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Actors
Hank Patterson
"Ol'" Hank Patterson was born Elmer Calvin Patterson in Springville, Alabama on October 9, 1888. He started his career as a road show piano player in 1910, and preformed as an actor in tent shows before moving to Los Angeles in the 1920s. Eventually he broke into vaudeville, and then moved on to film and television.
He joined the cast of Gunsmoke in 1957 as Hank, the stableman, but his real fame came near the end of his life, with Green Acres. In The Hooterville Handbook, A Viewers Guide to Green Acres, by Stephen Cox (St. Martin's Press), the cast of Green Acres fondly recall amusing stories about Patterson. Eddie Albert and Phil Gordon (the dialogue coach on the show for a few seasons) recall the young, beautiful girls the kindly old gent would hire to be his chauffeur; and Gordon describes the special measures the cast and crew would take to accommodate Patterson's deafness (not least of all having Gordon lie on the floor out of camera range to poke the deaf actor with a stick, so he'd know when to say his lines!) Patterson died on August 23, 1975 in the Motion Picture Country Home, where he was recuperating from a stroke. His death was due to complications from pneumonia.
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