Actor Pat Hingle Dies At 84

Dr. Chris Evil · 26 Jul 2006

One of the great character actors of movies and TV. He's one of those actors who you might not recognize by name, but if you saw him in something, you'd recognize him immediately and know that you'd seen him in a gazillion different things.

Very sad news.

http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/2 ... at_age_84#

Actor Pat Hingle dies at age 84

By Amy Hotz
Staff Writer

Published: Sunday, January 4, 2009 at 11:54 a.m.
Last Modified: Sunday, January 4, 2009 at 2:04 p.m.

Actor Pat Hingle, the veteran of stage, television and film acting passed away at 10:45 p.m. Saturday, according to family spokesperson Lynn Heritage. He suffered from myelodysplasia, with which he was diagnosed in November 2006.

He was survived by his wife, Julia, two sisters, five children and 11 grandchildren.

Born Martin Patterson Hingle in Miami on July 19, 1924, Hingle’s long career took him around the country until he settled in the Wilmington area in 1986 after filming the big-screen thriller "Maximum Overdrive." More recently, while living in Carolina Beach, Hingle continued to work in commercial productions including "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby," which filmed in Charlotte, as well as local independent productions including "The List" and "Undoing Time." He also appeared on Wilmington stages in plays such as "Tuesdays With Morrie" and "Our Town."

When most people think of Hingle, any number of iconic images emerge. He is known as much for his role as a cantankerous judge opposite Clint Eastwood in "Hang 'em High" (1968) as he is for the role as Sally Field’s father in "Norma Rae" (1979). Younger generations know him better as Commissioner Gordon from the late ’80s and early ’90s Batman movies.

While working in the area, Hingle enjoyed encouraging and mentoring young actors. This was evident in his informal conversations as well as philanthropic endeavors. 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 arrived at the endowment announcement in a wheelchair and with an oxygen tube in his nose. Yet he took time to give a speech in honor of the event. He emphasized how fortunate he felt to have lived the life he had. He was not born into an acting family, yet somehow he’d found what made him happy.

“I’ve always known there was a divine hand at my shoulder,” he said.

UNCW film studies professor Lou Buttino is documenting much how that happened in a biography commissioned by the actor.

FINDING THEATER
When Hingle was 6 years old, his father left, leaving his mother to travel from job to job taking her son and daughter in tow. Although Hingle’s first taste of acting was as a carrot in a third-grade play, he did not immediately pursue the career as an adult. He entered the University of Texas on a tuba scholarship to major in advertising. World War II soon broke out, though, and within one semester Hingle joined the Navy, serving aboard the USS Marshall. He also served in the Naval reserves during the Korean War.

After World War II, he returned to college and graduated in 1949 with a degree in radio broadcasting. But it was during this second stint in college that Hingle became involved in school productions as a way to meet girls. And he did. While in college, he married his first wife, Alyce Dorsey, with whom he would have three children.

Soon, acting became his passion. And by the time he left college, he had 35 productions under his belt. After college, Hingle and his wife moved to New York, where he studied at the American theater wing. His first performances off-Broadway were for Ilse Stanley’s theater in Long Island around 1950. In 1952, he became a member of the Actors Studio, which led to his first Broadway show, "End as a Man."

Hingle would go on to appear in four Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway shows – "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" (1955), "JB" (1958), "Strange Interlude" (1963) and "That Championship Season" (1973).

It was his 1958 role in “Dark at the Top of the Stairs,” though, that led to a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Play.

A SECOND CHANCE
According to an Aug. 10, 1997 article in The New York Times, while performing in Broadway’s "JB" in 1959, Hingle was offered the title role in the film, "Elmer Gantry." But six weeks after the play opened, Hingle had a nearly fatal accident.

Caught in an elevator in his West End Avenue apartment building that was stalled between the second and third floors, he tried to crawl out, lost his balance and fell 54 feet down the shaft. He fractured his skull, wrist, hip and most of his ribs on his left side, broke his left leg in three places and lost the little finger on his left hand.

Burt Lancaster got the job on "Elmer Gantry" and went on to win a best actor Oscar for the role. Hingle, however, took the twist of fate in stride. In the Times article he said, “I know that if I had played Elmer Gantry, I would have been more of a movie name. But I’m sure I would not have done as many plays as I’ve done. I had exactly the kind of career I had hoped for. And I never, never forget that I’m the recipient of the blessing that is life. It was given to me to try again.”

