Pat Hingle

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title: "Pat Hingle" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1924-births", "2009-deaths", "20th-century-american-male-actors", "21st-century-american-male-actors", "american-male-film-actors", "american-male-stage-actors", "american-male-television-actors", "deaths-from-leukemia-in-the-united-states", "deaths-from-myelodysplastic-syndrome", "male-actors-from-houston", "male-actors-from-miami", "military-personnel-from-miami", "moody-college-of-communication-alumni", "united-states-navy-personnel-of-world-war-ii", "united-states-navy-personnel-of-the-korean-war", "united-states-navy-reservists", "people-from-weslaco,-texas", "people-with-myelodysplastic-syndrome"] description: "American actor (1924–2009)" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Hingle" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American actor (1924–2009) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox person"]

Field	Value
image	Pat Hingle "The Last Angry Man" (1974 ABC press photo).jpg
caption	Hingle as Dr. Sam Abelman in the 1974 ABC Movie of the Week remake of The Last Angry Man (1959)
birth_name	Martin Patterson Hingle
birth_date
birth_place	Miami, Florida, U.S.
death_date
death_place	Carolina Beach, North Carolina, U.S.
alma_mater	University of Texas
occupation	Actor
years_active	1951–2008
notable_works	Batman, Hang 'Em High, Splendor in the Grass, Batman Returns, Batman Forever, Batman & Robin, Shaft
spouse	{{ubl
{{marriage	Alyce Faye Dorsey
children	5
::

| image = Pat Hingle "The Last Angry Man" (1974 ABC press photo).jpg | caption = Hingle as Dr. Sam Abelman in the 1974 ABC Movie of the Week remake of The Last Angry Man (1959) | birth_name = Martin Patterson Hingle | birth_date = | birth_place = Miami, Florida, U.S. | death_date = | death_place = Carolina Beach, North Carolina, U.S. | alma_mater = University of Texas | occupation = Actor | years_active = 1951–2008 | notable_works = Batman, Hang 'Em High, Splendor in the Grass, Batman Returns, Batman Forever, Batman & Robin, Shaft | spouse = {{ubl | | | children = 5 ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dd/Pat_Hingle_Nan_Martin_The_Twilight_Zone.JPG" caption="The Twilight Zone]]''"] ::

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 Commissioner Gordon in the Batman film franchise from 1989 to 1997.

Early life

Born in Miami, Florida, He attended high school in Weslaco, Texas, and played tuba in the WHS band. 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.

Career

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

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.

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.

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).

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/60/Pat_Hingle_(4443330082_724d5a94a0_z).jpg" caption="Hingle as [[Thomas Edison]] in a [[General Electric]] ad, in 1977"] ::

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. 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.

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.

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.

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.

Death

Hingle died from myelodysplastic cancer (which had been diagnosed 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.

Filmography

--

Film

::data[format=table title="{{Screen reader-only| Pat Hingle film credits}}"]

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1954	On the Waterfront	Jocko	Uncredited
1957	The Strange One	Harold Koble
No Down Payment	Herman Kreitzer
1960	Wild River	Narrator (voice)	Uncredited
1961	Splendor in the Grass	Ace Stamper
1963	The Ugly American	Homer Atkins
All the Way Home	Ralph Follet
1964	Invitation to a Gunfighter	Sam Brewster
1966	Nevada Smith	'Big Foot'
1968	Sol Madrid	Harry Mitchell
Hang 'Em High	Judge Adam Fenton
Jigsaw	Lew Haley
1970	Bloody Mama	Sam Adams Pendlebury
WUSA	Bingamon
Norwood	Grady Fring
1972	The Carey Treatment	Captain Pearson
1973	One Little Indian	Captain Stewart
Happy as the Grass Was Green	Eric Mills
1974	The Super Cops	Inspector Novick
Nightmare Honeymoon	Mr. Binghamton
1976	Independence	John Adams
1977	The Gauntlet	Detective Maynard Josephson
1979	When You Comin' Back, Red Ryder?	Lyle Stricker
Norma Rae	Vernon
1980	Running Scared	Sergeant McClain
1983	Going Berserk	Ed Reese
Running Brave	Coach Bill Easton
Sudden Impact	Chief Lester Jannings
1985	The Falcon and the Snowman	Charles Boyce
Brewster's Millions	Edward Roundfield
1986	Maximum Overdrive	Bubba Hendershot
1987	Baby Boom	Hughes Larabee
1988	The Land Before Time	Narrator / Rooter (voice)
1989	Batman	Commissioner Jim Gordon
1990	The Grifters	'Bobo' Justus
1992	Batman Returns	Commissioner Jim Gordon
1994	Lightning Jack	U.S. Marshal Dan Kurtz
1995	The Quick and the Dead	Horace Pinnick
Batman Forever	Commissioner Jim Gordon
1996	Larger than Life	Vernon
1997	Batman & Robin	Commissioner Jim Gordon
A Thousand Acres	Harold Clark
1999	Muppets from Space	General Luft
2000	Shaft	Judge Dennis Bradford
2001	Road to Redemption	Grandpa Nathan Tucker
2006	Two Tickets to Paradise	Mark's Dad
Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby	Mr. Dennit Sr.
::

