George Roy Hill (December 20, 1921 – December 27, 2002) was an American director.
Hill served in the US Marine Corps during both World War II and The Korean War. Following the latter, he worked in television and in theatre before moving on to directing movies in the 1960s, beginning with an adaptation of the Tennessee Williams play Period of Adjustment. He is most famous for directing Paul Newman and Robert Redford in the hit films Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting, the latter of which won him an Academy Award for Best Director.
His last film as a director was Funny Farm, which came out in 1988. After that, he taught theatre at Yale, but Parkinson's disease slowed him down until his death at age 81 in 2002.
Films Hill directed with their own page include:
- The World of Henry Orient (1964)
- Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967)
- Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
- Slaughterhouse-Five (1972)
- The Sting (1973)
- The Great Waldo Pepper (1975)note
- Slap Shot (1977)
- The World According to Garp (1982)note
- Funny Farm (1988)
Tropes associated with Hill and his work:
- Author Appeal: Hill was a big fan of classical music, which came through with his film of The World of Henry Orient, and also of flying, which led him to develop the idea for The Great Waldo Pepper.
- The Film of the Book: Many of the movies Hill directed were based on novels – The World of Henry Orientnote , Hawaiinote , Slaughterhouse-Five, The Stingnote , The World According to Garp, The Little Drummer Girlnote , and Funny Farmnote .
- The Film of the Play: Hill's first two movies, Period of Adjustment and Toys in the Attic, were both based on plays (by Tennessee Williams and Lillian Hellman, respectively), and Thoroughly Modern Millie was based on the British musical Chrysanthemum.
- Genre Roulette: Though Hill only directed 14 films in a 26-year career, those films included a teen coming-of-age movie (The World of Henry Orient), an epic historical drama (Hawaii), a musical (Thoroughly Modern Millie), a Western (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid), a sci-fi/war movie (Slaughterhouse-Five), a con movie (The Sting), an aviation adventure movie (The Great Waldo Pepper), a sports movie (Slap Shot), and a spy movie (The Little Drummer Girl), among others.