Veteran Stage and Screen Actor Pat Hingle Dies at 84

Veteran stage and screen actor Pat Hingle died on January 3 of the blood disorder myelodysplasia at his home in Carolina Beach, NC. He was 84 and last appeared on Broadway as Benjamin Franklin in the 1997 revival of 1776.

Born in Miami on July 19, 1924, Martin Patterson Hingle was raised in Texas, dropping out of the University of Texas to serve in the navy during World War II. He returned to college after the war and discovered acting there, finishing his degree in 1949. After moving to New York in 1952, Hingle joined the Actors Studio, which led to a role in the classic film On the Waterfront.

Hingle made his Broadway debut in 1953 in End as a Man, kicking off a busy stage career in the 1950s and 1960s, including the original cast of Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof as Gooper, a Tony-nominated performance in William Inge’s The Dark at the Top of the Stairs, the title role in Archibald MacLeish's J.B. and revivals of Eugene O’Neill’s Strange Interlude and Williams’ The Glass Menagerie as the Gentleman Caller. Hingle replaced Walter Matthau as Oscar Madison in Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple and played Victor Franz in the original Broadway production of Arthur Miller’s The Price.

Well known as a character actor in films, Hingle’s credits included Splendor in the Grass, Hang 'Em High, Norma Rae, Baby Boom, The Grifters, several films in the Batman series and, most recently, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.

Hingle is survived by his wife, Julia, three children, two stepchildren, two sisters and 11 grandchildren.