Pat Hingle

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.

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.

Hingle had a long list of television and film credits to his name dating to 1948.

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.

Hingle began acting in college, and after graduating, he moved to New York and studied at HB Studio and the American Theatre Wing.

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.

In 1952, he became a member of the Actors Studio.

This led to his first Broadway show, End as a Man.

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.

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.

On Broadway, Hingle originated the role of Gooper in the original Broadway production of Tennessee Williams's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955).

He earned a Tony Award nomination for his performance in Dark at the Top of the Stairs (1957).

He played the title role in Archibald Macleish's award-winning Broadway play J.B. (1958), receiving rave reviews.

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.

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.

Another notable role was as the father of Warren Beatty's character in Splendor in the Grass (1961).

Hingle appeared in the 1963 Actors Studio production of Strange Interlude, directed by Jose Quintero, and That Championship Season (1972).

In 1963, Hingle guest-starred in an episode of The Twilight Zone, "The Incredible World of Horace Ford", as the title character.

He guest-starred in the TV series Matlock, In the Heat of the Night, and Murder, She Wrote.

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).

Hingle was widely known for portraying the father of Sally Field's title character Norma Rae (1979).

He also played manager Colonel Tom Parker in John Carpenter's TV movie Elvis (1979).

In 1980, he appeared in the short-lived police series Stone with Dennis Weaver.

He also portrayed Jim Gordon in the Batman film franchise from 1989 to 1997.

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.

He attended Weslaco High School, where he played tuba in the band.

Hingle played Commissioner Gordon in the 1989 film Batman and its three sequels.

In 1997, he played Benjamin Franklin in the Roundabout Theatre revival of the musical 1776, with Brent Spiner and Gregg Edelman.