I remember him from an episode or two of M*A*S*H and countless other TV shows and movies. I think it was he who played Colonel Potter's pal Colonel Daniel Webster Tucker. Here's more about him (Rest In Peace, Mr. Hingle):
By Amy Hotz
Staff Writer
Actor Pat Hingle died Saturday night after a battle with blood cancer. He was 84.
The veteran of stage, television and film acting passed away at 10:45 p.m. Saturday at his home, 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 had a 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.
Lou Buttino, chair of UNCW's department of film studies, is documenting much of how that happened in a biography commissioned by the actor about a year ago.
“He was a tough guy, but his love of people was genuine,” Buttino said. “He taught me, in many ways, what it means to be a man.”
Buttino said Hingle may have seemed gruff at times, but only because if he thought he was right, he would not back down. Hingle always tried to do the right thing. The professor will remember him as the ultimate storyteller, and as someone who was very at peace in accepting his death.
“He believed that his spirit would come back, especially to his family and to help other actors,” Buttino said.
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 Julia 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.
Once here, the actor made a huge impact on the community. Friends who had no family in the area were welcomed at his Christmas dinner table with the rest of his family. Some local film workers considered themselves adopted children of Hingle’s.
Michele Seidman, who considers herself one of those “surrogate kids” said, “Pat and Julie took in a lot of strays, including me . . . Pat was gruff on the outside but he was a Teddy bear on the inside.”
Terry Theodore, a UNCW theater professor who directed Hingle in two plays, said he loved imparting his knowledge to acting students and would talk to classes even more often than was asked of him.
“He was a very affectionate man, very free with advice,” Theodore said.
During an interview this November 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.”
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Pat Hingle and Clint Eastwood in the final scene from 'Hang 'Em High' (1968)
