1888-10-09 ( 136 years old ) in Springville, Alabama, USA
Hank Patterson (born Elmer Calvin Patterson; October 9, 1888 – August 23, 1975) was an American actor and musician. He is known foremost for playing two recurring characters on three television series: the stableman Hank Miller on Gunsmoke and farmer Fred Ziffel on both Petticoat Junction and Green Acres.
Patterson found plenty of movie work, mainly playing cantankerous types as well as blacksmiths, hotel clerks, farmers, shopkeepers and other townsmen, usually bit roles and character parts in Republic Pictures westerns, and then in popular juvenile TV westerns such as The Cisco Kid, The Adventures of Kit Carson, The Lone Ranger, and Annie Oakley.
Patterson played recurring or different roles in adult/family TV westerns, including the role of "Hank Miller" in 33 episodes of Gunsmoke from 1962 through 1972, on Have Gun-Will Travel (eleven episodes), Death Valley Days (nine episodes), Tales of Wells Fargo (seven episodes), Maverick (four episodes), Cheyenne (four episodes), Wagon Train (three episodes), Daniel Boone (three episodes), The Virginian (two episodes), The Rifleman, Bonanza, and in episodes of Lawman, Bat Masterson, The Restless Gun, and many others.
He made additional TV appearances, including three episodes of The Twilight Zone as well as Perry Mason, Burke's Law, The Untouchables, Judd for the Defense, My Three Sons, and in later years The Mod Squad and Love, American Style.Highway Patrol.
In 1963 Patterson first appeared in what would become a recurring role as farmer Fred Ziffel on the popular CBS rural comedy Petticoat Junction. In 1965 CBS debuted another rural comedy, Green Acres. Both series were set in the mythical farming community of Hooterville, with characters from Petticoat Junction often also appearing in Green Acres, including Patterson's Fred Ziffel character. It was on the popular, irreverent Green Acres that Patterson earned his greatest fame. In 1965 and 1966—two of the years in which the two series ran concurrently—Patterson frequently appeared in both shows in the same week on primetime.
The association of Patterson's character with the popular character Arnold, the pet pig whom Fred and his wife Doris treated as a son, ensured Patterson a place in TV history. Arnold attended school, watched TV and was a talented artist, piano player, and actor. He even "talked" (snorted, grunted and squealed) in a language that everyone in Hooterville seemed to understand except Oliver Wendell Douglas (Green Acres co-star Eddie Albert).
According to westernclippings.com "Characters and Heavies" by Boyd Magers, "Ironically, by the time Patterson was doing 'Green Acres' he was in his late 70s and almost completely deaf, but the producers loved his portrayal so much they worked around his hearing impairment by having the dialogue coach lying on the floor out-of-shot tapping Hank's leg with a yardstick as a cue to speak his line."
Movies
The Absent-Minded Professor
1961-03-16
Gunfighters of Abilene
1960-01-01
Lone Texan
1959-03-01
Gunmen from Laredo
1959-03-01
Monster on the Campus
1958-12-17
The Decks Ran Red
1958-10-10
The Saga of Hemp Brown
1958-10-01
Terror in a Texas Town
1958-09-01
The Spider
1958-09-01
Attack of the Puppet People
1958-04-01
Attack of the Puppet People
1958-04-01
The Amazing Colossal Man
1957-10-25
Gunsight Ridge
1957-09-01
Beginning of the End
1957-06-28
The Storm Rider
1957-03-01
Julie
1956-10-17
Strange Intruder
1956-09-02
The First Traveling Saleslady
1956-08-01
Tarantula
1955-12-14
Phantom Trails
1955-05-08
Southwest Passage
1954-04-01
Jack Slade
1953-11-08
Canadian Mounties vs. Atomic Invaders
1953-07-08
California Conquest
1952-07-04
Don Daredevil Rides Again
1951-04-10
Silver City Bonanza
1951-03-01
Blades of the Musketeers
1950-11-24
Desperadoes of the West
1950-08-02
The Return of Jesse James
1950-08-01
The Gunfighter
1950-06-23
No Sad Songs for Me
1950-04-27
Code of the Silver Sage
1950-03-25
The Cowboy and the Indians
1949-09-15
The James Brothers of Missouri
1949-08-31
The Denver Kid
1948-09-30
Night Time in Nevada
1948-09-05
Relentless
1948-06-15
Panhandle
1948-02-22
Oklahoma Badlands
1948-02-22
Under Colorado Skies
1947-12-15
Springtime in the Sierras
1947-07-15
Robin Hood Of Texas
1947-07-15
Robin Hood Of Texas
1947-07-15
Bells of San Angelo
1947-04-15
Duel in the Sun
1946-12-31
Santa Fe Uprising
1946-11-15
The El Paso Kid
1946-05-22
Abilene Town
1946-01-11
Three Faces West
1940-07-03
Sabotage
1939-10-13
The Arizona Kid
1939-09-28
Powered by Powerxsoft Ltd using the TMDB API