Hank Patterson

Acting

Hank Patterson

Born 1888-10-09 · 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."

Acting credits

The Gunfighter poster
7.4

The fastest gun in the West tries to escape his reputation.

The Gunfighter

1950

Duel in the Sun poster
6.4

Beautiful half-breed Pearl Chavez becomes the ward of her dead father's first love and finds herself torn between her sons, one good and the other bad.

Duel in the Sun

1946

Tarantula poster
6.5

A rogue scientist near a small desert town arouses the suspicion of the town's doctor when his lab assistant is found dead from a case of acromegaly, which took only four days to develop. As the doctor investigates, aided by the scientist's new female assistant, they discover that something is devouring local cattle and humans in increasingly large quantities.

Tarantula

1955

Earth vs. the Spider poster
4.8

Teenagers from a small town and their high school science teacher join forces to battle a giant mutant spider, living in a cave nearby and getting hungry.

Earth vs. the Spider

1958

The Absent-Minded Professor poster
6.6

Bumbling professor Ned Brainard accidentally invents flying rubber, or "Flubber", an incredible material that gains energy every time it strikes a hard surface. It allows for the invention of shoes that can allow jumps of amazing heights and enables a modified Model-T to fly. Unfortunately, no one is interested in the material except for Alonzo Hawk, a corrupt businessman who wants to steal the material for himself.

The Absent-Minded Professor

1961

Three Faces West poster
5.7

Viennese surgeon Dr. Braun and his daughter Leni come to a small town in North Dakota as refugees from Hitler. When the winds of the Dust Bowl threaten the town, John Phillips leads the townsfolk in moving to greener pastures in Oregon. He falls for Leni, but she is betrothed to the man who helped her and her father escape from the Third Reich. She must decide between the two men.

Three Faces West

1940

Abilene Town poster
5.4

Marshall Dan Mitchell, who is the law in Abilene, has the job of keeping peace between two groups. For a long time, the town had been divided, with the cattlemen and cowboys having one end of town to themselves, while townspeople occupied the other end. Mitchell liked it this way, it made things easier for him, and kept problems from arising between the two factions. However…

Abilene Town

1946

Terror in a Texas Town poster
6.7

Armed with a harpoon, a Swedish whaler is out for revenge after the death of his father. A greedy oil man trying to buy up the Swede's land might be the guilty party.

Terror in a Texas Town

1958

Don Daredevil Rides Again poster
8.0

Stock-footage from Republic Pictures' earlier Zorro serials was served up once again in this 12 chapter cliffhanger, this time without the financially strapped studio having to credit Zorro creator Johnston McCulley or pay any royalties. Zorro simply became "Don Daredevil" (Ken Curtis), a foppish Easterner by day turned masked avenger by night. Like his not too distant relative, Don wore his disguise in order to battle nasty Roy Barcroft who, under a forged Spanish land grant, attempts to take over the surrounding ranch land.

Don Daredevil Rides Again

1951

Blades of the Musketeers poster
8.0

In 1625 France, D'Artagnan joins the king's musketeers, meets three new friends - Athos, Porthos and Aramis - among them and, together, the four quickly find themselves embroiled in court intrigue with Prime Minister Richelieu attempting to sabotage the congenial relationship existing between France and England. Originally produced as a 60-minute episode of THE MAGNAVOX THEATER on CBS as THE THREE MUSKETEERS. This has the distinction of being the first movie specifically made for TV. Later retitled and released theatrically.

Blades of the Musketeers

1950

No Name on the Bullet poster
6.6

When hired killer John Gant rides into Lordsburg, the town's folk become paranoid as each leading citizen has enemies capable of using the services of a professional killer for personal revenge.

No Name on the Bullet

1959

Jack Slade poster
7.0

A young boy witnesses his father murdered by bandits and grows into adulthood vowing revenge.

Jack Slade

1953

The Saga of Hemp Brown poster
6.4

Ex-army sergeant Jed Givens and his gang rob an army payroll shipment led by Lt. Hemp Brown. Givens kills a civilian woman and all the soldiers, leaving Brown alive to face a military tribunal in which he is branded a coward, stripped of all insignia and drummed out of the army. Brown sets out to track down Givens in an effort to clear his name.

The Saga of Hemp Brown

1958

The Amazing Colossal Man poster
4.6

Lt. Col. Glenn Manning is inadvertently exposed to a plutonium bomb blast and although he sustains burns over 90% of his body, he survives. Then he begins to grow, but as he grows he starts losing his mind. By the time he stops he is 50 ft tall, insane and is on the rampage.

The Amazing Colossal Man

1957

Woman They Almost Lynched poster
6.6

Led by its female mayor, a neutral town on the Arkansas-Missouri border during the Civil War attempts to stay peaceful. A newcomer looking for her brother is pulled into the town’s violence.

Woman They Almost Lynched

1953

Gunmen from Laredo poster
5.4

A framed Texas rancher escapes from prison for a showdown with a saloonkeeper.

Gunmen from Laredo

1959

The Decks Ran Red poster
6.4

A band of dishonest seamen plans a murderous mutiny aboard the S.S. Berwind.

The Decks Ran Red

1958

Desperadoes of the West poster
5.9

A group of ranchers, led by Colonel Arnold and Ward Gordon, are drilling an oil well but getting fierce opposition from an unknown gang of outlaws. Eastern promoter J.B."Dude" Dawson, is behind the gang as he is out to prevent the co-op members from striking oil before their lease expires, so he can secure the property for his company. When Ward, with the help of Arnold and his daughter Sally, arranges for a new driller to be brought in, the replacement man is killed and one of Dawson's men takes his place.

Desperadoes of the West

1950

Attack of the Puppet People poster
5.1

A deranged scientist creates a ray that can shrink people down to doll size.

Attack of the Puppet People

1958

Attack of the Puppet People poster
5.1

A deranged scientist creates a ray that can shrink people down to doll size.

Attack of the Puppet People

1958

The First Traveling Saleslady poster
5.6

At the turn of the century Rose and ex-showbiz friend Molly get involved in selling steel. When they come unstuck with corsets they embark on the even more hazardous project of selling barbed wire to highly suspicious Texas cowboys.

The First Traveling Saleslady

1956

Panhandle poster
5.8

An ex-gunfighter woos two women while avenging his brother, victim of a crooked gambler.

Panhandle

1948

Monster on the Campus poster
6.1

A college paleontology professor acquires a newly discovered specimen of a coelacanth, but while examining it, he is accidentally exposed to its blood, and finds himself periodically turning into a murderous Neanderthal man.

Monster on the Campus

1958

Julie poster
5.9

A terrified stewardess is stalked by her psychotic estranged husband.

Julie

1956