He then transferred and majored in history at Michigan State University. 'Mexico was as far away as I could get without any money,' he says. During one summer, he ran an asbestos pipe-cutting machine and worked as a spray painter.Īs a teenager, Hill contemplated being a comic book illustrator and studied art at the Universidad de las Américas, Mexico City. He worked in the oil fields as a roustabout on Signal Hill, California, during high school and several more years while in college. still don't, I think that's hung on.' His asthma receded when he was 15 and he began to think about becoming a writer. But the general, I remember not liking kid movies. He later described his taste as 'juvenile', stating: 'I liked adventure, westerns, but I liked everything. Hill became a film fan at an early age, and the first film he remembers seeing was Song of the South (1946). it enabled me to live in an imaginary world where one is comfortable with abstract ideas, dominated by stories, narrative, and characters. I became utterly besotted with daytime serials. In my case it meant tremendous amount of reading at an early age. You weren't as surrounded by your peers as everybody else your age was. ĭespite the discomfort, it made you comfortable being alone with yourself. Growing up in Southern California, Hill was asthmatic as a child and, as a result, missed several years of school. 'I got along with both my parents very well,' Hill said.

Hill's family had originally come from Tennessee and Mississippi, 'one of those fallen Southern families, shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations'. Hill has said that his father and grandfather were 'smart, physical men who worked with their heads and their hands' and had 'great mechanical ability'.

His paternal grandfather was a wildcat oil driller his father worked at Douglas Aircraft as a supervisor on the assembly line. Hill was born in Long Beach, California, the younger of two sons. Hill said in an interview that 'every film I've done has been a Western', and elaborated in another that 'the Western is ultimately a stripped down moral universe that is, whatever the dramatic problems are, beyond the normal avenues of social control and social alleviation of the problem, and I like to do that even within contemporary stories'. He has also directed several episodes of television series such as Tales from the Crypt and Deadwood and produced the Alien films. and its sequel Another 48 Hrs., Streets of Fire and Red Heat, and wrote the screenplay for the crime drama The Getaway. He has directed such films as The Driver, The Warriors, Southern Comfort, 48 Hrs. Walter Hill (born January 10, 1942) is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer known for his action films and revival of the Western genre.

The Last Good Kiss by James Crumley