While we were sleeping Pat Hingle died

Pat Hingle in New York in 1959. (AP File Photo)

The actor Pat Hingle died last week at the age of 84, and this blog failed to pay its respects. Then a co-worker (thanks, Don) mentioned how amazed he was by how Hingle vaulted himself way over the top as Warren Beatty's dad in "Splendor in the Grass."

My favorite thing Hingle has done -- and there are several options -- was the gangster Bobo Justus in "The Grifters." Hingle had played his share of unsavory brutes on one side of the law or the other. But there was a intimidatingly crooked wisdom that coursed through his performance. He had cast a sinister pall before he almost beat Anjelica Huston with a towel full of oranges but put out a cigar on her hand instead. That simply put him where Don likes him: over the top.

Here are some of Hingle's greatest hits.

SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS (1961)

HANG 'EM HIGH (1968)

THE GRIFTERS (1990)
(Embedded clip unavailable, but the link works.)