Elmer Calvin "Hank" 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 - stableman Hank Miller on Gunsmoke and farmer Fred Ziffel on both Petticoat Junction and Green Acres.
Early life Patterson was born in Springville, Alabama, one of seven childrenGreen D. Patterson family, United States Census of 1910, Taylor, Texas. FamilySearch. Retrieved May 9, 2017. of Green Davis Patterson, an insurance agent,Green D. Patterson family, United States Census of 1900, Taylor, Texas. FamilySearch. Retrieved May 9, 2017. and Mary Isabell "Mollie" Newton Patterson."Elmor C Paterson", United States Census of 1900. Taylor, Texas. FamilySearch. Retrieved May 10, 2017. By the 1890s, his family had moved to Taylor, Texas, where he spent most of his boyhood and attended school through eighth grade. In 1917, he was registered for World War I in Lubbock County, Texas."Elmer Calvin Patterson" United States Draft Registration cards, Lubbock County, Texas, 1917-1918. FamilySearch. Retrieved May 10, 2017.
Patterson had intended to be a serious pianist, but instead became a vaudeville piano player. By the end of the 1920s, he moved to California. He entered the movie business as an actor during the 1930s. His earliest identified screen work was an uncredited appearance in the Roy Rogers' Western film The Arizona Kid (1939).Eder, Bruce. "Hank Patterson" biographical profile. AllMovie. Retrieved May 10, 2017.
Movies and TV Patterson found plenty of movie work, mainly playing cantankerous types and blacksmiths, hotel clerks, farmers, shopkeepers, and other townsmen, usually bit roles and character parts in Republic Pictures Westerns, and then in television Westerns such as The Cisco Kid, The Adventures of Kit Carson, The Lone Ranger, and Annie Oakley. He also had small cameo appearances in a number of sci-fi movies by Bert I. Gordon: Beginning of the End, The Amazing Colossal Man, Attack of the Puppet People, and Earth vs. The Spider.
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 1973,Character reference to Hank Patterson, ". . . and the Other Hard Living Citizen's (sic) of Dodge", gunsmoke.net. Retrieved May 10, 2017.Siler, Bob (2011). "Homes of the Western Stars – The Gunsmoke Tour". Charles Starrett – One Fan's Journey (stevesomething.wordpress.com.), November 17, 2011. Retrieved May 10, 2017. on Have Gun-Will Travel (11 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 (sometimes in a recurring role as former Confederate soldier Soda Smith), The Restless Gun, and many others. In 1959, Patterson appeared as a sodbuster in an uncredited role on Lawman ("The Young Toughs").
He made additional TV appearances, including in 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, Love, American Style, and Highway Patrol.
Green Acres In 1963, Patterson first appeared in what became a recurring role as farmer Fred Ziffel on the 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. On Green Acres, 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 in prime time.
The association of Patterson's character with Arnold, the pet pig that Fred and his wife Doris treated as a son, ensured Patterson a place in television history. Arnold attended school and 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."
Personal life Hank Patterson was married to Daisy Marguerite (Sheeler) Patterson, a Kentucky native four years younger than Hank whose parents were both of German ancestry. They are listed together in the U.S. Census for both 1930 and 1940 as residing in Los Angeles. In the 1940 census, Hank's occupation is listed as "Actor, Motion Picture Studio & Stage."
Patterson's great-grandfather, James Pearson, was an original settler of St. Clair County, Alabama, as was his mother's great-grandfather, Thomas Newton. His great-grandfather, Henry S. Patterson, moved to Blount County, Alabama, around 1857 from Murray County, Georgia. Between 1894 and 1897, the family left Alabama to live in Texas.
Hank Patterson died at age 86 on August 23, 1975 of bronchial pneumonia. He is buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood. Daisy died, also at age 86, on February 2, 1979.
