Steven Hill (born Solomon Krakovsky; February 24, 1922 – August 23, 2016) was an American actor. He is best known for his television roles as district attorney Adam Schiff on the NBC television drama series Law & Order (1990–2000) and Dan Briggs on the CBS action television series Mission: Impossible (1966–1967). For the former, he received two nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series.
His film roles include The Goddess (1958), A Child Is Waiting (1963), The Slender Thread (1965), Yentl (1983), Legal Eagles (1986), Raw Deal (1986), Running on Empty (1988), Billy Bathgate (1991), and The Firm (1993).
Early life
Hill was born Solomon Krakovsky () in Seattle, Washington, to Yiddish-speaking Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire, Hillel Krakovsky (born Chrakovsky; 1888–1975) and Lena Rosen (1898–1999). His father, who owned a furniture store, emigrated from Dmytrivka, Ukraine. Known as Sol, he decided to become an actor at age six when he played the lead in The Pied Piper of Hamelin.
After graduating from Garfield High School in 1939, Hill attended the University of Washington and served four years in the United States Navy during World War II. He graduated from the University of Washington and moved first to Chicago "The director, Joshua Logan, thought I had some ability, and he let me create one of the scenes," said Hill.
Actors Studio member
In 1947, Hill joined Brando, Montgomery Clift, and Julie Harris, among others, as one of the 50 applicants (out of about 700 interviewed) to be accepted by the newly created Actors Studio.
Early screen work
Hill made his film debut in 1950 in A Lady Without Passport. Strasberg later said, "Steven Hill is considered one of the finest actors America has ever produced." portraying Freud at the age of 35. 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 The understudy was not ready to replace Hill, so Alfred Ryder, the play's director, stepped into the role of Freud for one performance.
In 1961, he was cast as B.E. Langard in the episode "Act of Piracy" of the ABC series, Adventures in Paradise, which starred Gardner McKay. He appeared in the original Robert Stack ABC/Desilu crime drama, The Untouchables episode "Jack 'Legs' Diamond," giving a compelling, cold, evil performance as the eponymous character, and a similar sinister role as a bedridden (following an accident), ruthlessly manipulative millionaire in "The White Knight," a 1966 black-and-white, third-season episode of The Fugitive, which starred David Janssen.
Hill's early screen credits include The Goddess (1958), A Child Is Waiting (1963),
Hill was briefly suspended from the show near the end of the season, during the production of episode 23, titled "Action!" In it, for the only time, Barbara Bain's character Cinnamon Carter obtained the mission details through the taped instructions, even though Landau's character, Rollin Hand, then actually led the team. The suspension was imposed after he refused to climb the rafters via a sound stage staircase, as was called for in the script. This incident was ostensibly unrelated to any religious observances of Hill's. Consequently, Hill was written out of that episode and when he returned to Mission: Impossible for the five remaining episodes of the season, his role was severely reduced. Hill was not asked to return for season two, and was replaced as the show's star by Peter Graves.
Hiatus and return to acting
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.
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 (1986), 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. and Morgenthau reportedly was a fan of the character. Hill admitted that he found the character of Adam Schiff his most difficult role because of all the legal jargon he had to learn.
Personal life
Family
Hill and his first wife, Selma Stern, were married in 1951 and had four children before divorcing in 1964. In 1967 Hill married his second wife, Rachel Schenker, and they had five children. He resided in Monsey, New York for many years.
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."
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. and started adhering to Orthodox Judaism. He observed a kosher diet, prayed three times a day, wore a tallit katan (four-cornered fringed garment) beneath his clothes, and strictly observed Shabbat.
Death
Hill died of cancer in a New York hospital on August 23, 2016, at the age of 94.
