In Batman and Robin, Hingle is made to fall in love with Poison Ivy (Uma Thurman), who wants to get the keys to police headquarters, and who almost kills him with her toxic kiss. There were the Gary Coopers and the Clark Gables, but they didnt really appeal to me, he told the Washington Post some years ago. He could be a relatively benign character, like the harness salesman in William Inges Dark at the Top of the Stairs on Broadway, or a quite sinister one, like the sadistic gangster who stubbed out his cigar on Anjelica Hustons hand in the 1990 film The Grifters. On the other side of the law he was Police Commissioner Gordon in Batman movies, beginning in 1989. During the 1954-55 Broadway season, he played Gooper in Tennessee Williamss Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. When he appeared in The Dark at the Top of the Stairs in 1957, Richard Watts wrote in The New York Post that Mr. Hingle possesses a dynamic quality that brings everything to life., He got the title role of a morally aware businessman in the Archibald MacLeish play J.B. in 1958, and Brooks Atkinson in The New York Times said the actor gave an almost unbearably moving performance of a man of fortitude who is almost overwhelmed but never yields to the evil of his time.. Two years later, Kazan cast him in William Inges The Dark at the Top of the Stairs, which became a major Broadway hit and earned Hingle a Tony Award nomination. He missed and fell back down the elevator shaft, plunging 30 feet to the bottom. He attended the University of Texas, but dropped out during World War II to enlist in the Navy. Though not as egregious as the Daily Sport headline "Butler in Dudley Moore Film Dies", referring to the death of Sir John Gielgud, it was inevitable that headlines announcing the death of Pat Hingle, aged 84, would read "Batman's Commissioner Gordon Dies". The director can pull his hair in the back of the house and the producer and the playwright can cry on each others shoulders. He crawled out and sought to reach the second floor corridor but lost his balance and fell fifty-four feet down the shaft. However, in 1971, he was forced to temporarily leave the show for just a handful of episodes because he had to undergo heart surgery after suffering a heart attack. He served on the destroyer USS Marshall during World War II. His first film was On the Waterfront in 1954. On film, he worked with stars ranging from Clint Eastwood to the Muppets. For the whole 20 years the series was on the air from 1955 until 1975, he appeared in an impressive 605 of 635 episodes, according to IMBD . It tells of the star of a Broadway hit who went home to his apartment after the show and fell down an elevator shaft. He was near death for two weeks (and lost the little finger of his left hand); his recovery took more than a year. But there go those galloping actors., Hingles friend Morrison recalled him Sunday as a great listener., The great actors have this and he taught me this. In 1979 Hingle married Julia Wright. With his wife Alyce (whom he first met at the university), Hingle moved to New York and began to get jobs on the stage and on TV. Hingle died Saturday night of myelodysplasia, a type of blood cancer, at his home in Carolina Beach, N.C., according to Lynn Heritage, a cousin who was acting as a spokesperson for the family. On the big screen, his films include Hang Em High, Sudden Impact and The Gauntlet with Eastwood, as well as Muppets From Space. He and Michael Gough, who played Alfred Pennyworth, were the only two actors to appear in the first four Batman films. [8], On the strength of his performance in J.B., Hingle had had been offered the title role of the 1960 film Elmer Gantry, but he lost it to Burt Lancaster because of his injuries. But character actors like Walter Huston and Hume Cronyn did such a variety!" But in three weeks time, I saw Walter Huston (Anjelica Hustons grandfather) and Hume Cronyn in about 10 movies and I saw that it was possible to play a wide variety of roles where there was no connections between one or the other; they werent put in a slot . Pat Hingle, a versatile character actor of stage and screen who became accustomed to winning critical praise in a career that spanned five decades, died on Saturday at his home in Carolina Beach, N.C. The veteran of stage, television and film acting passed away at 10:45 p.m. Saturday at his Carolina Beach home,. In 1979 Hingle married Julia Wright. Hed had one semester at the University of Texas when World War II broke out. York and began to get jobs on the stage and on TV. Pat Hingle holds the worn piece of paper in his left hand, but he really needs no reminder. In 1980, he appeared in the short-lived police series Stone with Dennis Weaver. Subscribers may view the full text of this article in its original form through TimesMachine. The stage is an actors medium, he told The Times some years ago. When the war in Korea began he was recalled by the Navy, serving as a boilerman technician. His early movies included On the Waterfront (1954) and No Down Payment (1957). Mr. Hingle first attracted the attention of critics in 1953 when he appeared on Broadway in End as a Man as a genial but loutish football player caught up in murky doings at a military