Editing George Roy Hill (section)

==Early life and education==
He was born in [[Minneapolis]], Minnesota, to George Roy and Helen Frances (née Owens) Hill,<ref name="NY Times">{{cite news|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9401E6DB1F3CF93BA15751C1A9649C8B63|title=George Roy Hill, director of 'The Sting,' dies at 81.|work=The New York Times|date=December 28, 2002|access-date=June 8, 2022|first=Lawrence|last=Van Gelder|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220611220701/https://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/28/movies/george-roy-hill-director-of-the-sting-dies-at-81.html?sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2|archive-date=June 11, 2022}}{{OCLC|1645522}} {{ISSN|0362-4331}}</ref> part of a well-to-do [[Roman Catholic]] family with interests in the newspaper business;<ref name="Telegraph">{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1417351/George-Roy-Hill.html|title=Daily Telegraph|location=London, UK|access-date=May 3, 2010|first=Andrew|last=Haldenby|date=December 30, 2002}}</ref> the family owned the [[Star Tribune|''Minneapolis Tribune'']].<ref name="Times">{{cite news|url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article806607.ece|title=The Sunday Times   |  location = London|date=December 30, 2002|access-date=  June 11, 2022 |first=Greg|last=Hurst | archive-url  =  https://web.archive.org/web/20110524040451/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article806607.ece |archive-date  =  May 24, 2011 }}</ref> Hill was no relation to [[George Hill (director)|George W. Hill]], director and [[cinematographer]] of numerous silent movies and early sound films in the 1920s and early 1930s.  He was educated at [[The Blake School (Minneapolis, Minnesota)|The Blake School]], one of Minnesota's most prestigious private schools,<ref name="Telegraph"/> and graduated from [[Yale University]] with a [[Bachelor of Music]] in 1943. He received his master's degree in literature and music from [[Trinity College Dublin]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/12/resources/3752|title=George Roy Hill papers|work=Yale University}}</ref>

He had a love of flying. After school he liked to visit the airport, and his hobby was to memorize the records of [[World War I]] flying aces.<ref name="NY Times"/> He idolized pilot [[Charles W. Holman|Speed Holman]],<ref name="NY Times"/><ref>The New York Times misspelled this name as "Homan" in their December 28, 2002, edition but corrected it to "Holman" on December 31, 2002</ref> who, Hill once explained, "used to make his approach to the spectators at state fairs flying past the grandstand upside down."<ref name="NY Times"/> Hill obtained his pilot's license at the age of sixteen.<ref name="Times"/> Airplanes featured prominently in his later films and are frequently crashed as well — in ''[[Slaughterhouse-Five (film)|Slaughterhouse-Five]]'', ''[[The World According to Garp (film)|The World According to Garp]]'' and especially ''[[The Great Waldo Pepper]]'' which showed the influence on Hill of pilots like Speed Holman.<ref name="NY Times"/>

Hill loved classical music, especially [[Johann Sebastian Bach]],<ref name="Times"/> and as an undergraduate at Yale University studied music under notable composer [[Paul Hindemith]], graduating in 1943.<ref name="Telegraph"/> His film ''[[The World of Henry Orient]]'' contains a humorous spoof-like tease of Hindemith during the piano concerto scene of Henry Orient ([[Peter Sellers]]). While at Yale, Hill was a member of [[Delta Kappa Epsilon]], the [[Scroll & Key]] Society and of [[The Spizzwinks(?)]] and [[The Whiffenpoofs]], America's oldest collegiate [[a cappella]] singing group.<ref name="super">Mosely, Virginia Kleitz. (April 14, 1974) Super Director George Roy Hill Flies On. ''The Washington Post'', p. G5.</ref>