WHAT A CHARACTER: PAT HINGLE

Pat Hingle made his "acting debut" in the third grade, playing a carrot in a school play ("At that time it didn't seem like much of a way to make a living!" he recalled). Hingle attended high school in Texas and entered the University of Texas, majoring in advertising.

"After one [college] semester I went into the Navy for four years in the Pacific on a destroyer. I went back to school and every time I saw a pretty girl I'd say, "Who the hell is that?" Well, they were all headed towards the theater department so I joined the campus Curtain Club. In three years I did 35 plays and in one of those plays I finally realized that I felt more comfortable than I did anywhere and I was where God intended me to be. I always feel that way."

After serving in the Navy during WW II, he went back to the university and got involved with the drama department as a way to meet girls. 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. The apex of his stage career was "J.B." by poet Archibald Macleish, with Hingle in the title role as a 20th-century Job.

Hingle's first film role was an uncredited part as bartender Jock in "On the Waterfront" (1954). Another notable role was as the father of Warren Beatty's character in "Splendor in the Grass" (1961), directed by Elia Kazan, the director of "On the Waterfront". Hingle was widely known for portraying the father of Sally Field's title character "Norma Rae" (1979). He also played manager Colonel Tom Parker in John Carpenter's 1979 TV movie "Elvis." He played Commissioner Gordon in the 1989 film "Batman" and its three sequels. He is one of only two actors to appear in the four Batman films from 1989 to 1997; the other is Michael Gough.

Hingle lost the lead role in the film "Elmer Gantry" (1960), which could have been a turning point in his screen career, when he, trying to escape a stalled elevator in his apartment building on the West Side, fell more than 50 feet down the shaft. He fractured his skull, hip, wrist, and most of the ribs on his left side, also breaking his left leg in three places. A finger had to be amputated. Near death for two weeks, he spent a year relearning to walk. Burt Lancaster inherited the role and won an Oscar.

"I know that if I had done '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've had exactly the kind of career I hoped for."

Hingle died from myelodysplastic cancer (which he had been diagnosed with in November 2008) at the age of 84 at his house in Carolina Beach in North Carolina on January 3, 2009. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered in the Atlantic Ocean...