastard out of Carolina	Mr. Waddell
1997	The Shining	Pete Watson	TV miniseries
	Batman & Robin	Commissioner Jim Gordon
	A Thousand Acres	Harold Clark
	Horror Story	Judge Caldwell
1999	Muppets from Space	General Luft
2000	Shaft	Judge Dennis Bradford
2000-2002	Batman OnStar commercials	Commissioner Jim Gordon	Voice
2001	Road to Redemption	Grandpa Nathan Tucker
2001	Morning	Major Sonny
2002	The Angel Doll	Noah Roudabush
2005	The Greatest Adventure of My Life	General J.T. Boone
2006	Two Tickets to Paradise	Mark's Dad
	Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby	Mr. Dennit Sr.
	Waltzing Anna	'Mo' Kegley
2007	The List	Gus Eicholtz
2008	Undoing Time	Judge	Final film role
2019	Shaft	Judge Dennis Bradford	Posthumous / Archive footage cameo

References

^ ^a ^b Wise, Jr., James E.; Rehill, Anne Collier (1997). Stars in Blue: Movie Actors in America's Sea Services. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press. pp. 173–176. ISBN 978-1-55750-937-6.
^ Severo, Richard (January 5, 2009). "Pat Hingle, Versatile Actor With Recurring Role in Batman Movies, Dies at 84". The New York Times. Retrieved February 10, 2019.
^ "Weslaco grad, veteran actor Pat Hingle dies". Valley Morning Star. Harlingen, Texas. Associated Press. January 9, 2009. Archived from the original on April 15, 2019. Retrieved February 10, 2019.
^ "HB Studio - Notable Alumni | One of the Original Acting Studios in NYC". HB Studio. Retrieved December 16, 2019.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Hotz, Amy (January 4, 2009). "Actor Pat Hingle dies at age 84". Star-News. Wilmington, North Carolina. Archived from the original on January 13, 2014. Retrieved January 4, 2009.
^ ^a ^b ^c Witchel, Alex (August 10, 1997). "A Broadway Elder With the Spirit of '76". The New York Times. Retrieved October 29, 2014.
^ Quirk, David (February 21, 1959). "Star of 'Job' Badly Hurt in Fall". Daily News. p. 3. Retrieved August 22, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
^ "Justice". The Classic TV Archive. Retrieved February 8, 2011.
^ Thurber, Jon (January 5, 2009). "Pat Hingle dies at 84; veteran actor was perhaps best known for 'Batman' role". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 10, 2019.
^ Presnell, Don; McGee, Marty (2008). A Critical History of Television's The Twilight Zone, 1959-1964. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. pp. 154–155. ISBN 978-0-7864-3886-0.
^ Kelley, Bill (July 5, 1988). "HINGLE NO STRANGER TO PATRIARCHAL ROLES". Sun-Sentinel. Retrieved February 10, 2019.
^ "Pat Hingle: Commissioner Gordon in four of the Batman films". The Times. January 6, 1996. Retrieved February 10, 2019.