George Roy Hill

George Roy Hill (born December 20, 1921, Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.—died December 27, 2002, New York, New York) was an American director of stage and screen who was perhaps best known for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) and The Sting (1973).

Early work

Hill studied music at Yale University, earning a degree (1943) before serving as a transport pilot during World War II. After the war he attended Trinity College in Dublin, where he began acting in theatrical productions. Upon returning to the United States, Hill performed Off-Broadway and joined a touring Shakespearean repertory company. He became a regular on the radio soap opera John’s Other Wife, and in 1952 he made his film debut in Walk East on Beacon!

After briefly serving as a pilot during the Korean War, Hill went to work in television. In 1953 he wrote a teleplay for Kraft Television Theatre, in which he also acted, and he later directed A Night to Remember (1956), about the sinking of the Titanic, for the show. The following year he began directing for Playhouse 90, a program that featured 90-minute live episodes. His notable productions for the show included The Helen Morgan Story (1957) and Child of Our Time (1959); he received Emmy Award nominations for the latter three episodes. In 1957 Hill returned to the theatre, directing such Broadway productions as Look Homeward, Angel, for which he received a Tony Award nomination, and Tennessee Williams’s Period of Adjustment.

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Film directing

In the early 1960s Hill turned to film directing, and his first movies were adaptations of plays and novels. Period of Adjustment (1962) was a light but pleasant romantic comedy starring Jane Fonda, Anthony Franciosa, and Jim Hutton, and Toys in the Attic (1963; based on Lillian Hellman’s drama) featured the unlikely cast of Dean Martin, Geraldine Page, and Wendy Hiller. In 1964 Hill directed The World of Henry Orient, which was adapted from a novel by Nora Johnson (who wrote the screenplay with her husband, Nunnally). The charming and original comedy centres on two teenage groupies who are obsessed with a pianist (played by Peter Sellers). It stands in dramatic contrast to the epic Hawaii (1966), which was adapted from the sprawling novel by James Michener. More than three hours long when released, the film meanders but is held together by leads Julie Andrews and Richard Harris.

In 1967 Hill reteamed with Andrews for the musical spoof Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967), which also featured Carol Channing and Mary Tyler Moore. The film was a box-office hit and received seven Academy Award nominations. Hill subsequently returned to Broadway, but his staging of Henry Orient—as the musical Henry, Sweet Henry (1967)—failed. That may have been a blessing in disguise, because Hill returned to Hollywood to make Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), a comedic western that was a major critical and commercial success. The chemistry between established star Paul Newman and relative newcomer Robert Redford was a large part of the film’s appeal, but so was William Goldman’s ironic screenplay, which won an Oscar. The movie received six other Academy Award nominations, including best picture and Hill’s first for directing.

Hill subsequently signed a long-term deal with Universal, and his first project for the studio was Slaughterhouse-Five (1972). With its time-traveling hero and bitterly ironic tone, Kurt Vonnegut’s best seller was not a book that easily translated to film, but Hill’s adaptation was largely praised—though it was a financial failure. With the help of Redford and Newman, Hill rebounded in impressive fashion with the amiable caper The Sting (1973). In addition to Hill’s winning an Oscar for directing, the film received an Academy Award for best picture. It also was a blockbuster at the box office and remains one of the highest-grossing films of all time (when adjusted for ticket price inflation).

Later work

Hill next directed Redford in The Great Waldo Pepper (1975), a drama about a barnstorming pilot in the 1920s. Despite generally positive reviews, the film received a tepid response from moviegoers. He then reunited with Newman for Slap Shot (1977), a profane but rousing profile of a lowly minor-league hockey team that starts winning after adopting a dirty style of play. Although backed by a riotous screenplay by Nancy Dowd and a fine performance by Newman, the comedy failed commercially. In the ensuing years, however, Slap Shot developed a cult following, and it is often ranked among the best sports films. Hill subsequently parted ways with Universal, and in 1979 he found modest success with the charming comedy A Little Romance, featuring Diane Lane as an American teenager in Paris whose first romance is orchestrated by a roguish thief (Laurence Olivier).

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Far more ambitious was The World According to Garp (1982), based on John Irving’s picaresque best seller. Hill managed to transpose much of the book’s black comedy into a relatively coherent story, which was helped immensely by the acting of Glenn Close and John Lithgow. Although it received generally good reviews, the film failed to find an audience. Moviegoers also avoided The Little Drummer Girl (1984), an adaptation of the complicated John le Carré novel. After directing Chevy Chase in the comedy Funny Farm (1988), Hill left Hollywood to teach drama at Yale.