Hank Patterson
| Hank Patterson | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Elmer Calvin Patterson October 9, 1888 Springville, Alabama, US |
| Died | August 23, 1975 (aged 86) Woodland Hills, California, US |
| Resting place | Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills) |
| Occupation | Actor/Musician |
| Years active | 1939–1975 |
Hank Patterson (born Elmer Calvin Patterson; October 9, 1888 – August 23, 1975) was an American actor and musician. He is most known for playing stableman Hank Miller on Gunsmoke and Fred Ziffel on Petticoat Junction and Green Acres.
Patterson was born in Springville, Alabama, one of seven children of Green Davis Patterson, an insurance agent, and Mary Isabell "Mollie" Newton Patterson. By the 1890s his family had moved to Taylor, Texas, where he spent most of his boyhood, and attended school through 8th grade. In 1917 he registered for a World War I draft card in Lubbock County, Texas.
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 The Arizona Kid (1939).
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 including The Cisco Kid, The Adventures of Kit Carson, The Lone Ranger and Annie Oakley.
Patterson had a recurring role of stableman Hank Miller on Gunsmoke from 1962-73 in 33 episodes.
He played recurring or different roles in adult/family TV westerns including 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 and Bonanza and in episodes of Lawman, Bat Masterson and many others.
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