Arthur Hill

Melfort, Saskatchewan, Canada

Biography

​From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.   Arthur Edward Spence Hill (August 1, 1922 – October 22, 2006) was a Canadian actor best known for appearances in British and American theater, movies and television. He attended the University of British Columbia and continued his acting studies in Seattle, Washington. Born in Melfort, Saskatchewan, Hill served in the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II and attended the University of British Columbia, where he studied law but was lured to the stage. Hill made his Broadway debut as Cornelius Hackl in the 1957 revival of Thornton Wilder's The Matchmaker. In 1963 he won the Tony Award for Best Dramatic Actor for his portrayal of George in the original Broadway production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (opposite Uta Hagen). His other Broadway credits include Ben Gant in the original production of Ketti Frings's Look Homeward, Angel (1957), The Gang's All Here (1959), All the Way Home (1960), Something More! (1964), and More Stately Mansions (1967). His most recognizable film portrayal was that of Dr. Jeremy Stone in the film adaptation of Michael Crichton's The Andromeda Strain (1971). Hill's other film work included roles in Harper (1966), The Chairman (1969), Sam Peckinpah's The Killer Elite (1975) and Futureworld (1976), " A Little Romance" (1979), and he narrated the film version of Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983). Arguably, Hill's most famous acting role was that of lawyer Owen Marshall, the lead role in the 1971-1974 TV series Owen Marshall: Counselor at Law. He appeared on many other series, including CBS's The Reporter, a 1964 drama starring Harry Guardino. He appeared as a guest star in the pilot episode of Murder, She Wrote in 1984, returning to that same role in an episode in 1990. This would turn out to be his last appearance in film. He died in a Pacific Palisades, California nursing home, aged 84, after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease. Description above from the Wikipedia article Arthur Hill (actor), licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Movies

Matinee Theater is an American anthology series that aired on NBC during the Golden Age of Television, from 1955 to 1958. The series, which ran daily in the afternoon, was frequently live. It was produced by Albert McCleery, Darrell Ross, George Cahan and Frank Price with executive producer George Lowther. McCleery had previously produced the live series Cameo Theatre which introduced to television the concept of theater-in-the-round, TV plays staged with minimal sets. Jim Buckley of the Pewter Plough Playhouse recalled: When Al McCleery got back to the States, he originated a most ambitious theatrical TV series for NBC called Matinee Theater: to televise five different stage plays per week live, airing around noon in order to promote color TV to the American housewife as she labored over her ironing. Al was the producer. He hired five directors and five art directors. Richard Bennett, one of our first early presidents of the Pewter Plough Corporation, was one of the directors and I was one of the art directors and, as soon as we were through televising one play, we had lunch and then met to plan next week’s show. That was over 50 years ago, and I’m trying to think; I believe the TV art director is his own set decorator —yes, of course! It had to be, since one of McCleery’s chief claims to favor with the producers was his elimination of the setting per se and simply decorating the scene with a minimum of props. It took a bit of ingenuity.

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Matinee Theater
1955