Martin Patterson Hingle[2] (July 19, 1924 – January 3, 2009) was an American character actor who appeared in stage productions and in hundreds of television shows and feature films.

Born in Miami, Florida[2] (some sources say Denver, Colorado[citation needed] ), Hingle was the son of a building contractor father and a mother who "worked at menial jobs".

[3] During World War II, Hingle enlisted in the U.S. Navy in December 1941, dropping out of the University of Texas, and served on the destroyer USS Marshall.

[1] Hingle began acting in college, and after graduating, he moved to New York and studied at HB Studio[4] and the American Theatre Wing.

[7] On the strength of his performance in J.B., Hingle had been offered the title role of the 1960 film Elmer Gantry, but he lost it to Burt Lancaster because of his injuries.

[6] Hingle appeared in the 1963 Actors Studio production of Strange Interlude, directed by Jose Quintero, and That Championship Season (1972).

Among them were two episodes of The Fugitive (1964), Carol for Another Christmas (1964), Nevada Smith (1966), Mission: Impossible (1967), The Invaders (1967), Hang 'Em High (1968), The Gauntlet (1977), Sudden Impact (1983), Road To Redemption (2001), When You Comin' Back, Red Ryder?

(1979), Brewster's Millions (1985), Stephen King's Maximum Overdrive (1986), Baby Boom (1987), The Grifters (1990), Citizen Cohn (1992), Cheers (1993), The Land Before Time (1988), Wings (1996), and Shaft (2000).

In 1963, Hingle guest-starred in an episode of The Twilight Zone, "The Incredible World of Horace Ford", as the title character.

[12] In November 2007, he created the Pat Hingle Guest Artist Endowment to enable students to work with visiting professional actors at the University of North Carolina Wilmington .