Steven Hill

Steven Hill
Hill in 1966
Born	Solomon Krakovsky (1922-02-24)February 24, 1922 Seattle, Washington, U.S.
Died	August 23, 2016(2016-08-23) (aged 94) Monsey, New York, U.S.
Other names	Steve Hill
Education	University of Washington
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1946–1967; 1977–2000
Spouses	Selma Stern ​ ​ (m. 1951; div. 1964)​ Rachel Schenker ​ ​ (m. 1967)​
Children	9

Steven Hill (born Solomon Krakovsky;

His film roles include The Goddess (1958), A Child Is Waiting (1963), The Slender Thread (1965), Yentl (1983), Raw Deal (1986), Running on Empty (1988), Billy Bathgate (1991), and The Firm (1993).

Early life

Hill was born Solomon Krakovsky

After graduating from Garfield High School in 1939, Hill (known at the time as Sol Krakovsky) attended the University of Washington^[9] and served four years in the United States Navy during World War II.^[10] He graduated from the University of Washington and moved first to Chicago^[7] and then to New York City to pursue an acting career.^[6]

Career

Debut

Hill made his first

Hill made his film debut in 1950 in A Lady Without Passport.^[14] He then re-enlisted in the Navy in 1952 for two years and, when he completed his service, resumed his acting in earnest.^[14] Strasberg later said, "Steven Hill is considered one of the finest actors America has ever produced."^[14] When he was starting out as an actor, Hill sought out roles that had a social purpose.^[5] "Later, I learned that show business is about entertaining," he said.^[5] "So, I've had to reconcile my idealistic feelings with reality."^[5]

TV's Golden Age

Hill was particularly busy in the so-called "Golden Age" of live TV drama, appearing in such offerings as The Trial of Sacco and Vanzetti in 1960, where he portrayed Bartolomeo Vanzetti.^[14] "When I first became an actor, there were two young actors in New York: Marlon Brando and Steven Hill," said Martin Landau,^[14] who later became Hill's castmate in the first season of Mission: Impossible. Landau went on to admit, "A lot of people said that Steven would have been the one, not Marlon. He was legendary — nuts, volatile, mad — and his work was exciting."^[14]

In 1961, Hill had an unusual experience when he was cast as Sigmund Freud on Broadway in Henry Denker's A Far Country,^[15] portraying Freud at the age of 35.^[16] For on April 12, 1961, the night of a sold-out performance for the Masters Children's Center of Dobbs Ferry, Hill was stricken with a virus^[17] which incapacitated him so severely that as a direct result, just as the curtain was about to rise, the producers decided to cancel the performance.^[17] Among the notables in the audience were Joseph P. Kennedy, Jack Benny, and Richard Rodgers.^[17] The audience was invited to exchange their ticket stubs for other performances.^[17] The understudy was not ready to replace Hill, so Alfred Ryder, the play's director, stepped into the role of Freud for one performance.^[18]

In 1961, he was cast as B.E. Langard in the episode "Act of Piracy" of the

Hill's early screen credits include The Goddess and A Child Is Waiting.[7]

Mission: Impossible

Hill was the original leader of the

After appearing in Mission: Impossible, Hill did no acting work for the following 10 years. Hill had what he calls "tremendous periods of unemployment" in his career.[5] "What we have here is a story of profound instability and impermanence," he said of his own career.^[5] "This is what you learn at the beginning in show business; then it gets planted in you forever."^[5] Hill left acting in 1967 and moved to a Jewish community in Rockland County, New York, where he worked in writing and real estate.^[22] Patrick J. White, in The Complete "Mission: Impossible" Dossier, quoted Hill as having said later, "I don't think an actor should act every single day. I don't think it's good for the so-called creative process. You must have periods when you leave the land fallow, let it revitalize itself."^[22]

Hill returned to work in the 1980s and 1990s, playing parental and authority-figure roles in such films as Yentl (1983), Garbo Talks (1984), Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs, Heartburn (1986), Running on Empty (1988), The Boost (1988), Billy Bathgate (1991), and The Firm (1993). Hill also appeared as a mob kingpin in Raw Deal (1986), an action vehicle for Arnold Schwarzenegger. Hill played New York District Attorney Bower in the 1986 comedy-drama Legal Eagles, foreshadowing his appearance as Adam Schiff in Law & Order.^[7]

Law & Order

Hill became best known, to an even greater degree than from his role in Mission: Impossible, as Adam Schiff in the NBC TV drama series Law & Order, a part that he played for 10 seasons, from 1990 to 2000. Hill's character was loosely modeled on the real former district attorney of New York City,

Hill and his first wife, Selma Stern, were married in 1951 and had four children before divorcing in 1964. Hill married his second wife, Rachel Schenker, in 1967 and they had five children. He resided in Monsey, New York for many years.^{[27][28][29][30]}

Orthodox Judaism

In a 1969 interview with The Jewish Press, Hill said: "I used to ask myself, 'Was I born just to memorize lines?' I knew there had to be more to life than that. I was searching—trying to find the answers—to find myself—and I did." Hill said that he had gone home to Seattle ten years earlier and was "feeling depressed because I seemed to be leading an aimless existence. Oh sure, I was a star with all the glamour and everything. But something was missing. My life seemed empty—meaningless."^[27]

Appearing as Sigmund Freud in the play A Far Country in 1961 had a profound effect on Hill. In one scene, a patient screams at Freud, "You are a Jew!" This caused Hill to think about his religion.^[14] "In the pause that followed I would think, 'What about this?' I slowly became aware that there was something more profound going on in the world than just plays and movies and TV shows. I was provoked to explore my religion."^[14]

Hill began to study Torah with

Letters from Hill sent in 1965 to an Orthodox Jewish friend, describing this challenging period in his life, were recently found.[32]

Death

Hill died of cancer in a New York hospital on August 23, 2016, at the age of 94.^{[27][28][29][30]}

Filmography

Film

Television

References