Arthur Hill, the distinguished Canadian actor of film, stage and television, who starred in the sci-fi thrillers The Andromeda Strain and Futureworld, and played the fatherly, small-town lawyer in Owen Marshall: Counselor at Law, died on October 22 in Pacific Palisades, California of Alzheimer's disease. He was 84.

Born in Melfort, Saskatchewan on August 1, 1922. Hill served in the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II and studied pre-law at the University of British Columbia. To support himself while attending University, he found work with the Canadian Broadcasting Company acting in Radio Theater. His love for dramatics overtook any remaining desire to study law, and in 1948, he moved with his wife, the actress Peggy Hassard, to England and pursued a career as an actor. By the early '50s, he found work in regional theater, BBC radio plays, and made a series of film comedies for Val Guest. Titles such as The Body Said No! (1950), Miss Pilgrim's Progress (also 1950), Mister Drake's Duck (1951), and Life with the Lyons (1954) sum up the cute, family appeal of these early British vehicles, and it gave Hill some valued experience, but brighter things would soon lie ahead for him.

He began making inroads on the New York stage around 1955, starring in The Matchmaker and after steady work between the U.S. and U.K. over the next several years, he took the plum role of George, the much abused husband in Edward Albee's groundbreaking play about marital strife Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. Playing opposite Uta Hagen as Martha, both actors won deserved Tony awards. It made Hill a star on Broadway, and the play ran for an astounding 664 performances between 1962-64. Afterwards, Hill found some good parts on television: Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Untouchables, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Mission: Impossible; and offered ample support to bigger leads in many quality films: In the Cool of the Day (1963) with Peter Finch and Jane Fonda, Harper (1966) starring Paul Newman; and the terrific bittersweet romance drama Petulia (1968) playing under George C. Scott and Julie Christie.

With his tall, regal stature and reassuring voice, Hill scored in a line of hits during the '70s. First, he was in two key sci-fi flicks; as Dr. Jeremy Stone, the lead medical consultant who tries to stop a lethal virus in The Andromeda Strain (1971); and Dr. Duffy, the scientist in charge of life-like robots in the camp favorite Futureworld (1976). He also played the compassionate attorney for three seasons of Owen Marshall: Counselor at Law (1971-74) that helped launch the careers of future television stars Lee Majors and David Soul. And he capped out the decade with stalwart performances in two of the finest television movies of their era - Churchill and the Generals (1979) as President Franklin D. Roosevelt and The Ordeal of Dr. Mudd (1980) playing General Thomas Ewing.

By the '80s, Hill continued making theatrical films (Making Love (1982), the narrator for Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983), but he also found himself making appearances in many geriatric hit shows: Perry Mason, Columbo: Agenda for Murder, and Murder, She Wrote before he retired from acting in the early '90s. His 56-year marriage to Hassard ended in 1998 with her death from Alzheimer's disease. Hill is survived by his second wife, Anne-Sophie Taraba; a son, Douglas; and two sisters.

by Michael T. Toole