Pat Hingle

Pat Hingle started out as a schoolteacher, musician and a building contractor. Hingle enlisted in the U.S Navy in December 1941. He served on the destroyer USS Marshall during World War II. He returned to the University of Texas after the war and earned a degree in radio broadcasting.

In 1960, he had been offered the title role in Elmer Gantry, but could not do it due to a near fatal accident. He was caught in an elevator in his West End Avenue apartment building that had stalled between the second and third floors, he crawled out, trying to reach the second floor, lost his balance and fell 54 feet down the shaft, fracturing his skull, wrist, hip and most of the ribs on his left side, breaking his left leg in three places and losing the little finger on his left hand. He lay near death for two weeks and his recovery took more than a year.

Hingle was best known for playing judges, police officers. One of his most notable roles was the father in Splendor in the Grass (1961). While he was best known in more recent times for playing Commissioner Gordon in the film Batman(1989) and its three sequels, Hingle had a long list of television and movie credits to his name, going back to 1948. Among them are Hang 'Em High (1968), Sudden Impact (1983), Road To Redemption (2001), When You Comin' Back, Red Ryder? (1979), Brewster's Millions(1985), Maximum Overdrive (1986, The Grifters (1990), Citizen Cohn (1992), The Land Before Time (1988), Wings (1996), and Shaft(2000). Hingle played as Dr. Chapman in the TV series Gunsmoke(1971), and he played as Col. Tucker in the movie Gunsmoke: To the Last Man (1992). Hingle originated the role of Gooper in the original Broadway production of Tennessee Williams Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. He also starred as Victor Franz in the premiere production of The Price by Arthur Miller. In the 1997 revival of the musical 1776, Hingle played Benjamin Franklin, with Brent Spiner as John Adams. In 2002, he was a regular cast member of ABC's series The Court. He also played Horace in 1995's The Quick and the Dead. He also had a role on an episode of the 60's TV show The Fugitive. He also played the head cop in San Palo in the fourth Dirty Harry installment, Sudden Impact. In 2006, he appeared in Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, as the original owner of Dennit Racing. Info From: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Pat Hingle talks about is carrer and his life.
My favorite Pat Hingle movies:
The Gauntlet (1977)
Hang 'Em High (1968)
Nevada Smith (1966)
Norma Rae (1979)
Splendor in the Grass (1961)
Sudden Impact (1983)