Background and career
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).
Hill was born Solomon Krakovsky (Yiddish: שלמה קראַקאָווסקי) 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. He had a brother, Charles, and two sisters, Ruth and Jo Ann. 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 and then to New York City to pursue an acting career.
Hill made his first Broadway stage appearance in Ben Hecht's A Flag Is Born in 1946, which also featured a young Marlon Brando. Hill said that his big break came when he landed a small part in the hit Broadway show Mister Roberts. "The director, Joshua Logan, thought I had some ability, and he let me create one of the scenes," said Hill. "So, I improvised a dialog, and it went in the show. That was my first endorsement. It gave me tremendous encouragement to stay in the business." Hill said this was a thrilling time in his life when, fresh out of the Navy, he played the hapless sailor Stefanowski. "You could almost smell it from the very first reading that took place; this is going to be an overwhelming hit," said Hill. "We all felt it and experienced it and were convinced of it, and we were riding the crest of a wave from the very first day of rehearsals."
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.
Hill made his film debut in 1950 in A Lady Without Passport. He then re-enlisted in the Navy in 1952 for two years and, when he completed his service, resumed his acting in earnest. Strasberg later said, "Steven Hill is considered one of the finest actors America has ever produced." When he was starting out as an actor, Hill sought out roles that had a social purpose. "Later, I learned that show business is about entertaining," he said. "So, I've had to reconcile my idealistic feelings with reality."
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. "When I first became an actor, there were two young actors in New York: Marlon Brando and Steven Hill," said Martin Landau, 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." In 1961, Hill had an unusual experience when he was cast as Sigmund Freud on Broadway in Henry Denker's A Far Country, 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 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. Among the notables in the audience were Joseph P. Kennedy, Jack Benny, and Richard Rodgers. The audience was invited to exchange their ticket stubs for other performances. 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), and The Slender Thread (1965).
