Character actor Arthur Hill dies

Veteran Canadian-born character actor Arthur Hill, a Tony Award winner for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and a frequent face on U.S. television from 1960 to 1990, has died at the age of 84.

The Saskatchewan-born Hill died last Sunday at a Los Angeles care facility after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease, his friend Walter Seltzer said on Thursday.

Hill is best known for playing the title role in the early 1970s series Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law, but kept busy over the years with appearances on many television shows, including Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Ben Casey, The Untouchables, Mission Impossible, The Fugitive and Marcus Welby, M.D.

He also had movie credits that included The Andromeda Strain and The Ugly American.

Born in August 1922 in Melfort, Sask., Hill served in the Royal Canadian Air Force and studied law at the University of British Columbia.

However, he was soon lured to the stage and switched his studies to theatre. In 1948, Hill moved to the U.K. and worked on both stage and screen.

In the 1950s, he returned to North America, establishing himself on Broadway, where his portrayal of the browbeaten George in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf eventually landed him both a Tony and a New York Drama Critics Circle Award. His successful stage career helped Hill make the transitionto Hollywood.

Hill retired from show business in 1990.