By the late '70s, Hingle and his first wife were divorced, and while filming "When You Comin’ Back, Red Ryder?" in El Paso, Texas, he met and fell in love with a bank teller who cashed the crew’s checks.

On Oct. 25, 1979, Hingle married Julie Wright. The couple moved from state to state following Hingle’s film and television projects. In 1985, a Stephen King feature called "Maximum Overdrive" brought them to Wilmington and its blossoming film industry. Hingle played a truck stop diner manager who was one of several people held hostage by demon-possessed machinery.

While here, the couple stayed in a condo at Carolina Beach.

Several years later, when Hingle decided to retire, he and his wife considered moving to various states they had visited through his work. The Wilmington area’s beaches, strong theater community and temperate climate won out, and they built their dream home at Carolina Beach.

During an interview this October about his acceptance into the Wilmington Walk of Fame, Hingle spoke candidly about his sickness, his past and his life in Carolina Beach.

“I really do believe there was a divine hand that headed me here,” he said. “I am happy that I think it’s going to end here.”

Zaki Hasan · 11 Jun 2006

A pity the Burton-Schumacher BATMAN flicks never gave his version of Commissioner Gordon a chance to shine.

RIP.

RobertSwanderson · 01 Jan 2007

They really didn't. Some poorly directed scenes in that first movie.

I watched him on Twilight Zone a while back, going back in time to his childhood. Good episode, good acting.

Frank L. Sisko · 25 Dec 2006

I still think he was miscast as Gordon, but the guy just took over the stage in that HBO live BUS STOP remake (with Tim Matheson and Margot Kidder), and completely stole the movie in his brief scenes of THE GRIFTERS.

I love a good character actor. Hingle was a great one.

Pope Krysak · 11 Dec 2006

Frank L. Sisko wrote:

completely stole the movie in his brief scenes of THE GRIFTERS.

Definitely. Good actor in a wide range of roles.

Zaki Hasan · 11 Jun 2006

Frank L. Sisko wrote:

I still think he was miscast as Gordon

I agree.

RobertSwanderson · 01 Jan 2007

Frank L. Sisko wrote:

...and completely stole the movie in his brief scenes of THE GRIFTERS.

Scary, creepy scene that stayed in your mind for days.

Kevin · 08 Aug 2004

Yeah, he was a brilliant character actor. Perhaps my favorite appearance of his was his guest-starring role as an obnoxious colonel in an April Fool's episode of M*A*S*H*.

Darth Brooks · 28 Aug 2004

I once had a check signed by him, for cleaning his father in law's carpets.

He was a very good, stable character actor.

Frank L. Sisko · 25 Dec 2006

RobertSwanderson wrote:

Frank L. Sisko wrote:

...and completely stole the movie in his brief scenes of THE GRIFTERS.

Scary, creepy scene that stayed in your mind for days.

"Tell me about the oranges, Lily."

Darin · 14 Aug 2004

RobertSwanderson wrote:

I watched him on Twilight Zone a while back, going back in time to his childhood. Good episode, good acting.

Which episode was that?

RobertSwanderson · 01 Jan 2007

Darin wrote:

RobertSwanderson wrote:

I watched him on Twilight Zone a while back, going back in time to his childhood. Good episode, good acting.

Which episode was that?

i'd never seen it before. He's a toymaker who gets in trouble because he loves toys too much. Henpecked by his wife and mother in law. He keeps finding himself back on his neighborhood street with his childhood friends.

Frank L. Sisko · 25 Dec 2006

It was "The Incredible World of Horace Ford", aired 4/18/63.

Quote:

Horace Ford is a toy designer who keeps remembering his childhood. His revelries negatively affects his work and his family life. His workmates and family are burdened by the constant stories of his idyllic childhood. One evening he returns to his old neighborhood and realizes he has somehow returned to his old neighborhood as it was when he was a kid and was looking at himself as a child and his childhood friends.

Initially his experiences are positive -- children playing innocently and impulsively. When he returns to the present he is increasingly unhappy. On his 38th birthday he returns again and is assaulted by his old companions he remembered fondly. Horace realizes that his childhood was not the happy and warm time he remembered. He returns to his own time period with new found appreciation for his current self.

Rob Steinbrenner · **Joined:** 05 Jun 2006 **Posts:** 49778

Commissioner Gordon to me

Actor Pat Hingle Dies At 84

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