academy in the South. His break came in 1955 when Elia Kazan, one of the co-founders of the Actors Studio, cast him as the scheming son Gooper in the original Broadway production of Tennessee Williams Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.. He broke his left leg in three places and lost the little finger on his left hand. Hingle was still recovering when Burt Lancaster won an Oscar for his performance in the role. A freak accident‐a 5-story fall down an elevator shaft‐sidelined his shot at Gantry. He was Sally Fields father in Norma Rae and Warren Beattys in Splendor in the Grass. He played the bartender who needles Marlon Brando about his former prize-fight style in On the Waterfront, and he was the sadistic crime boss who terrorizes Anjelica Huston with a bag of oranges in The Grifters., Hingle had an illustrious Broadway career and was in the original casts of some of the great plays in American theater, including Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Dark at the Top of the Stairs and J.B.. Caught in an elevator in his West End Avenue apartment building that was stalled . Kazan then cast Hingle in the Broadway premiere of Tennessee Williams's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955-56) as Gooper, the weak-willed jealous elder brother of Brick (Gazzara). Hingle's first film appearance was in Kazan's On the Waterfront (1954) as the barman who tells Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando) to ease up on the drinking. . Accident. Pat Hingle (real name: Martin Patterson Hingle) was born in Miami, Florida, the son of a building contractor. Hed had one semester at the University of Texas when World War II broke out. James Morrison, the actor who is best known now for his role as Bill Buchanan in the television series 24, was a friend of Hingles and worked with him in a 1983 production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at L.A.'s Mark Taper Forum. [6], Hingle married Alyce Faye Dorsey on June 3, 1947. He found himself auditioning friends, and it was excruciating. He returned to the University of Texas after the war ended and earned a degree in radio broadcasting. I saw what was possible.. Send any friend a story. Only a chosen few had the body of work that he had, Morrison told The Times on Sunday. Hingle died Saturday night of myelodysplasia, a type of blood cancer, at his home in Carolina Beach, N.C., according to Lynn Heritage, a cousin who was acting as a spokesperson for the family. In 1997, Mr. Hingle portrayed Benjamin Franklin in the Broadway revival of the musical 1776. Above, Mr. Hingle as Franklin with Brent Spiner, right, as John Adams. After graduating in 1949, Hingle moved to New York and studied acting with Uta Hagen at Herbert Berghof Studios. Hingle was born on July 19, 1924 in Miami, Florida. And few people could have made more of a second lease on life. James Morrison, the actor who is best known now for his role as Bill Buchanan in the television series 24, was a friend of Hingles and worked with him in a 1983 production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at L.A.'s Mark Taper Forum. He sustained massive injuries, including a fractured skull, wrist, hip and leg, and several broken ribs. Hingle was widely known for portraying the father of Sally Field's title character Norma Rae (1979). In 1953, Hingle got his first break on Broadway in End As a Man, Calder Willingham's play depicting the dehumanisation of young men at a southern military school. [6] In 1997, he played Benjamin Franklin in the Roundabout Theatre revival of the musical 1776, with Brent Spiner and Gregg Edelman. Actor Pat Hingle died Saturday night after a battle with blood cancer. Without taking over a scene, Hingle has a way of registering his character`s presence in a movie even when his screen time is limited. He was 84. He was the most authentic man Ive ever met.. His TV credits include Twilight Zone, The Untouchables, Route 66, Gunsmoke, The Fugitive, Mission Impossible and Hallmark Hall of Fame. On television hes played J. Edgar Hoover, former House Speaker Sam Rayburn, Col. Tom Parker (Elvis Presleys manager) and, in the miniseries War and Remembrance, Adm. William F. Bull Halsey. Hingle enlisted in the U.S. Navy in December 1941, dropping out of the University of Texas. . Martin Patterson Hingle, actor, born 19 July 1924; died 3 January 2009, US character actor with a distinguished career on stage and screen, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, Pat Hingle (r) in The Ugly American with Marlon Brando Photograph: The Ronald Grant Archive. