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Dig A Hole: Pat Hingle

January 5th, 2009 by Scott Marks

Clint Eastwood and Pat Hingle in “Hang ‘em High.”

Pat Hingle, a prolific character actor who had almost 200 film and television roles to his credit, has died after battling blood cancer. A family friend says Hingle was diagnosed with myelodysplasia in November 2006. He died at his home in Carolina Beach shortly after 10 p.m. Saturday. He was 84.

Martin Patterson Hingle was born in Denver, Colorado on July 19, 1924. He never knew his father who divorced his mother when Hingle was still an infant. His mother supported the family by teaching school and by age 13, Hingle had lived in a dozen cities. Hingle made his stage debut playing a carrot in a third grade school play. He later recalled, “At that time it didn’t seem like much of a way to make a living!”

Hingle, an advertising major, dropped out of the University of Texas in December of 1941 to enlist in the navy. During WWII, he served on the destroyer the USS Marshall. After the war he returned to the University where he became involved with the drama department in order to meet women. It worked. Hingle met and married Alyce Dorsey in 1947 and the couple moved to New York where Pat pursued stage and television work.

Hingle’s breakthrough came in Archibald Macleish’s J.B. where, according to IMDB, he played the title role of a 20th-century Job. He was nominated for a Tony Award in 1958 as best supporting or featured actor (dramatic) for The Dark at the Top of the Stairs. In 1960, Hingle was forced to turn down the plum part of Bible-thumping evangelist Elmer Gantry, a role that eventually won Burt Lancaster a best actor Oscar. The elevator in Hingle’s apartment building stalled between the second and third floors. While attempting to free himself, Hingle lost his footing and tumbled 54 feet down the shaft. He fractured his skull, wrist, hip and most of the ribs on his left side, broke his left leg in three places and lost the little finger on his left hand. For two weeks, doctors were unsure whether Hingle would survive and it took almost a year before he fully recovered.

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Golden Globe nominations announced

December 11th, 2008 by Scott Marks

The nominations for the 66th Annual Golden Globes Awards were announced today at the Beverly Hilton. Once again, memory challenged voters appear to have forgotten just about every film released prior to November.

Seeing that Marty is locked away with Thelma editing all winter there was no definitive Christmas picture from Him. There was only one delight and it’s a whopper: a nomination for the Love Theme from Gran Torino.

My screener wasn’t close captioned, so it took a lot of volume and backward scanning for me to dutifully  transcribe the lyrics for you, my faithful readers. Sit back, close your eyes and imagine a brilliant director  and actor (who fashions himself a musician) playing a virulent racist as he softly warbles a love song about his car:

So tenderly your story is,
Nothing more than what you see or what you’ve done, or will become,
Standing strong, do you belong in your skin, just wondering.
Gentle now the tender breeze blows,
Whispers through my Gran Torino,
Whistlin’ another tied song.
Engines hum and better dreams grow,
Heart locked in the Gran Torino,
It beats a lovely rhythm all night long,
It beats a lovely rhythm all night long.

Here are the rest of the nominees in the Motion Picture Category:

BEST MOTION PICTURE, DRAMA
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
“Frost/Nixon”
“The Reader”
“Revolutionary Road”
“Slumdog Millionaire”

BEST MOTION PICTURE, COMEDY
“Burn After Reading”
“Happy-Go-Lucky”
“En Bruges”
“Mamma Mia!”
“Vicky Cristina Barcelona”

ACTOR, DRAMA
Leonardo DiCaprio, “Revolutionary Road”
Frank Langella, “Frost/Nixon”
Sean Penn, “Milk”
Brad Pitt, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
Mickey Rourke, “The Wrestler”

ACTRESS, DRAMA
Anne Hathaway, “Rachel Getting Married”
Angelina Jolie, “Changeling”
Meryl Streep, “Doubt”
Kristin Scott Thomas, “I’ve Loved You So Long”
Kate Winslet, “Revolutionary Road”

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