Pat Hingle

Martin Patterson "Pat" Hingle (July 19, 1924 – January 3, 2009) was an American actor. He played Commissioner James Gordon in the Tim Burton/Joel Schumacher Batman films: Batman, Batman Returns, Batman Forever, and Batman & Robin. Hingle and Michael Gough are the only two actors to appear in all 4 Batman movies. Hingle worked from 1954 through 2006.

Personal life
Hingle was born on July 19, 1924 in Miami, Florida. His parents were Marvin Louise (née Patterson), a schoolteacher and musician, and Clarence Martin Hingle, a building contractor.

Hingle enlisted in the U.S. Navy in December 1941, dropping out of the University of Texas. He served on the destroyer USS Marshall during World War II. He returned to the University of Texas after the war ended and earned a degree in radio broadcasting. He learned to act at the Actors Studio.

Hingle was married two times; first to Alyce Faye Dorsey in 1947 until they divorced in 1972. He was married to Julie Wright from 1979 until his death in 2009. Hingle had 3 children with Dorsey; Jody, Billy, and Molly. With Wright, he had two children. Hingle graduated from Weslaco High School in Weslaco, Texas in 1942.

Near death experience
In 1960, he had been offered the title role in Elmer Gantry, but Burt Lancaster filled the part because Hingle had been in a near fatal accident. He was caught in his West End Avenue apartment building in an elevator that had stalled between the second and third floors. He crawled out and sought to reach the second floor corridor but lost his balance and fell fifty-four feet down the shaft. He fractured his skull, wrist, hip, and most of the ribs on his left side. He broke his left leg in three places and lost the little finger on his left hand. He lay near death for two weeks, and his recovery required more than a year.

Death
Hingle died on January 3, 2009 in Carolina Beach, North Carolina from Myelodysplastic syndrome, he was 84 years old. Hingle was cremated and his ashes were scattered into the Atlantic Ocean.