Television

::data[format=table title="{{Screen reader-only| Pat Hingle television credits}}"]

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1957	Alfred Hitchcock Presents	Warren Selvy	1 episode
1962	The Defenders	Franklin Williams	Episode: "The Trial of Jenny Scott"
1962, 1963	The Untouchables	Mitchell A. Grandin / Barney	2 episodes
1963	The Twilight Zone	Horace Ford	Episode: "The Incredible World of Horace Ford"
1964	Carol for Another Christmas	Ghost of Christmas Present	Television film
1965	Daniel Boone	Will Carey	1 episode
The Fugitive	Sheriff Joe Bob Sims	1 episode
1966	The Andy Griffith Show	Fred Gibson	1 episode
1967	Mission: Impossible	R.J. McMillan	1 episode
The Invaders	Brother Avery	1 episode
1969	Bonanza	Sheriff Austin	Episode: "The Silence at Stillwater"
1971	Gunsmoke	Dr. John Chapman	Recurring role, 7 episodes
1973	Kung Fu	General Thoms	1 episode
1974	The Six Million Dollar Man	Senator Hill	1 episode
The Last Angry Man	Dr. Sam Abelman	Television film
1975	Hawaii Five-O	Ormsbee	1 episode
1977	Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo	'Doc' Hodgins	Television film
1979	Elvis	Colonel Tom Parker	Television film
1980	MAS*H	Colonel Daniel Webster Tucker	1 episode
Stone	Chief Gene Paulton	Main role, 10 episodes
1984	Magnum, P.I.	Garwood Huddle	1 episode
1985	Amazing Stories	The Sheriff	1 episode
The Lady from Yesterday	Jim Bartlett	Television film
The Rape of Richard Beck	'Chappy' Beck	Television film
1986	Matlock	Tom McCabe	Episode: "Santa Claus"
Murder, She Wrote	Ret. Lt. Det. Barney Kale	Episode: "Unfinished Business"
1988	War and Remembrance	Admiral William "Bull" Halsey	Miniseries, 3 episodes
1989	The Equalizer	Waldo Jarrell	Episode: "Prisoners of Conscience"
1990	The Kennedys of Massachusetts	PJ Kennedy	Miniseries, 3 episodes
Murder, She Wrote	Lt. James Ignatius O'Malley	Episode: "O'Malley's Luck"
1991	Murder, She Wrote	Capt. Zach Franklin	Episode: "Thicker Than Water"
1992	Gunsmoke: To the Last Man	Col. Tucker	Television film
Citizen Cohn	J. Edgar Hoover	Television film
1993	Cheers	Gus O'Malley	1 episode
1993–1994	In the Heat of the Night	Daddy Roy Eversole	2 episodes
1996	Wings	Jack Hackett	1 episode
Bastard out of Carolina	Mr. Waddell	Television film, Showtime
1997	The Shining	Pete Watson	Miniseries, 1 episode
1999	Touched by an Angel	Ben Mangione	Episode: "Family Business"
::

References

References

1. Severo, Richard. (January 5, 2009). "Pat Hingle, Versatile Actor With Recurring Role in Batman Movies, Dies at 84". [[The New York Times]].
2. (January 9, 2009). "Weslaco grad, veteran actor Pat Hingle dies". [[Valley Morning Star]].
3. (1997). "Stars in Blue: Movie Actors in America's Sea Services". Naval Institute Press.
4. "HB Studio - Notable Alumni | One of the Original Acting Studios in NYC".
5. Quirk, David. (1959-02-21). "Star of 'Job' Badly Hurt in Fall". Daily News.
6. Witchel, Alex. (August 10, 1997). "A Broadway Elder With the Spirit of '76". The New York Times.
7. "''Justice''".
8. Thurber, Jon. (January 5, 2009). "Pat Hingle dies at 84; veteran actor was perhaps best known for 'Batman' role". [[Los Angeles Times]].
9. Presnell, Don. (2008). "A Critical History of Television's The Twilight Zone, 1959-1964". [[McFarland & Company]].
10. Kelley, Bill. (July 5, 1988). "HINGLE NO STRANGER TO PATRIARCHAL ROLES". [[Sun-Sentinel]].
11. (January 6, 1996). "Pat Hingle: Commissioner Gordon in four of the Batman films". [[The Times]].
12. Hotz, Amy. (January 4, 2009). "Actor Pat Hingle dies at age 84". [[Star-News]].

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