Not to be confused with early-1930s MGM director George Hill (many historians do mix up the names, even though the earlier Hill died in 1934), American director George Roy Hill started out as a musician. He studied both at Yale and Trinity College in Dublin; it was there that Hill began an acting career with Cyril Cusack's company. After World War II, Hill shifted his interest to stage directing, and after further military service in Korea, he moved into TV as both director and writer. Hill directed for various live anthologies of the 1950s, including Kraft Television Theater, The Kaiser Aluminum Hour and Studio One. He came to films relatively late, directing his first feature, Period of Adjustment, in 1962. Hill rapidly built up a reputation for being commercially reliable after such hits as The World of Henry Orient (1964) and Hawaii (1967); even relative misfires like Thoroughly Modern Millie (1966) were at least attractively assembled. All the same,…  » Read more