Pat Hingle, the veteran actor whose television and film career spanned over six decades playing judges, police officers, authority figures and other impressive work in theater, probably best known to a generation of movie fans as Commissioner James Gordon in the first four "Batman" films, died on Saturday night at age 84 at his home in Carolina Beach after a battle with blood cancer.
A University of Texas graduate, Hingle appeared in over 20-Broadway productions, playing Gooper in the original 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof' production in 1955 when Elia Kazan, one of the co-founders of the Actors Studio, cast him for the role.
Two years later, Kazan cast him in William Inge's "The Dark at the Top of the Stairs," which became a major Broadway hit and earned Hingle a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Play. A year later, he received a role as the title character in "J.B.," and won both a Tony and a Pulitzer Prize in 1958. Hingle was also in Arthur Miller's "The Price" in 1968. He played as well in 'Strange Interlude,' 'The Price,' 'The Odd Couple', 'That Championship Season' and the Roundabout Theatre Company's 1997 revival of the musical '1776,' in which he played the role of Benjamin Franklin.
On film, he worked with stars ranging from Clint Eastwood to the Muppets. He played Sally Field's father in "Norma Rae" and Warren Beatty's in "Splendor in the Grass." He was the bartender who needles Marlon Brando in "On the Waterfront," and he was the sadistic crime boss who terrorizes Anjelica Huston with a bag of oranges in "The Grifters."
On the big screen, his films include "Hang 'Em High," "Sudden Impact" and "The Gauntlet" with Eastwood, as well as "Muppets From Space." Pat Hingle and Michael Gough were the only two actors to appear in the first four "Batman" films.
Born Martin Patterson Hingle in Miami on the 19th of July, 1924, he entered the Navy and served as an enlisted man on a destroyer in the Pacific after World War II broke out.
In 1960, he almost lost his life as he tried to climb out of a lift trapped between floors and fell 54 feet down the shaft. He fractured his skull, wrist, hip and most of the ribs on his left side, broke his left leg in three places and lost the little finger on his left hand. He was critically ill for two weeks and took more than a year to recover.
His first marriage, to Alyce F. Dorsey, ended with a divorce. He left behind a 29 years marriage to Julie, 3 children of his own and another 2 stepchildren, 11 grandchildren and 2 sisters.