Patterson's great-niece is actress Téa Leoni.Leoni Online: The Articles - Elle Magazine
Selected filmography
The Arizona Kid (1939) - Townsman (uncredited) Sabotage (1939) - Minor Role (uncredited) The Covered Trailer (1939) - Townsman (uncredited) Three Faces West (1940) - Pool Player (uncredited) Abilene Town (1946) - Doug Neil The Scarlet Horseman (1946) - Sen. Masters (uncredited) I Ring Doorbells (1946) - Mr. Bradley The El Paso Kid (1946) - Jeff Winters Conquest of Cheyenne (1946) - Rancher (uncredited) Wild Beauty (1946) - Ed (uncredited) Santa Fe Uprising (1946) - Deputy Jake Gallant Bess (1946) - Ranch Hand (uncredited) Bells of San Angelo (1947) - Deaf Bus Passenger Robin Hood of Texas (1947) - Taxicab Driver (uncredited) Springtime in the Sierras (1947) - Old-Timer Under Colorado Skies (1947) - Slim The Tender Years (1948) - Zeke (uncredited) Relentless (1948) - Bob Pliny (uncredited) Oklahoma Badlands (1948) - Postmaster Fred Panhandle (1948) - Old Timer (uncredited) Night Time in Nevada (1948) - Dancing Tramp The Denver Kid (1948) - Sergeant Cooper The Plunderers (1948) - Stage Manager (uncredited) Belle Starr's Daughter (1948) - Townsman (uncredited) Red Canyon (1949) - Osborne (uncredited) Outcasts of the Trail (1949) - Hank Barris - Station Agent (uncredited) The James Brothers of Missouri (1949, Serial) - Duffy [Ch. 4] / Duffy The Cowboy and the Indians (1949) - Tom - Ranch Foreman Tell It to the Judge (1949) - Sleigh Driver (uncredited) Riders in the Sky (1949) - Luke - Stagecoach Driver Perfect Strangers (1950) - Witness in Montage (uncredited) Code of the Silver Sage (1950) - Sgt. Woods No Sad Songs for Me (1950) - Night Construction Workman (uncredited) Please Believe Me (1950) - Sam Smith (uncredited) The Gunfighter (1950) - Jake (uncredited) Desperadoes of the West (1950, Serial) - Hardrock Haggerty [Ch. 4, 5] The Return of Jesse James (1950) - Clay County Marshal Al Jennings of Oklahoma (1951) - Jeff (uncredited) Silver City Bonanza (1951) - Postman Don Daredevil Rides Again (1951, Serial) - Buck Bender Indian Uprising (1952) - Jake Wilson (uncredited) Rose of Cimarron (1952) - Hunter on Trail (uncredited) California Conquest (1952) - Sam Lawrence (uncredited) Woman They Almost Lynched (1953) - Townsman (uncredited) Canadian Mounties vs. Atomic Invaders (1953, Serial) - Jed Larson [Ch.2-5] Jack Slade (1953) - Old Tom (uncredited) Ride Clear of Diablo (1954) - Wagon Driver (uncredited) Southwest Passage (1954) - Barstow (uncredited) Many Rivers to Cross (1955) - Second Innkeeper (uncredited) Murder Is My Beat (1955) - Medical Examiner (uncredited) Tarantula! (1955) - Josh Last of the Desperados (1955) - Hank - Wagon Driver (uncredited) The Great Locomotive Chase (1956) - Turner - Friendly Jailer (uncredited) The Lone Ranger (1956) - Old Man Kimberley (uncredited) The First Traveling Saleslady (1956) - First Cowhand in Courtroom (uncredited) Strange Intruder (1956) - Knife Sharpener (uncredited) Julie (1956) - Ellis The Storm Rider (1957) - Tom Milstead Beginning of the End (1957) - Dave God Is My Partner (1957) - John Biddle (uncredited) Man of a Thousand Faces (1957) - Scotty, Stage Door Man (uncredited) Gunsight Ridge (1957) - George Clark (uncredited) The Amazing Colossal Man (1957) - Henry Escape from Red Rock (1957) - Sheriff Grover Day of the Badman (1958) - George Foley (uncredited) Attack of the Puppet People (1958) - Janitor The Restless Gun (1958) - as Jonah in Episode "A Pressing Engagement" The Restless Gun (1958) - as Milt in Episode "Sheriff Billy" Tombstone Territory (1058) - Episode "Desert Survival" Terror in a Texas Town (1958) - Brady (uncredited) Earth vs. the Spider (1958) - Hugo the Janitor The Saga of Hemp Brown (1958) - Gil Henry (uncredited) The Decks Ran Red (1958) - Mr. Moody Monster on the Campus (1958) - Townsend - Night Watchman (uncredited) Tales of Wells Fargo (1959 episode Lola Montez) - Larson No Name on the Bullet (1959) - Ed - Chess Player (uncredited) Lone Texan (1959) - Jack Stone (uncredited) Gunmen from Laredo (1959) - Stableman (uncredited) Gunfighters of Abilene (1960) - Andy Ferris (uncredited) The Absent-Minded Professor (1961) - Fisherman Spectator (uncredited) Tammy Tell Me True (1961) - Rural Character (uncredited) Straightaway (1961 episode "The Tin Caesar") – Parker The Virginian (1964 episode "Smile of a Dragon") - Old Man A Covenant with Death (1967) - Old Man (uncredited)
Selected television appearances YearTitleRole Notes 1953 Death Valley Days Sandy Edwards Season 1, Episode 12, "Swamper Ike" 1954 Death Valley Days Dobie Season 2, Episode 14, "Husband Pro-Tem" 1956 Highway Patrol Frank Handley Season 1, Episode 33, "Dead Patrolman" 1958 Bat Masterson Prospector / Warren T. "Soda" Smith Season 1, Episode 12, "Trail Pirate" 1960 "Have Gun, Will Travel" (American TV Series) Rafe Adams Season 3 Episode 23 "The Lady on the Wall" 1961 Rawhide Simpson Season 3, Episode 30, "Incident of the Wager on Payday" 1962 My Three Sons Quinby Lewis Season 2, Episode 35, "Hippopotamus' Foot" 1963-1966 Petticoat Junction Fred Ziffel 11 episodes 1964 Twilight Zone Old Man Season 5, Episode 34, "Come Wander With Me" 1965-1971 Green Acres Fred Ziffel 84 episodes
References
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