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered in the Atlantic Ocean. . (He played the same part in the 1957 film version.). Burt Lancaster replaced him in Elmer Gantry and went on to win the best actor Oscar. He came to New York in 1952, joined the Actors Studio and began to get parts both onstage and in films. This led to his first Broadway show, End as a Man. You were the most important thing when you worked opposite him. . His TV credits include Twilight Zone, The Untouchables, Route 66, Gunsmoke, The Fugitive, Mission Impossible and Hallmark Hall of Fame. On television hes played J. Edgar Hoover, former House Speaker Sam Rayburn, Col. Tom Parker (Elvis Presleys manager) and, in the miniseries War and Remembrance, Adm. William F. Bull Halsey. He wasnt a household name, but his solid, broad, hang-dog screen face became a household image. Hingle went on to appear in scores of television series, from Rawhide in 1965 to Dawson's Creek in 2001, while continuing to make an impact in films. mother supported the family by teaching school in Denver. The fans know the name that goes with the face, but that wasn`t always the case. This page was last changed on 16 December 2022, at 22:23. The couple later divorced. The apex of his stage career was "J.B." by poet Archibald Macleish, with Hingle in the title role as a 20th-century Job. The couple later divorced. Hingle said with no apparent regrets. He also played the gruff and messy Oscar in The Odd Couple on Broadway. Its a blessing and Im aware of it.. It was during the run of "J.B." that Hingle took an accidental plunge down the elevator shaft of his New York apartment building, sustaining near-fatal injuries in the 54-foot fall. Hingle played a none-too-bright cadet cajoled into Ben Gazzara's bullying schemes, and gradually becoming shocked by the excesses. PAT HINGLE ON STAGE; Appears For First Time Since His Accident Last Year, https://www.nytimes.com/1960/01/21/archives/pat-hingle-on-stage-appears-for-first-time-since-his-accident-last.html. His father, a building contractor, abandoned the family when Hingle was six, and for the next seven years he and his sister lived in more than a dozen cities, wherever their mother could find work. He did meet one in particular, Alyce Dorsey, the stage manager of his first show, whom he married while at college. After studying with Uta Hagen, Hingle joined the famed Actors Studio, run by Lee Strasberg, in 1952. Florida, the son of a building contractor. But there go those galloping actors., Hingles friend Morrison recalled him Sunday as a great listener., The great actors have this and he taught me this. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Select Page. by age 13 Hingle had lived in a dozen cities. Mr. Hingle said he preferred theater because movies are not the actors medium. . Hingle was born in Miami. He was caught in a lift in his apartment building that was stalled between the second and third floors. Pat Hingle (real name: Martin Patterson Hingle) was born in Miami, B.," was critically injured yesterday morning when he fell thirty feet down an elevator shaft. Not that he ever aspired to be a star. . [9], Another notable role was as the father of Warren Beatty's character in Splendor in the Grass (1961). The little finger of that hand is missing. Hingle was also in Arthur Millers The Price in 1968. In Hingle had a near death experience, as he was in an elevator that was trapped between the second and third floor in his apartment building. Pat sustained near fatal injuries, lost the little finger on his left hand and the role to Burt Lancaster. stage career was "J.B." by poet. 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? It was severed in the fall as abruptly as Hingle`s career was halted by agonizing months of rehabilitation and second guesses about the direction his life as an actor might have taken. . Who knows?'' When Hingle fell in 1959 (''It was 53 feet, not 30 feet like it says here,'' he noted with the rueful smile of a man who has a painful acquaintance with the difference), he seemed destined for the heights of his profession. Hingle died Saturday night of myelodysplasia, a type of blood cancer, at his home in Carolina Beach, N.C., according to Lynn Heritage, a cousin who was acting as a spokesperson for the family. Mister Hingle served in the United States Navy during both World War II and the Korean War. I had exactly the kind of career I had hoped for.". [13], 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. Pat Hingle, the veteran actor with more than half a century of impressive work in theater, film and television who was perhaps best known to a generation of movie fans as Commissioner James Gordon in the first four Batman films, has died. He entered the Navy and served as an enlisted man on a destroyer in the Pacific. She then I know that if I had done Elmer Gantry, I would have been more of a movie name. Several weeks into the plays run, Hingle became caught in a stalled elevator in his apartment building. [6] He also played manager Colonel Tom Parker in John Carpenter's TV movie Elvis (1979). In exemplary films such as ''Norma Rae'' (1979), in which he portrayed Sally Field`s father, Hingle`s presence makes a measurable contribution to the movie`s impact. Hingle was also in Arthur Millers The Price in 1968. He fractured his skull, wrist, hip, and most of the ribs on his left side. "I know that if I had played Elmer Gantry, I would have been more of a movie name," Hingle declared. It was there that he met Elia Kazan, co-founder of the Studio and the director most identified with "the method". In 1952, he became a member of the Actors Studio. You were the most important thing when you worked opposite him. Another successful Kazan production on Broadway was William Inge's The Dark at the Top of the Stairs (1957-59), with Hingle as a failed salesman. 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