Pat Hingle, Batman's Commissioner Gordon, Dies

CAROLINA BEACH, N.C. — Pat Hingle, a veteran actor whose career included a recurring role as Commissioner Gordon in several Batman movies in the 1990s, has died after battling blood cancer. He was 84.

Family friend Michele Seidman says Hingle died at his home in Carolina Beach shortly after 10 p.m. Saturday.

Seidman says he decided to settle in the coastal town after shooting the movie "Maximum Overdrive" in the area in 1986. He lived there for more than 15 years.

Family spokeswoman Lynn Heritage says Hingle was diagnosed with myelodysplasia in November 2006.

His career in movies and television spanned six decades, and he was also nominated for a Tony Award in 1958. Hingle's last movie was "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby," which was released in 2006.

Comments

[AsISaid]

Hingle's role in "Splendor in the Grass" is the most memorable in view. He was a solid actor and more than held his own.

[pinksghetti]

I looked up his biography. I really thought he was born in the south because in most of the roles I remember him in, he had a southern accent (very convincing) but he was born in Colorado. I remember he was on "The Andy Griffith Show" playing a man who came to town with another guy who thought he was the great-grandson of Wyatt Earp. I also remember him from "Splendor in the Grass" and other movies and noticed his one finger was half cut off. According to his bio that happened when he was stuck in an elevator back in 1960 and tried to crawl out. It said that he fell 54 feet and was near death for two weeks. He made an amazing recovery (in my opinion) afterward.

[Bugweed]

Pat and his family lived in Suffern, NY in the early 1970's and were friends of my parents. One of the kindest people I have ever known, Pat took me, my brother and three of our friends, all teenagers, to NYC to see a play that he was starring in. Despite being our parents age or just a bit older, Pat was more like an older brother showing you his college dorm room than a parent on a cultural mission. That was during a time in which it was not yet fashionable for parents to take young people seriously or to treat them as potential equals. Pat did. I was fortunate to know him.

[mlaiuppa]

He will be missed.

[LMPE]

A cool guy.

[WeCanFixThisMess]

What a terrible obit.
Pat Hingle originated the roles of Brother Man (Gooper) in Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, the title role in J.B. as well as roles in Dark At The Top of The Stairs and Arthur Miller's The Price on Broadway. This man was a major firgure in American theatre and to boil his life down to Commissioner Gordon in the 90's Batman films is just sad-- and bad journalism.

[JaneaneTheAcerbicGoblin]

Pat was excellent in a couple of Eastwood films, The Gauntlet and Sudden Impact.

He was memorable in a guest role as a Colonel playing a practical joke with Colonel Potter on M*A*S*H*.

Sorry he's gone.

[Steven Weber - Huffpost Blogger]

An actor's actor and a good guy. Rare breed.

[Grulg]

He was in a ton of westerns too-those old Sacketts things w/ Tom Selleck and the like. Fine fine character actor, will miss him.

[Bitsko]

Mr. Hingle was a truly wonderful and talented actor, I recommend everyone rent "The Grifters," starring Angelica Huston, John Cusack and Annette Benning, to anyone who wishes to not only see a great character actor steal a movie, but run away to the moon with it. He'll be missed by this film goer.

[Forester]

I always remember Pat Hingle as Warren Beatty's overbearing father in "Splendor in the Grass" when he tells him to try a different girlfriend than Natalie Wood:

"She's just as pretty! Just as pretty!"

He was a character actor I always noted, and yes, he seemed never to age.

[JenniferEccles]

Yes!!

Is the American memory so short that it cannot recall a brilliant performance from the 50s and so we get the Batman reference? He was INCREDIBLE in Splendor.

[GolfingDevil05]

I loved him in the M*A*S*H episode he was in as Col. Potter's April Fool's friend.

[3fingerbrown]

Hingle was one of those lifelong character actors who looks 40 when he's 20, and 50 when he's 70. A more versatile actor than his Hollywood typecasting suggests. Saw him on stage twice: Decades ago in Miller's "The Price" (with another ageless character man, Fritz Weaver) and more recently as Ben Franklin in "1776"--an intimate family drama and a big Broadway musical, separated by 30 or so years, and he made both nights memorable. What a pro.

[Pastprologue]

Some actors come across as family members.

Morgan Freeman as an uncle and Hingle as a grandfather.

[mograph]

Just to ward off any more comments casting Mr. Hingle in the Batman TV series, he wasn't in it. Check Batman (1966) on IMDB.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060153/

[ettajo]

No, he wasn't in the 1960s television series, but he was in the Batman movies of the 1990s, with Michael Keaton.

He was also a terrific actor in Clint Eastwood's "Hang 'em High."