"Pat Hingle is an American actor.Hingle was born Martin Patterson Hingle in Denver, Colorado to Marvin Louise (née Patterson), a school teacher 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 WWII.
Hingle is traditionally known for playing judges, police officers, and other authority figures. While he is probably best known for playing Commissioner Gordon in the 1989 film Batman and its three sequels, Hingle has a long list of television and movie credits to his name, going back to 1948. Among them are Hang 'Em High (1968), Road To Redemption (2001), When You Comin' Back, Red Ryder? (1979), Stephen King's Maximum Overdrive (1986), The Grifters (1990), Citizen Cohn (1992), Muppets from Space, and Shaft (2000). Hingle took an accidental plunge down the elevator shaft of his New York apartment building, sustaining near-fatal injuries in the 54-foot fall. He lay near death for two weeks and lost the little finger of his left hand; his recovery took more than a year.In the 1997 revival of the musical 1776, Hingle played Benjamin Franklin, with Brent Spiner as John Adams. In 2002, he was a regular cast member of ABC's series The Court.Along with Michael Gough, who played Alfred Pennyworth, he is one of only two actors to appear in all of the first four Batman films."