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Hank Patterson

Hank Patterson

Actor · 1888 – 1975 · 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."

Movies24

  • Movie6.4

    Duel in the Sun

    1946 · 198 votes

  • Movie7.4

    The Gunfighter

    1950 · 216 votes

  • Movie6.5
  • Movie6.5

    Tarantula

    1955 · 313 votes

  • Movie6.6

    No Name on the Bullet

    1959 · 91 votes

  • Movie6.6
  • Movie5.4

    Abilene Town

    1946 · 27 votes

  • Movie6.4

    The Decks Ran Red

    1958 · 15 votes

  • Movie6.7

    Terror in a Texas Town

    1958 · 48 votes

  • Movie5.6
  • Movie5.1
  • Movie5.8

    Julie

    1956 · 36 votes

  • Movie6.4

    The Saga of Hemp Brown

    1958 · 9 votes

  • Movie4.8

    Earth vs. the Spider

    1958 · 71 votes

  • Movie5.8

    Panhandle

    1948 · 16 votes

  • Movie6.3

    No Sad Songs for Me

    1950 · 8 votes

  • Movie4.0

    Beginning of the End

    1957 · 41 votes

  • Movie6.1

    Monster on the Campus

    1958 · 54 votes

  • Movie4.6

    The Amazing Colossal Man

    1957 · 50 votes

  • Movie7.0

    Robin Hood Of Texas

    1947 · 1 votes

  • Movie8.0
  • Movie5.7

    Three Faces West

    1940 · 19 votes

  • Movie5.9
  • Movie6.0

    Gunsight Ridge

    1957 · 13 votes

Series24

  • TV7.7

    Perry Mason

    1957 · 139 votes

  • TV7.5

    Bonanza

    1959 · 500 votes

  • TV6.2

    Love, American Style

    1969 · 21 votes

  • TV7.6

    The Andy Griffith Show

    1960 · 175 votes

  • TV7.1

    The Rifleman

    1958 · 54 votes

  • TV7.3

    Have Gun, Will Travel

    1957 · 44 votes

  • TV8.5

    The Twilight Zone

    1959 · 1.1K votes

  • TV6.5

    The Virginian

    1962 · 35 votes

  • TV7.0

    Daniel Boone

    1964 · 34 votes

  • TV6.2

    Cheyenne

    1955 · 26 votes

  • TV6.9

    The Beverly Hillbillies

    1962 · 139 votes

  • TV6.8
  • TV6.2
  • TV5.9

    Petticoat Junction

    1963 · 42 votes

  • TV7.2

    Rawhide

    1959 · 49 votes

  • TV6.3

    Burke's Law

    1963 · 12 votes

  • TV6.7

    Gunsmoke

    1955 · 119 votes

  • TV7.2

    Green Acres

    1965 · 80 votes

  • TV6.8

    The Lone Ranger

    1949 · 36 votes

  • TV6.2

    Highway Patrol

    1955 · 11 votes

  • TV6.4

    Bat Masterson

    1958 · 16 votes

  • TV6.7

    Sea Hunt

    1958 · 20 votes

  • TV6.0

    The Texan

    1958 · 6 votes

  • TV6.8