- Born
- Died
- Birth nameArthur Edward Spence Hill
- Height6′ 3″ (1.91 m)
- Canadian-born actor Arthur Hill was raised in the Saskatchewan town of Melfort. The son of a lawyer, he served with the Royal Canadian Air Force during WWII before receiving his college education at the University of British Columbia. Intending on following in his father's footsteps in the field of law, he supported himself in school with a job doing radio theatre with the Canadian Broadcasting Co.
Continuing to pursue his interest in acting for a time in Seattle, he married fellow actress Peggy Hassard and subsequently made a major move in 1948, at age 26, to England where he slowly built up a fine, steadfast theatre reputation for himself along with occasional radio, film and TV roles. Making his London stage debut with "Home of the Brave" in 1948, he achieved major attention playing Cornelius Hackl in the Thornton Wilder classic "The Matchmaker", a role he took successfully to Broadway. Other important work on stage included "Man and Superman" (1951) and "Look Homeward Angel (1957).
In 1962, he, Uta Hagen, George Grizzard and Melinda Dillon bowled over Broadway audiences as the vitriolic foursome in Edward Albee's 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' Hill won both the Tony and New York Drama Critics awards for his role as George, the browbeaten academician and husband of Hagen's emasculating Martha (played by theatre legend Uta Hagen, who also won a Tony Award for her performance), who manages to turn the tables on her in front of two young guests invited for an ill-fated nightcap .
This led to stable work in Hollywood films in the 1960s with stalwart support roles in The Ugly American (1963), Harper (1966), Rabbit, Run (1970) and The Andromeda Strain (1971). This, in turn, led to an abundance of television work in the 1970s where Hill found a comfortable white-collar niche as mild-mannered, gray-haired professionals and an occasional shady villain. He earned star status with his own series Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law (1971), and in such quality mini-movies as Death Be Not Proud (1975) and Judge Horton and the Scottsboro Boys (1976), among others.
He retired in the 1990s and later was suffered from Alzheimer's disease, which claimed his life at an assisted-living facility in Pacific Palisades, California. At the time of his death on October 23, 2006, he was survived by his second wife, Anne-Sophie Taraba, and his son, Douglas. (Hill's first wife, Peggy, had died in 1998, also of complications from Alzheimer's disease.)- IMDb Mini Biography By: Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net
- SpousesAnne-Sophie Taraba(2001 - October 22, 2006) (his death)Peggy Hassard(September 1942 - February 14, 1998) (her death, 2 children)
- Won Broadway's 1963 Tony Award as Best Actor (Dramatic) for "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?".
- Hill's pre-law studies at the University of British Columbia were interrupted when he was drafted into the Royal Canadian Air Force, where he was a mechanic. After World War II he returned to the university, earned his bachelor's degree and began taking courses for a law degree.
- Won a Tony Award for his performance in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. His Broadway career included roles in the Pulitzer Prize-winning dramas "All the Way Home" and "Look Homeward, Angel.".
- Member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Actors Branch).
- Despite some physical resemblance, he is not related to actor Steven Hill.
- That script was the size of a telephone book, but I knew I had to be part of it. Later, when I learned the script would not be cut and that there would no out-of- town tryouts, I fought to get out of it. Fortunately, I didn't." AH, referring to his 1962 Broadway smash in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
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