Pat Hingle

Born in Miami, Florida (some sources say Denver, Colorado{{Citation needed |date=July 2024}} ), Hingle was the son of a building contractor father and a mother who "worked at menial jobs".{{cite news| title=Pat Hingle, Versatile Actor With Recurring Role in Batman Movies, Dies at 84| url= https://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/05/arts/05hingle.html| last=Severo| first=Richard| date=January 5, 2009| newspaper=The New York Times| access-date=July 11, 2024|url-access=subscription|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230521120050/https://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/05/arts/05hingle.html |archive-date=May 21, 2023}} He attended high school in Weslaco, Texas, and played tuba in the WHS band.{{cite news| title=Weslaco grad, veteran actor Pat Hingle dies| url=http://www.valleymorningstar.com/news/local_news/weslaco-grad-veteran-actor-pat-hingle-dies/article_8d72eb48-516a-5128-b5fc-cb0bb9417f80.html| agency=Associated Press| date=January 9, 2009| newspaper=Valley Morning Star| location=Harlingen, Texas| access-date=February 10, 2019| archive-date=April 15, 2019| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190415063608/https://www.valleymorningstar.com/news/local_news/weslaco-grad-veteran-actor-pat-hingle-dies/article_8d72eb48-516a-5128-b5fc-cb0bb9417f80.html| url-status=dead}} During World War II, Hingle enlisted in the U.S. Navy in December 1941, dropping out of the University of Texas, and served on the destroyer USS Marshall. He returned to UT 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.{{cite book| last1=Wise, Jr.| first1=James E.| last2=Rehill| first2=Anne Collier| title=Stars in Blue: Movie Actors in America's Sea Services| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9JhZAAAAMAAJ&q=hingle| location=Annapolis| publisher=Naval Institute Press| year=1997| pages=173–176| isbn=978-1-55750-937-6|url-access=subscription}}

Hingle began acting in college, and after graduating, he moved to New York and studied at HB Studio{{cite web |url=https://hbstudio.org/about-hb-studio/alumni/ |title=HB Studio - Notable Alumni | One of the Original Acting Studios in NYC |website=HB Studio |access-date=December 16, 2019}} 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.

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.

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.{{Cite news |last=Quirk |first=David |date=1959-02-21 |title=Star of 'Job' Badly Hurt in Fall |pages=3 |work=Daily News |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/108103748/star-of-job-badly-hurt-in-fall/ |access-date=2022-08-22 |via=Newspapers.com}}

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.

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). In 1997, he played Benjamin Franklin in the Roundabout Theatre revival of the musical 1776, with Brent Spiner and Gregg Edelman.{{cite news |last=Witchel |first=Alex |date=August 10, 1997 |title=A Broadway Elder With the Spirit of '76 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/08/10/theater/a-broadway-elder-with-the-spirit-of-76.html?pagewanted=all |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=October 29, 2014 |url-access=subscription}}

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.{{cite web| url=http://ctva.biz/US/Legal/Justice.htm|title=Justice| website=The Classic TV Archive| access-date=February 8, 2011}}

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). He also played manager Colonel Tom Parker in John Carpenter's TV movie Elvis (1979).{{cite news |last=Thurber |first=Jon |date=January 5, 2009 |title=Pat Hingle dies at 84; veteran actor was perhaps best known for 'Batman' role |url=https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-hingle5-2009jan05-story.html |work=Los Angeles Times |access-date=February 10, 2019}}

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), Baby Boom (1987), 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.{{cite book |last1=Presnell |first1=Don |last2=McGee |first2=Marty |date=2008 |title=A Critical History of Television's The Twilight Zone, 1959-1964 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZXAwCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA154 |location=Jefferson, North Carolina |publisher=McFarland & Company |pages=154–155 |isbn=978-0-7864-3886-0}} 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.{{cite news |last=Kelley |first=Bill |date=July 5, 1988 |title=HINGLE NO STRANGER TO PATRIARCHAL ROLES |url=https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-1988-07-05-8802090251-story.html |work=Sun-Sentinel |access-date=February 10, 2019}}

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.{{cite news |title=Pat Hingle: Commissioner Gordon in four of the Batman films |url=https://www.thetimes.com/travel/destinations/north-america-travel/us-travel/california/pat-hingle-commissioner-gordon-in-four-of-the-batman-films-b8bvsdqrh3b |work=The Times |date=January 6, 1996 |access-date=February 10, 2019}}

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 .

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 |date=August 2023}}

Hingle died from myelodysplastic cancer (which he had been diagnosed with in November 2008) at the age of 84 at his house in Carolina Beach in North Carolina on 3 January 2009. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered in the Atlantic Ocean.{{cite news |last=Hotz |first=Amy |date=January 4, 2009 |title=Actor Pat Hingle dies at age 84 |url=https://www.starnewsonline.com/story/news/2009/01/04/actor-pat-hingle-dies-at-age-84/30472407007/ |newspaper=Star-News |location=Wilmington, North Carolina |access-date=January 4, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140113072506/http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20090104/ARTICLES/901042994/1120 |archive-date=January 13, 2014}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{IMDb name|385757}}
• {{tcmdb name | 86806%7C120736 }}
• {{IBDB name}}
• {{iobdb name|29095}}
• [http://www.legacy.com/Charlotte/DeathNotices.asp?Page=Lifestory&PersonID=122225946 AP Obituary] in The Charlotte Observer

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hingle, Pat}}

Category:1924 births

Category:2009 deaths

Category:20th-century American male actors

Category:21st-century American male actors

Category:American male film actors

Category:American male stage actors

Category:American male television actors

Category:Deaths from leukemia in the United States

Category:Deaths from myelodysplastic syndrome

Category:Male actors from Houston

Category:Male actors from Miami

Category:Military personnel from Florida

Category:Moody College of Communication alumni

Category:United States Navy personnel of World War II

Category:United States Navy personnel of the Korean War

Category:United States Navy reservists