Steven Hill
Steven Hill Trivia
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Trivia
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He was nominated for four SAG Awards from 1997-2000 for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series for Law & Order.
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He was once described by Robert Duvall as "the best actor working today, bar none."
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He appeared with Dianne Wiest in It's My Turn. In 2000, she succeeded him as the District Attorney on Law & Order.
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He lost a lead role in The Sand Pebbles because he would not work on the Jewish Sabbath.
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His first film was A Lady Without a Passport in 1950.
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He and his first wife, Selma Stern, were married in 1951.
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His birth name was Solomon Krakovsky.
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He has nine children.
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He served four years in the Naval Reserve in World War II.
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In 1946, he made his Broadway debut as Marlon Brando's understudy in the drama A Flag Is Born.
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For his role as District Attorney Adam Schiff on Law & Order, he earned an Emmy nomination for Best Supporting Actor In a Dramatic Series in 1997.
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Steven Hill: (on how he read the Bible and the Psalms of David) I read them the way you read a script, visualizing the scenes. When I came back to acting, I was able to work in an easier way than I ever did before.
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After leaving the cast of Mission: Impossible in 1967, he also left acting and moved into a Jewish community in Rockland County, New York where he dabbled in writing and real estate. He did not return to acting until 1978.
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His strict adherence to the Jewish Sabbath, which lasts from sunset on Friday night until sunset on Saturday night, from the early 1960s onwards effectively ended his Broadway career. The reason for this was that he was unavailable for Friday night or Saturday matinee performances. It also seriously hampered his movie career.
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In 1961, he received rave reviews on Broadway starring as Sigmund Freud in A Far Country. In one dramatic scene, a patient of Freud's screamed at Freud, "You are a Jew!" and the intensity of the scene caused Hill to ruminate on its implications. This exploration led him to pursue strict Orthodox Judaism.
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Steven Hill: I slowly became aware that there was something more profound going on in the world than just plays and movies and TV shows. I was provoked to explore my religion.
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He left the cast of Mission: Impossible in 1967 after one season because, as an Orthodox Jew, he was unwilling to abide by the show's production schedule which would have required him to work on the Jewish Sabbath.
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He played the Manhattan District Attorney in both Legal Eagles and Law & Order.
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Although he and Jerry Orbach appeared in 177 episodes of Law & Order and the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode "Entitled" together, the only time that they ever appeared on screen together was during one brief scene in the Law & Order Season Seven episode "Corruption".
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He is one of the few current Orthodox Jewish actors working today.
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He was a founding member of Lee Strasberg's Actor's Studio.
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He left acting from 1967 to 1978.
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His son-in-law is a high school teacher in Manhattan, New York City.
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He was the last remaining original cast member of Law & Order. He left the series in 2000 at the end of its tenth season.
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Quotes
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Martin Landau: (on Steven Hill, referring to his sole, problematic season as the star of Mission: Impossible) "I felt that he was digging his own grave. There was always something self-destructive, always a part of him that didn't want success, along with this very special talent. When he wanted to work he was exceptional. When he didn't want to work, for whatever reasons, he was destructive to himself. I must say that he was troublesome at times, but basically he wasn't. Most of the time he was professional, he learned his lines and was there."
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