Arthur Hill


Actor
Arthur Hill

About

Birth Place
Melfort, Saskatchewan, CA
Born
August 01, 1922
Died
October 22, 2006
Cause of Death
Alzheimer's Disease

Biography

A sturdy leading man of stage and TV, and key supporting player of the screen, Arthur Hill first gained wide recognition in the 1962 Broadway production of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" for which he received a Tony Award. Typically cast in professional or patrician roles, Hill has logged in numerous stage, film and TV drama appearances. He has consistently delivered thoughtful, well-...

Family & Companions

Peggy Hill
Wife
Married in the late 1940s.

Biography

A sturdy leading man of stage and TV, and key supporting player of the screen, Arthur Hill first gained wide recognition in the 1962 Broadway production of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" for which he received a Tony Award. Typically cast in professional or patrician roles, Hill has logged in numerous stage, film and TV drama appearances. He has consistently delivered thoughtful, well-modulated work that lacks the pyrotechnics that often get an actor noticed. Hill has brought reliable intelligence to his portrayals of doctors, lawyers, judges, professors, military officers, concerned fathers or corporate executives.

Hill began acting in college in his native Canada and in Seattle before moving to England in 1948 to pursue professional opportunities there. He made his London stage debut in "Home of the Brave" (1948), an at the time hard-hitting drama about a black soldier's abuse at the hands of his fellow white GIs. In quick succession, he landed other stage roles in "The Male Animal," "Man and Superman," and "The Matchmaker" as well as making his English screen debut in a small role in "Miss Pilgrim's Progress" (1950). He was brought to Broadway in 1955 to recreate his role in "The Matchmaker" and stayed on to perform in such classics of the New York stage as Thomas Wolfe's "Look Homeward, Angel" and "The Gang's All Here," with Melvin Douglas. But it was the role of the hard-drinking college professor George who confronts his shrewish wife Martha (Uta Hagen) in Edward Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" that made him a Broadway force to reckon with.

Hill made his US screen debut in the medical drama "The Young Doctors" (1961) and began essaying regular supporting roles. He played chief aide to Marlon Brando's ambassador in the partially successful Cold War drama "The Ugly American" (1963), was George C. Scott's well-meaning pal in one of the 1960s finest films, "Petulia" (1968) and starred as a medical specialist in the uneven sci-fi thriller "The Andromeda Strain" (1971). Sam Peckinpah cast him as a government official running covert operations in "The Killer Elite" (1975), and he played a theme park executive in the sequel "Futureworld" (1976) and a field medic in the uneven war drama "A Bridge Too Far" (1977).

Hill made his small screen debut in a TV remake of the hit movie "Born Yesterday" (1956) as a writer whom a wealthy junk dealer hires to educate his sassy girlfriend. He soon became a regular player on TV dramas ("The Desperate Hours" 1967, "The Other Man" 1970) and anthology series ("Great Ghost Tales" 1961, "Tales of the Unexpected" 1979). He landed his own popular courtroom series "Owen Marshall: Counselor at Law" (ABC, 1971-74) as a compassionate defense attorney practicing in a small California town, and was the publisher of a PEOPLE-style magazine on the series "Glitter" (ABC, 1984-85).

Filmography

 

Cast (Feature Film)

