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 adultfamily TV westerns including the role of Hank Miller in 33 episodes of Gunsmoke from 1962 through 1972 on Have GunWill 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 Burkes Law The Untouchables Judd for the Defense My Three Sons and in later years The Mod Squad and Love American StyleHighway 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 Pattersons Fred Ziffel character It was on the popular irreverent Green Acres that Patterson earned his greatest fame In 1965 and 1966two of the years in which the two series ran concurrentlyPatterson frequently appeared in both shows in the same week on primetime The association of Pattersons 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 costar Eddie Albert According to westernclippingscom 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 outofshot tapping Hanks leg with a yardstick as a cue to speak his line