Hank Patterson

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."

Known For: Acting

Born: Springville, Alabama, USA, 1888-10-09

Died: 1975-08-23

No.	Year	Title	Role	Vote Average
1	1939	The Arizona Kid	Townsman	58
2	1939	Sabotage	(uncredited)	70
3	1940	Three Faces West	Pool Player	54
4	1946	Abilene Town	Doug Neil	53
5	1946	The El Paso Kid	Jeff Winters	0
6	1946	Santa Fe Uprising	Deputy Jake	0
7	1946	Duel in the Sun	Man (uncredited)	63
8	1947	Bells of San Angelo	Deaf bus passenger	41
9	1947	Springtime in the Sierras	Old-Timer	42
10	1947	Robin Hood Of Texas	Guest	0
11	1947	Robin Hood Of Texas	Taxi Driver	0
12	1947	Under Colorado Skies	Slim	0
13	1948	Panhandle	Old Timer (uncredited)	58
14	1948	Oklahoma Badlands	Postmaster Fred	30
15	1948	Relentless	Bob Pliny (uncredited)	62
16	1948	Night Time in Nevada	Tramp	62
17	1948	The Denver Kid	Sergeant Cooper	70
18	1949	The James Brothers of Missouri	Duffy [Ch. 4] / Duffy [11]	60
19	1949	The Cowboy and the Indians	Ranch hand Tom	68
20	1950	Code of the Silver Sage	Sergeant Woods	60
21	1950	No Sad Songs for Me	Night Construction Workman (uncredited)	62
22	1950	The Gunfighter	Jake (uncredited)	73
23	1950	The Return of Jesse James	Clay County Marshal	50
24	1950	Desperadoes of the West	Hardrock Haggerty	38
25	1950	Blades of the Musketeers	The Old Fisherman	0
26	1951	Silver City Bonanza	Postman	0
27	1951	Don Daredevil Rides Again	Buck Bender	60
28	1952	California Conquest		46
29	1953	Canadian Mounties vs. Atomic Invaders	Jed Larson	60
30	1953	Jack Slade	Old Tom	64
31	1954	Southwest Passage	Barstow	54
32	1955	Phantom Trails	Jess Morgan	0
33	1955	Tarantula	Josh	65
34	1956	The First Traveling Saleslady	Courtroom Spectator	54
35	1956	Strange Intruder	Knife Grinder	56
36	1956	Julie	Ellis	57
37	1957	The Storm Rider	Milstead	0
38	1957	Beginning of the End	Dave	38
39	1957	Gunsight Ridge	George Clark (uncredited)	60
40	1957	The Amazing Colossal Man	Henry	44
41	1958	Attack of the Puppet People	Night Manager	50
42	1958	Attack of the Puppet People	Theater Janitor	50
43	1958	Terror in a Texas Town	Brady	67
44	1958	Earth vs. the Spider	Hugo	47
45	1958	The Saga of Hemp Brown	Gil Henry	57
46	1958	The Decks Ran Red	Moody	64
47	1958	Monster on the Campus	Townsend - Night Watchman	61
48	1959	Lone Texan	Jack Stone (uncredited)	50
49	1959	Gunmen from Laredo		47
50	1960	Gunfighters of Abilene	Andy Ferris	50
51	1961	The Absent-Minded Professor	Fisherman Spectator (uncredited)	65
52		Because I Love Him		0

No.	Year	Title	Role	Vote Average
1	1951	The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok		45
2	1951	Schlitz Playhouse of Stars		73
3	1952	Gang Busters		0
4	1952	Hopalong Cassidy		52
5	1952	The Abbott and Costello Show	The Tramp	71
6	1953	City Detective		70
7	1955	Buffalo Bill Jr.		50
8	1955	The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp		68
9	1955	Gunsmoke	Jake	66
10	1955	Gunsmoke	Carl	66
11	1955	Gunsmoke	Judge	66
12	1955	Gunsmoke	Crowbait	66
13	1955	Gunsmoke	Carl Miller	66
14	1955	Gunsmoke	Hank Miller	66
15	1955	Gunsmoke	Cowboy	66
16	1955	Gunsmoke	Hank	66
17	1955	Gunsmoke	Hank Miller (uncredited)	66
18	1955	Gunsmoke	Livery Man	66
19	1955	Navy Log		45
20	1955	Sergeant Preston of the Yukon		57
21	1955	Highway Patrol		58
22	1956	Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre	Slim Baker	55
23	1956	Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre	Jonas Mulvey	55
24	1957	Have Gun, Will Travel		74
25	1957	Perry Mason	Jack Gilly	77
26	1957	Trackdown		64
27	1957	The New Adventures of Spin and Marty	Pete Duggan	60
28	1958	Sea Hunt		66
29	1958	Bronco		52
30	1958	The Texan		55
31	1958	The Rifleman		70
32	1958	Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse		58
33	1958	Bat Masterson	Prospector	61
34	1958	Bat Masterson	Soda Smith	61
35	1958	Bat Masterson	Warren T. 'Soda' Smith	61
36	1959	Rawhide	Simpson	72
37	1959	Black Saddle	Harvey Morgan	60
38	1959	Riverboat	Rare	62
39	1959	Riverboat	Johnny Mullins (uncredited)	62
40	1959	The DuPont Show with June Allyson	Mr. Phillips	63
41	1959	Lock-Up		62
42	1959	The Twilight Zone	Old Man	84
43	1959	Johnny Ringo	Old Man	57
44	1959	The Twilight Zone	Freitag	84
45	1959	The Twilight Zone	Mr. Gentry	84
46	1959	The Alaskans		55
47	1960	The Tall Man		63
48	1960	The Westerner	Sample	68
49	1960	The Andy Griffith Show	Hobo	76
50	1961	Mister Ed		68
51	1961	Miami Undercover		60
52	1961	87th Precinct		75
53	1961	Straightaway		0
54	1962	The Virginian	Old Man	65
55	1962	The Beverly Hillbillies		69
56	1963	Burke's Law	Lukey Slade	60
57	1963	Petticoat Junction	Fred Ziffell	58
58	1964	Daniel Boone	Jed Harper (uncredited)	69
59	1964	Daniel Boone	Gray	69
60	1964	Daniel Boone	Fiddler	69
61	1965	The Legend of Jesse James	Porter	48
62	1965	Green Acres	Fred Ziffel	73
63	1965	Laredo		63
64	1965	The Loner	The Bartender	57
65	1967	Custer		60
66	1967	Cimarron Strip		50
67	1967	The Guns of Will Sonnett		62
68	1968	The Mod Squad		63
69	1969	Love, American Style	Farmer	61

Hank Patterson

Film

Television