|-
| 1980
| It's My Turn
| Dr. Jacob Gunzinger
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1981
| Eyewitness
| Lieutenant Jacobs
|
|-
| Rich and Famous
| Jules Levi
|
|-
| 1983
| Yentl
| Reb Alter Vishkower
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1984
| Teachers
| Sloan
|
|-
| Garbo Talks
| Walter Rolfe
|
|-
| rowspan="5" | 1986
| On Valentine's Day
| George Tyler
|
|-
| Raw Deal
| Martin 'The Hammer' Lamanski
|
|-
| Legal Eagles
| Bower
|
|-
| Heartburn
| Rachel's Father
|
|-
| Brighton Beach Memoirs
| Mr. Stroheim
|
|-
| 1987
| Courtship
| George Tyler
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1988
| Running on Empty
| Mr. Patterson
|
|-
| The Boost
| Max Sherman
|
|-
| 1990
| White Palace
| Sol Horowitz
|
|-
| 1991
| Billy Bathgate
| Otto Berman
|
|-
| 1993
| The Firm
| US Attorney F. Denton Voyles
|
|-
|}
Television
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Year
! Title
! Role
! class="unsortable" | Notes
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1949
| Suspense
| Guest Star
| Episode: "The Serpent Ring" (S 2:Ep 7)
|-
| Actors Studio
| Guest Star
| 4 episodes
|-
| 1950
| Suspense
| Dolph Romano
|
|-
| rowspan="3" | 1952
| Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
| Guest Star
| Episode: "The Man that I Marry" (S 1:Ep 16)
|-
| Danger
| Guest Star
| Episode: "The Hero" (S 2:Ep 28)
|-
| Lux Video Theatre
| Hank
| Episode: "A Legacy For Love" (S 3:Ep 7)
|-
| 1953
| The Philco Television Playhouse
| Guest Star
| Episode: "The Long Way Home" (S 5:Ep 17)
|-
| rowspan="4" | 1954
| rowspan="2" |Goodyear Television Playhouse
| Mr. Frank
| Episode: "The Inward Eye" (S 3:Ep 11)
|-
| Guest Star
| Episode: "The Arena" (S 3:Ep 21)
|-
| rowspan="2" |The Philco Television Playhouse
| George
| Episode: "Middle of the Night" (S 7:p 1)
|-
| Horace Mann Borden
| Episode: "Man on the Mountain" (S 7:Ep 3)
|-
| 1956
| Playwrights '56
| Walter Uhlan
| Episode: "Lost" (S 1:Ep 9)
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1957
| Studio One
| 'Slim' Breedlove
| Episode: "The Traveling Lady" (S 9:Ep 28)
|-
| Alfred Hitchcock Presents
| Joe Kedzie
| Season 3 Episode 7: "Enough Rope for Two"
|-
| 1958
| DuPont Show of the Month
| Guest Star
| Episode:"The Bridge of San Luis Rey" (S 1:Ep 5)
|-
| 1959
| rowspan="2" | Playhouse 90
| Agustin
| Episodes:
|-
| rowspan="3" | 1960
| Dr. Edward Gutera
| Episode: "Journey to the Day" (S 4:Ep 14)
|-
| Sacco-Vanzetti Story
| Bartolomeo Vanzetti
| Presented on NBC Sunday Showcase (1960)<br/> Nominated for Primetime Emmy Awards as "program of the year"
|-
| The Untouchables
| Jack "Legs" Diamond
| Episode: "Jack "Legs" Diamond" (S 2:Ep 2)
|-
| 1961
| Adventures in Paradise
| B.E. Langard
| Episode: "Act of Piracy" (S 2:Ep 18)
|-
| rowspan="4" | 1962
| Route 66
| Frank Madera
| Episode: "A City of Wheels" (S 2:Ep 17)
|-
| The Untouchables
| Joseph December Jr.
| Episode: "Downfall" (S 3:Ep 22)
|-
| The Eleventh Hour
| Guest Star
| Episode: "There Are Dragons in This Forest" (S 1:Ep 2)
|-
| Ben Casey
| Ollie
| Episode: "Legacy From A Stranger" (S 2:Ep 4)
|-
| 1962
| Dr. Kildare
| Dr. Chandra Ramid
| Episode: "The Cobweb Chain" (S 2:Ep 8)
|-
| rowspan="4" | 1963
| Ben Casey
| Dr. Keith Bernard
| Episode: "I'll Be Alright In The Morning" (S 2:Ep 14)
|-
| Naked City
| Stanley
| Episode: "Barefoot on a Bed of Coals" (S 4:Ep 34)
|-
| Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre
| Ruben Fare
| Episode: "Something About Lee Wiley" (S 1:Ep 2)
|-
| Espionage
| Andrew Evans
| Episode: "The Incurable One" (S 1:Ep 3)
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1964
| The Greatest Show on Earth
| Guest Star
| Episode: "Corsicans Don't Cry" (S 1:Ep 16)
|-
| rowspan="2" | The Alfred Hitchcock Hour
| Charlie Osgood
| Season 2 Episode 28: "Who Needs an Enemy?"
|-
| rowspan="3" | 1965
| Robert Manners
| Season 3 Episode 15: "Thanatos Palace Hotel"
|-
| Kraft Suspense Theatre
| Guest Star
| Episode: "The Safe House" (S 2:Ep 26)
|-
| Rawhide
| Marty Brown
| Episode: "The Gray Rock Hotel" (S 7:Ep 30)
|-
| 1966
| The Fugitive
| Glenn Madison
| Episode: "The White Knight" (S 3:Ep 26)
|-
| 1966–1967
| Mission: Impossible
| Dan Briggs
| Main cast (season 1), 27 episodes
|-
| 1977
| The Andros Targets
| Ed Conway
| Episode: "In the Event of My Death" (S 1:Ep 3)
|-
| 1978
| King
| Stanley Levison
| TV miniseries
|-
| 1984–85
| One Life to Live
| Aristotle Descamedes
| Recurring
|-
| 1986
| Between Two Women
| Teddy Petherton
| TV movie
|-
| 1988
| Thirtysomething
| Leo Steadman
| Episode: "Business as Usual" (S 1:Ep 15)
|-
| 1989
| Columbo
| Mr. Marosco
| Episode: "Murder, Smoke and Shadows" (S 8:Ep 2)
|-
| 1990–2000
| Law & Order
| rowspan=2| Adam Schiff
| Main cast (seasons 1–10); final appearance
|-
| 2000
| Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
| Episode: "Entitled" (S1:Ep 15)
|-
| 2003
| E's 101: Most Shocking Moments in Entertainment
| Himself
| Interview
|-
|}