George Roy Hill

American film director, highly successful as a master of nostalgia and credited with returning a straight narrative form to films. His work included "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?," "Slaughterhouse 5," "The Sting," and "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid." Hill studied music at Yale and Dublin's Trinity College and started his professional career as an actor of repertory theatre in Dublin. He then toured the U.S. in a Shakespearean company and went into the service during WW II as a Naval pilot in the Pacific. A first stage production in 1948 in Dublin was succeeded by another stint in the military during the Korean War as a pilot, discharged with the rank of Major. Hill began directing Broadway with a debut on 28 November 1957 for "Look Homeward Angel." His Hollywood films began in 1962. He received the special jury prize at the 1972 Cannes Film Festival and in 1974 the Best Director Academy Award for his film "The Sting." He married Louisa Horton on 7 April 1961; four kids. They later divorced. Hill died on 27 December 2002 at his home in New York City from complications of Parkinson's disease, one week after his 81st birthday. Link to Wikipedia biography