Oscar Profile #488: George Roy Hill

Born December 20, 1921 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, George Roy Hill was the son of George Roy and Helen Frances Hill, owners of the Minneapolis Tribune.

Young Hill had a love of flying and obtained his pilot’s license at the age of sixteen. He also loved classical music, especially Bach, and as an undergraduate at Yale University studied music under composer Paul Hindemith, graduating in 1943. While at Yale, Hill was a member of The Whiffenpoofs, America’s oldest collegiate, a cappella singing group.

During World War II, Hill served in the United States Marine Corps as a transport pilot in the South Pacific. After his discharge, he worked as a newspaper reporter in Texas, eventually finding his way to Ireland where he became an actor at Dublin’s Gaiety Theatre in the late 1940s.

On his return to the U.S., Hill studied theatre at the HB Studio in New York. He acted Off Broadway and then on Broadway in Shakespeare’s Richard II and The Taming of the Shrew, and Strindberg’s The Creditors with Bea Arthur. He married actress Louisa Horton in 1951, with whom he would have four children.

Hill made his film debut in a supporting role in 1952’s Walk East on Beacon, and appeared in various TV productions. Recalled to military service for the Korean War, he achieved the rank of Major. He used his Korean War experience as the basis for TV’s My Brother’s Keeper with himself in the cast. After directing several TV productions, Hill returned to Broadway in 1957 as director of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Look Homeward Angel. For TV, he then directed 1957’s The Helen Morgan Story and 1959’s Judgment at Nuremberg among other acclaimed productions. Back to Broadway for 1960’s Greenwillow and 1961’s Period of Adjustment, he then directed the film version of the latter.

Although Hill would only direct fourteen Hollywood films from 1962-1988, all of them were high profile including 1963’s Toys in the Attic. 1964’s The World of Henry Orient, 1966’s Hawaii, 1967’s Thoroughly Modern Millie and 1969’s Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid for which he received his first Directors Guild and Oscar nominations.

Divorced from Horton in 1971, he then directed 1972’s Slaughterhouse-Five for which he received his second Directors Guild nomination, 1973’s The Sting for which he won his Directors Guild Award and his Oscar, 1975’s The Great Waldo Pepper, 1977’s Slap Shot, 1979’s A Little Romance, 1982’s The World According to Garp, 1984’s The Little Drummer Girl and 1988’s Funny Farm.

During his later years, George Roy Hill taught drama at Yale. He died of Parkinson’s Disease on December 27, 2002. He was 81.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID (1969)

Although Hill received critical acclaim for his direction of actors such as Jane Fonda, Geraldine Page, Wendy Hiller, Peter Sellers, Angela Lansbury, Julie Andrews and Max von Sydow among others in his previous films, it was his direction of Paul Newman and Robert Redford in their first film together that brought him his first Oscar nomination. The film was nominated for seven Oscars including Best Picture and won four for Best Adapted Screenplay (William Goldman), Cinematography (Conrad Hall), Score (Burt Bacharach) and Original Song, Bacharach and Hal David’s “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head”.

THE STING (1973)

Reunited with Newman and Redford, this widely popular caper comedy brought renewed interest to the ragtime music of Scott Joplin played throughout the film. Nominated for ten Oscars, it won seven including Best Picture, Director (Hill), Original Screenplay (David S. Ward) and Scoring (Marvin Hamlisch for adapting Joplin’s music). The film also brought Redford his first and only Oscar nomination for acting. Although the film had won the National Board of Review award for Best Picture, it faced stiff competition for the Oscar form Golden Globe winner, The Exorcist which had been the predicted winner.

SLAP SHOT (1977)

Generally dismissed by critics when first released due to its cynical outlook and relentless profanity, this hilarious comedy about a failed minor league hockey team has since become a cult classic. Paul Newman’s portrayal of the foul-mouthed player-coach is one of his best performances, and he is almost matched by Strother Martin as the team’s manager and Michael Ontkean as the up and coming player based on screenwriter Nancy Dowd’s brother, Ned. Dowd, who received a Writers Guild nomination for her screenplay would go onto win an Oscar the following year for Coming Home.

A LITTLE ROMANCE (1979)

15-year-old French actor Thelonious Bernard as a French student and 15-year-old American actress Diane Lane as an American girl studying in Paris made their films debuts as the teenagers who run away to Venice in this charming comedy. Bernard would make one more film, then abandon acting to become a dentist. Lane would, of course, become one of our best actresses, later earning an Oscar nomination for 2002’s Unfaithful. Co-starring Laurence Olivier as their collaborator, Sally Kellerman as Lane’s mother and Arthur Hill as her stepfather, the film was nominated for two Oscars and won one for Georges Delarue’s score.

THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP (1982)

Hill’s film based on John Irving’s best-selling novels is one of his finest achievements. He gets a sterling performance from Robin Williams in his first dramatic role as the hapless Garp, named after the dying tail-gunner his mother raped on his deathbed from which she became pregnant with him and even greater ones from Glenn Close in her film debut as his internationally famous feminist mother and John Lithgow as a transgender ex-football player. Both Close and Lithgow were nominated for Oscars. The film, which takes place over the course of forty years, also features a strong performance from Mary Beth Hurt as Williams’ wife.