Thomas Newton Hill, Jr. (June 2, 1927 – April 20, 2009) was an Indian-born American

character actor A character actor is a supporting actor who plays unusual, interesting, or eccentric characters.28 April 2013, The New York Acting SchoolTen Best Character Actors of All Time Retrieved 7 August 2014, "..a breed of actor who has the ability to b ...

and director on stage for decades before starting in film in the mid-1960s and on television in the 1980s.

Early life

Thomas Newton Hill, Jr. was born in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

in 1927, to

Disciples of Christ The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination in the United States and Canada. The denomination started with the Restoration Movement during the Second Great Awakening, first existing during the 19th ...

missionaries Thomas Newton Hill, Sr. and Elma Alexander Hill. Thomas, Jr. attended

Woodstock School Woodstock School is an international coeducational residential school located in Landour, a small hill station contiguous with the town of Mussoorie, Uttarakhand, India, in the foothills of the Himalayas. Woodstock is one of the oldest resid ...

until 1940, when he was 13; he and his parents moved to

Fort Wayne Fort Wayne is a city in and the county seat of Allen County, Indiana, United States. Located in northeastern Indiana, the city is west of the Ohio border and south of the Michigan border. The city's population was 263,886 as of the 2020 Censu ...

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

Career

Hill's first feature film performance was in the 1965 film ''

The Slender Thread ''The Slender Thread'' is a 1965 American drama film starring Anne Bancroft and Sidney Poitier. It was the first feature-length film directed by future Oscar-winning director, producer and actor Sydney Pollack. Poitier portrays Alan, a college ...

''. Other film credits include '' The Postman Always Rings Twice'' (1981), ''

Firefox Mozilla Firefox, or simply Firefox, is a free and open-source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. It uses the Gecko rendering engine to display web pages, which implements current and ...

'' (1982), and as the bookstore owner Mr. Coreander in ''

The NeverEnding Story ''The Neverending Story'' (german: Die unendliche Geschichte) is a fantasy novel by German writer Michael Ende, published in 1979. The first English translation, by Ralph Manheim, was published in 1983. The novel was later adapted into several f ...

'' and its sequel. One of Hill's most prominent recurring roles was as the zany sidekick Jim Dixon on the 1980s TV series ''

Newhart ''Newhart'' is an American sitcom television series that aired on CBS from October 25, 1982, to May 21, 1990, with a total of 184 half-hour episodes spanning eight seasons. The series stars Bob Newhart and Mary Frann as an author and his wife, ...

''. Hill appeared as King Baaldorf in the short-lived 1980s fantasy TV series ''

Wizards and Warriors ''Wizards & Warriors'', titled ' in Japan, is an Action game, action platform game, platform video game developed by Rare (company), Rare and published by Acclaim Entertainment and Jaleco for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was released in ...

''. His TV movie roles include Father Andrew Doyle in the 1984

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

miniseries '' V: The Final Battle''. He had guest appearances on such shows as '' St. Elsewhere'', ''

Remington Steele ''Remington Steele'' is an American television series co-created by Robert Butler and Michael Gleason. The series, starring Stephanie Zimbalist and Pierce Brosnan, was produced by MTM Enterprises and first broadcast on the NBC network from Oc ...

'', '' The Facts of Life'', '' Married... with Children'', ''

Coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Co ...

'', and ''

Law & Order ''Law & Order'' is an American police procedural and legal drama television series created by Dick Wolf and produced by Wolf Entertainment, launching the '' Law & Order'' franchise. ''Law & Order'' aired its entire run on NBC, premiering on ...

''.

Personal life

In 2003, Hill retired to

Bloomington, Indiana Bloomington is a city in and the county seat of Monroe County, Indiana, Monroe County in the central region of the U.S. state of Indiana. It is the List of municipalities in Indiana, seventh-largest city in Indiana and the fourth-largest outside ...

. He died from a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...

on April 20, 2009, at age 81.

Filmography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hill, Thomas 1927 births 2009 deaths American male stage actors American male film actors American male television actors People from Bloomington, Indiana American theatre directors 20th-century American male actors American expatriates in colonial India