Agenda for Murder (1990)
Governor
Perry Mason: The Case of the Notorious Nun (1986)
Christmas Eve (1986)
Andrew Kingsley
Murder in Space (1985)
One Magic Christmas (1985)
Caleb Grainger
The Guardian (1984)
Prototype (1983)
General Keating
Intimate Agony (1983)
Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983)
Narrator
Making Love (1982)
Tomorrow's Child (1982)
Glenn Gorham
Henry Fonda, The Man And His Movie (1982)
The Amateur (1981)
Brewer
Dirty Tricks (1981)
Bert Prosser
Angel Dusted (1981)
Revenge of the Stepford Wives (1980)
Dale "Diz" Corbett
The Return of Frank Cannon (1980)
Dr Curtis Mcdonald
The Ordeal of Dr. Mudd (1980)
General Thomas Ewing
The Champ (1979)
Butch and Sundance: The Early Days (1979)
A Little Romance (1979)
The Glacier Fox (1978)
Narrator
Tell Me My Name (1977)
Porter Mcphail
A Bridge Too Far (1977)
Judge Horton and the Scottsboro Boys (1976)
Judge James Edwin Horton
Futureworld (1976)
The Killer Elite (1975)
Cap Collis
Death Be Not Proud (1975)
The Rivalry (1975)
Abraham Lincoln
Ordeal (1973)
Richard Damian
The Andromeda Strain (1971)
Dr. Jeremy Stone
The Pursuit of Happiness (1971)
John Popper
Owen Marshall: Counselor at Law (1971)
Rabbit, Run (1970)
Rev. Jack Eccles
The Chairman (1969)
Shelby
Petulia (1968)
Barney
Moment to Moment (1966)
Neil Stanton
Harper (1966)
Albert Graves
In the Cool of the Day (1963)
Sam Bonner
The Ugly American (1963)
Grainger
The Young Doctors (1961)
Tomaselli
Life with the Lyons (1956)
Slim Cassidy
The Deep Blue Sea (1955)
Jackie Jackson
Raising a Riot (1955)
American Sergeant
No Highway in the Sky (1951)
Gander flight officer
Mr. Drake's Duck (1951)
American vice consul
Miss Pilgrim's Progress (1950)
I Was a Male War Bride (1949)
Dependents' clearance officer
Madame Racketeer (1932)
Shanks
A Good Little Devil (1914)
Rab, the dog

Cast (Special)

Miss Lonelyhearts (1983)
The Desperate Hours (1967)
Dan Hilliard
Born Yesterday (1956)
Paul Verrall

Cast (TV Mini-Series)

Love Leads the Way (1984)
Mr Frank
Vanished (1971)

Life Events

1942

Spent three years with the Royal Canadian Air Force

1948

Moved to England and made professional stage debut, "Home of the Brave"

1950

English feature debut, "Miss Pilgrim's Progress"

1955

Made Broadway debut, "The Matchmaker"

1956

US TV debut in TV-movie, "Born Yesterday"

1961

US feature debut, "The Young Doctors"

1971

Debut as star of courtroom TV series, "Owen Marshall: Counselor at Law" (ABC)

1971

Debut in a TV miniseries, "Vanished"

1979

Cast as Faye Dunaway's husband in "The Champ"

1980

Regular role on short-lived crime series, "Hagen"

1984

Regular on a drama series, "Glitter"

Videos

Movie Clip

Petulia (1968) -- (Movie Clip) That's Kind Of Sickening Still in the same outfit from their absurd non-sexual encounter the night before, married title-character Julie Christie shows up with the tuba they’d only talked about, at the mod San Francisco apartment of divorcing doctor Archie (George C. Scott), who ends up calling pal Arthur Hill, in director Richard Lester’s stubbornly unorthodox Petulia, 1968.
In The Cool Of The Day (1963) -- (Movie Clip) Edge Of Something Terrible English publisher Murray (Peter Finch) arrives at the suburban New York home of colleague Sam (Arthur Hill), who reveals serious problems in his marriage, opening In The Cool Of The Day, 1963, also starring Jane Fonda and Angela Lansbury.
In The Cool Of The Day (1963) -- (Movie Clip) Never Ending Goodness English publisher Murray (Peter Finch) visiting New York has just met Christine (Jane Fonda), the young and estranged wife of his colleague Sam, (Arthur Hill), seen later at a party, in In The Cool Of The Day, 1963.
Andromeda Strain, The -- (Movie Clip) They Should Grimace Scientists Stone (Arthur Hill) and Hall (James Olson) in 1971-style haz-mat gear making their first appraisal of Piedmont, New Mexico, where a satellite crashed, in The Andromeda Strain, from Michael Crichton's novel.
Andromeda Strain, The -- (Movie Clip) Odd Man Hypothesis Scientist Stone (Arthur Hill) briefing Hall (James Olson) on the operative personnel theory, as he joins Dutton (David Wayne) and Leavitt (Kate Reid) at a facility designed for handling contaminants from space, in The Andromeda Strain, 1971, from the novel by Michael Crichton.
Young Doctors, The (1961) -- (Movie Clip) The Dead Teach The Living Senior pathologist Pearson (Fredric March, George Segal his aide) wowing the new nurses, his rival-in-waiting Coleman (Ben Gazzara) and nurse Cathy (Ina Balin) meeting outside, early in The Young Doctors, 1961.

Trailer

Family

Olin Drake Hill
Father
Edith H Hill
Mother
Douglas Hill
Son
Jennifer Hill
Daughter

Companions

Peggy Hill
Wife
Married in the late 1940s.

Bibliography