Biography
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."
Filmography
all 100
TV Shows 51
Movies 49
The Mod Squad (1968)
The Guns of Will Sonnett (1967)
Cimarron Strip (1967)
Custer (1967)
The Loner (1965)
Laredo (1965)
Green Acres (1965)
The Legend of Jesse James (1965)
Daniel Boone (1964)
Petticoat Junction (1963)
Burke's Law (1963)
The Beverly Hillbillies (1962)
The Virginian (1962)
Straightaway (1961)
87th Precinct (1961)
The Absent-Minded Professor (1961)
Miami Undercover (1961)
Mister Ed (1961)
The Andy Griffith Show (1960)
The Westerner (1960)
The Tall Man (1960)
Gunfighters of Abilene (1960)
The Alaskans (1959)
Johnny Ringo (1959)
The Twilight Zone (1959)
Lock Up (1959)
The DuPont Show with June Allyson (1959)
Riverboat (1959)
Gunmen from Laredo (1959)
Lone Texan (1959)
Black Saddle (1959)
Rawhide (1959)
Monster on the Campus (1958)
The Decks Ran Red (1958)
Bat Masterson (1958)
Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse (1958)
The Saga of Hemp Brown (1958)
The Rifleman (1958)
The Texan (1958)
Bronco (1958)
Terror in a Texas Town (1958)
The Spider (1958)
Attack of the Puppet People (1958)
Sea Hunt (1958)
The New Adventures of Spin and Marty (1957)
The Amazing Colossal Man (1957)
Trackdown (1957)
Perry Mason (1957)
Have Gun, Will Travel (1957)
Gunsight Ridge (1957)
Beginning of the End (1957)
The Storm Rider (1957)
Julie (1956)
Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre (1956)
Strange Intruder (1956)
The First Traveling Saleslady (1956)
Tarantula (1955)
Highway Patrol (1955)
Sergeant Preston of the Yukon (1955)
The Adventures of Champion (1955)
Navy Log (1955)
Gunsmoke (1955)
The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp (1955)
Phantom Trails (1955)
Buffalo Bill Jr. (1955)
Southwest Passage (1954)
Jack Slade (1953)
City Detective (1953)
Canadian Mounties vs. Atomic Invaders (1953)
Hopalong Cassidy (1952)
California Conquest (1952)
Gang Busters (1952)
Schlitz Playhouse of Stars (1951)
The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok (1951)
Don Daredevil Rides Again (1951)
Silver City Bonanza (1951)
Blades of the Musketeers (1950)
Desperadoes of the West (1950)
The Return of Jesse James (1950)
The Gunfighter (1950)
No Sad Songs for Me (1950)
Code of the Silver Sage (1950)
The Cowboy and the Indians (1949)
The James Brothers of Missouri (1949)
The Denver Kid (1948)
Night Time in Nevada (1948)
Relentless (1948)
Oklahoma Badlands (1948)
Panhandle (1948)
Under Colorado Skies (1947)
Springtime in the Sierras (1947)
Robin Hood Of Texas (1947)
Bells of San Angelo (1947)
Duel in the Sun (1946)
Santa Fe Uprising (1946)
The El Paso Kid (1946)
Abilene Town (1946)
Three Faces West (1940)
Sabotage (1939)
The Arizona Kid (1939)
Ratings
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Information
Known ForActing
GenderMale
Birthday1888-10-09
Deathday1975-08-23 (86 years old)
Birth PlaceSpringville, United States of America
CitizenshipsUnited States of America
This article uses material from Wikipedia.
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