Craig Hill obit

‘Whirlybirds’ Star Craig Hill Dies at 88

The actor also appeared in "Detective Story" and "What Price Glory" and in a series of 1960s Westerns filmed in Europe. 

He was not on the list.

Craig Hill, who played P.T. Moore, the co-owner of a helicopter chartering company, in the 1950s syndicated TV adventure series Whirlybirds, died Monday, the Spanish newspaper Ara reported. He was 88.

Hill, who also appeared as the prison-bound first-time offender at the beginning of the Kirk Douglas cop classic Detective Story (1951), died in Barcelona, family members told the newspaper. He had lived in Spain for decades.

Whirlybirds, from Desilu Productions, aired for three seasons and 111 half-hour episodes, from February 1957 to January 1960. Moore and his partner, Chuck Martin (Kenneth Tobey), flew Bell 47 light helicopters out of the fictional Longwood Field in Southern California to aid in search-and-rescue operations or to fly rich clients around.

The idea for making a helicopter the star of a TV series was spawned by a January 1956 episode of the Desilu sitcom I Love Lucy in which Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball) commandeers a Bell 47 to fly her to a trans-Atlantic ocean liner that had sailed without her. Robert Altman, in his first regular gig, directed 19 episodes of Whirlybirds.

Later, Hill moved to Spain and starred in a series of Westerns filmed in that country and throughout Europe, including Hands of a Gunfighter (1965), Fifteen Scaffolds for the Killer (1967), Seven Pistols for a Massacre (1967), Bury Them Deep (1968), And the Crows Will Dig Your Grave (1972) and My Horse, My Gun, Your Widow (1972).

A native of Los Angeles, Hill began as a contract player at Fox. He had roles in such films as All About Eve (1950), Cheaper by the Dozen (1950) and, as one of Marine captain James Cagney‘s lieutenants, in John Ford‘s What Price Glory (1952).

Hill’s résumé also includes the films The Black Shield of Falworth (1954), Siege at Red River (1954), Tammy and the Bachelor (1957), You Have to Run Fast (1961) and The Swinger (1966) with Ann-Margret, and the TV series My Little Margie, The Great Gildersleeve, Death Valley Days, Hawaiian Eye and The F.B.I.

 

In 1990, Hill married Spanish fashion model and actress Teresa Gimpera (The Spirit of the Beehive).

 

Filmography

 

Film

 

Year     Title            Role            Notes

1950            Cheaper by the Dozen     Tom Black            Uncredited

All About Eve            Leading Man    

1951            Detective Story            Arthur Kindred           

Fixed Bayonets!            Lt. Gibbs  

1952    The Outcasts of Poker Flat            Tom Dakin  

What Price Glory?  Lt. Aldrich

1953    The I Don't Care Girl            Keene 

1954    Siege at Red River            Lt. Braden

The Black Shield of Falworth            Francis Gascoyne        

1956            Anything Goes Danny            Uncredited

1957    Tammy and the Bachelor            Ernie   

1958            Lafayette Escadrille            Lufbery            Uncredited

1961    You Have to Run Fast      Frank Harlow

The Flight that Disappeared            Tom Endicott           

1962    Deadly Duo      Preston 'Pres' Morgan  

1965    Hands of a Gunfighter            Dan Murphy           

1966    Taste for Killing            Hank Fellows           

Follow Me, Boys!   Leo as a Man            Uncredited

Black Box Affair    Johnny Grant   

The Swinger            Sammy Jenkins

1967    Adios, Hombre            Will Flaherty           

15 forche per un assassino            Billy Mack  

Ric e Gian alla conquista del West    Stuart  

1968    I Want Him Dead            Clayton           

Bury Them Deep    Clive   

Tre croci per non morire            Jerry    

1969    Las amigas            Eduardo         

1970    The Monsters of Terror (aka Dracula vs. Frankenstein)            Inspector Tobermann  

Aoom              

When Heroes Die       Capitán Richard Harvey           

1971    And the Crows Will Dig Your Grave            Jeff Sullivan

In nome del padre, del figlio e della Colt            Sheriff Bill Nolan / Mace Cassidy 

Drummer of Vengeance            Oconner          

1972    Bada alla tua pelle, Spirito Santo!            Col. John Mills        

My Horse, My Gun, Your Widow Doctor Janus Saxon    

Go Away! Trinity Has Arrived in Eldorado            Eldorado         

Un animale chiamato uomo            Mark Forester          

1973    Corte marziale            Colonel           

1974    Cinco almohadas para una noche            Andrés, amante #5       

El refugio del miedo   Bob     

1977            Emanuelle Around the World            Disfigured-Face Man            Uncredited

1978            Stringimi forte papà               

The Bloodstained Shadow (aka Solamente Nero)   Don Paolo  

1980    Estigma                       

1983            Victòria! La gran aventura d'un poble    Tinent Coronel Bruguete          

Victòria! 2: La disbauxa del 17           

1984            Victòria! 3: El seny i la rauxa   

1985            Escapada final (Scapegoat)            Andreu

1987            Angustia          Doctor at Hospital       

1989    La Chute des aigles (Fall of Eagles) Major Holbach            directed by Jesus Franco

La bahía esmeralda (Emerald Bay)            Jonathan Perry            directed by Jesus Franco

1991    Lolita al desnudo            Don José    

Escrit als estels            

1994    General Holmes            

¿Culpable de qué?                

Ciudad Baja (Downtown Heat)    D. Miguel            directed by Jesus Franco

2002    Food of Love            Izzy     

El segundo nombre            Theodore Logan          

2003    Platillos volantes            Director Coca-Cola            (final film role)