Marianna Hill

Marianna Hill
Hill in Black Zoo, 1963
Born
Marianna Schwarzkopf

(1942-02-09) February 9, 1942 (age 82)
Alma materLa Jolla Playhouse
Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre
Actors Studio
OccupationActress
Years active1960–2005
Known forHigh Plains Drifter
El Condor
Batman
Star Trek (Dagger of the Mind)
Messiah of Evil
The Godfather Part II

Marianna Hill (born Marianna Schwarzkopf; February 9, 1942) is an American actress who is known for her starring roles in the Western films El Condor (1970) and High Plains Drifter and the cult horror film Messiah of Evil (both 1973), as well as many roles on television series in the 1960s and 1970s.

Early life and education

Hill was born Marianna Schwarzkopf, in Santa Barbara, California,[1] on February 9, 1942,[1] to architect Frank Schwarzkopf and writer Mary Hawthorne Hill, who worked as a script doctor. United States Army General Norman Schwarzkopf Jr. was her second cousin.[2]

Her father, a building contractor, worked in several countries, which resulted in Hill's education in California, Spain, and Canada. During her teenage years, her family settled in southern California when her father purchased a restaurant there.[2]

Career

Hill with Clu Gulager as Billy the Kid in The Tall Man
Hill in El Condor

Hill's initial acting experience came when she was an apprentice at the Laguna Playhouse. She then worked three summers at the La Jolla Playhouse, and later gained more experience at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre.[2] She was a life member of The Actors Studio[3] as of January 1980. She adopted her mother's surname ("Hill") as her professional surname. She appeared in more than 70 films and television episodes.

Her film debut came in Married Too Young (1962).[2] She played Gabrielle in the Howard Hawks film, Red Line 7000 (1965) and featured in the Elvis Presley film Paradise, Hawaiian Style (1966); the Haskell Wexler political film Medium Cool (1969); the western El Condor (1970); the Clint Eastwood film High Plains Drifter (1973) as Callie Travers; the cult classic horror-thriller film The Baby (1973); and in The Godfather Part II (1974) as Deanna Dunn-Corleone, Fredo Corleone's hard-drinking wife.[4]

Hill guest-starred in several 1960s sitcoms, including My Three Sons, Hogan's Heroes and Love, American Style, as well as in the original Star Trek series ("Dagger of the Mind", 1966, as Dr. Helen Noel) and Perry Mason ("The Case of the Greek Goddess", 1963, as Theba). She guest-starred in The High Chaparral; Bonanza; Death Valley Days; Gunsmoke; The Wild Wild West; Dr. Kildare; The F.B.I.; Quincy, M.E.; S.W.A.T.; Kung Fu; The Outer Limits; “HAWAII-Five-0”, Mannix; Batman; Daniel Boone; The Tall Man; Mission: Impossible; and the first pilot movie for Harry O. Her last television appearance was in a 1984 episode of Remington Steele.

After moving to New York to teach at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute, Hill moved to England in 1988 to teach at the Lee Strasberg Studio in London. She remained there until its closure in 2001.[5] Hill continued to teach at the Method Studio in London, and made an appearance in the 2005 British film Coma Girl: The State of Grace, a part she got through the association of one of her students with the film's writer and director Dina Jacobsen.

Her last American film was Chief Zabu, which was filmed on the campus of Bard College in New York in 1986. The film was not released until 2016.[6][7] In a rare public appearance, Hill attended the premier of the movie at the 2016 Fort Lauderdale Film Festival.[8]

Hill lives in the UK. She teaches acting privately and at acting workshops. She was scheduled to make an appearance at the Destination Star Trek Germany convention in June 2021; however, the convention was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[9]

Filmography

References

  1. ^ a b "Marianna Hill - The Private Life and Times of Marianna Hill. Marianna Hill Pictures". glamourgirlsofthesilverscreen.com.
  2. ^ a b c d Lisanti, Tom (2007). Glamour Girls of Sixties Hollywood: Seventy-Five Profiles. McFarland. pp. 93–96. ISBN 9781476612416. Retrieved June 14, 2017.
  3. ^ Garfield, David (1980). "Appendix: Life Members of The Actors Studio as of January 1980". A Player's Place: The Story of The Actors Studio. New York: MacMillan Publishing Co., Inc. p. 278. ISBN 0-02-542650-8.
  4. ^ Hal Erickson (2015). "Marianna Hill profile". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. Archived from the original on August 5, 2015.
  5. ^ [https://www.backstage.com/magazine/article/strasberg-london-school-closes-33104/ "Strasberg London School Closes", backstage.com. February 21, 2001.
  6. ^ Interview with Neil Cohen, creativehudsonvalley.com. Accessed July 22, 2023.
  7. ^ "Missing for 30 years, a Trumpian satire finds its pop-culture moment", South Florida Sun Sentinel, November 1, 2016. Retrieved July 9, 2020.
  8. ^ "Hill at the 2016 Fort Lauderdale Film Festival". facebook.com. Retrieved July 22, 2023.
  9. ^ "Marianna Hill - Destination Star Trek". destinationstartrekgermany.com. Retrieved July 22, 2023.