A director who had a great deal of commercial success but was accorded a commensurate degree of critical acceptance only late in his career. Though he was often regarded as a director of action films, it is perhaps more accurate to call Hill a director of comedies. In 1969 he popularized what became known as the buddy film when he directed PAUL NEWMAN and ROBERT REDFORD in the hit comedy/western Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. He is also noted for being the director who brought back old-fashioned story structure to the movies after the sometimes ramshackle efforts of more avant-garde directors during the 1960s.
Born in 1922 to a family with a background in journalism and business, Hill grew up with a passion for airplanes. That passion eventually led to his serving as a pilot during World War II and as an instructor during the Korean War, emerging from the military with the rank of captain. His interest in aviation eventually led to the making of one of his more personal film projects, The Great Waldo Pepper (1975), a nostalgic movie about stunt pilots who barnstormed around the country during his youth.
Hill's original career direction took him to Yale University, where he studied music, and later to Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, where he took up acting. He made his first professional stage appearance in a bit part in G. B. Shaw's The Devil's Disciple at Dublin's Gaiety Theater in 1948.
Hooked on the stage, Hill continued his acting career in the United States, working in a radio soap opera, becoming a member of a Shakespearean repertory company and, later, acting on television. In the early 1950s, Hill also began to write and direct for television, soon winning both a writing and directing Emmy for A Night to Remember in 1954. His success in television led to directing efforts on Broadway, where he made a decidedly strong impression with Look Homeward, Angel in 1957. The play won both the New York Drama Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize. He continued directing many plays for the stage during the late 1950s and early 1960s, most notably Period of Adjustment in 1960. Hill made his directorial debut in films with the cinematic version of that same play in 1962 - to generally good reviews.
His movie career during the 1960s was marked by great peaks and valleys. As was often to be the case, his best films of the decade were comedies, including The World of Henry Orient (1964), Throughly Modern Millie (1967), and his first big blockbuster, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969). The less-successful films were the dramas Toys in the Attic (1963) and Hawaii (1966), a commercial and critical flop. In an interesting footnote, Hill was temporarily fired from Hawaii while the movie was in production, but the large Polynesian cast refused to work for anyone but Hill and he was quickly reinstated.
The 1970s were Hill's golden period. With the clout that came from directing Butch Cassidy, he was able to make what many considered an "unmakeable" movie, Kurt Vonnegut's surrealistic Slaughterhouse Five (1972). This dark comedy was well received by most critics, and it found a loyal, enthusiastic audience among young people. He followed that with the most popular movie of his career, The Sting (1974). Once again pairing Newman and Redford, this slick comedy caper film brought Hill a Best Director Oscar while also winning the Best Picture ACADEMY AWARD. At the time, it was also the fourth–biggest-grossing movie in Hollywood history, just behind The Godfather (1972), The Sound of Music (1965), and GONE WITH THE WIND (1939).
Hill continued to create seriocomic hits, although of a more modest variety. Slap Shot (1977) was a controversial comedy because it dealt with the violence and blood lust inherent in the game of hockey. Critics didn't know quite what to make of it, but the film has become more highly regarded in recent years. There was no controversy, however, about A Little Romance (1979), a lovely film that has enjoyed modest success. The director's next movie, The World According to Garp (1982), received a mixed reaction both from reviewers and audiences.
Then came Hill's straight dramatic effort, The Little Drummer Girl (1984), which was dismissed by the critics and spurned by audiences. In more recent years, however, Hill went back to what he did best - comedy - fashioning the highly regarded CHEVY CHASE vehicle Funny Farm (1988), a movie that featured Hill's particular talent for combining commercial viability with comically pungent observations on human behavior.
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