In Remembrance: Arthur Hill

     Arthur Hill, the veteran stage actor who appeared in The Andromeda Strain and A Bridge Too Far, has passed away on October 22, 2006 in Pacific Palisades, CA. He was 84.

     Born on August 1, 1922 in Melfort, Saskatchewan, Canada, Hill served in the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II. After the war he attended the University of British Columbia, supporting himself performing radio dramas at the Canadian Broadcasting Company. He moved to England in 1948 where he worked on stage and in television and radio productions.

     Although he had a small, uncredited role in the 1949 Howard Hawks comedy I Was A Male War Bride, Hill made his credited film debut in supporting roles in two films for British director Val Guest- The Body Said No! and Miss Pilgrim’s Progress (both 1950). Hill continued to appear in supporting roles in several British films in between appearances on the London stage. Hill put his film career on hold when he moved to New York to appear in a 1955 production of The Matchmaker.

     Hill returned to the screen in the 1961 melodrama The Young Doctors. Hill completed both The Ugly American with Marlon Brando and In The Cool Of The Day (both 1963) with Peter Finch and Jane Fonda before heading back to Broadway to star in playwright Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?, for which he would win a Tony award for his portrayal of abused husband George.

     In 1968 Hill relocated to Los Angeles, working steadily in television and film. His more notable film appearances were in the drama The Chairman (1969) with Gregory Peck, the science-fiction thrillers The Andromeda Strain (1971) and Futureworld (1976) and the war film A Bridge Too Far (1967).

     Hill’s biggest success away from the stage would be in the title role in the television legal drama Owen Marshall: Counselor At Law which ran for three years in the early 1970s. He continued to work in television, guesting on several series and making supporting appearances in films including The Champ (1979), The Amateur (1981) and Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983). His final screen appearance was an uncredited cameo in the 1986 Blake Edwards comedy A Fine Mess.