Reginald Eric Hill (16 May 1914 – October 1999) was an English model maker and television producer, most prominently associated with the work of Gerry Anderson.
After his service in the RAF, he joined National Interest Picture Productions as a designer for British Army, RAF and other government-made films. Hill worked as a model maker and animator.
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His first work in animation for TV was "The Adventures of Twizzle and Torchy the Battery Boy" with Roberta Leigh in the later 1950's.
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After season two of Space:1999, Gerry Anderson Productions was dissolved and Hill went into semi-retirement. Despite his "retirement" he continued work as a storyboard artist on various films. Many of the films he did storyboards for include Pink Floyd The Wall, Gunbus, Outland, Octopussy, The Last Days of Pompeii, Supergirl, Superman and Superman II.
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Working with Gerry Anderson in movies, Hill contributed to "Crossroad To Crime (1960)", Thunderbirds Are Go (1966) and Thunderbird 6 (1968). He also worked as a designer on "Doppelgänger", aka "Journey to the Far Side of the Sun" (1969).
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While working for Pentagon Films in 1954, he met Gerry Anderson and his life in the industry would be forever changed. He joined AP (Anderson-Provis) Films as production director. Associated Productions Lew Grade bought out AP in 1962 and changed the name to Century 21 Productions in 1966. It would then be bought back and renamed Group 3 Productions. It was named after the owners Gerry Anderson, Sylvia Anderson and Reg Hill.
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Was married. His wife's name was Lilly.
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His first work under Lew Grade was "Supercar". It would be his stepping stone to working in Science Fiction TV.
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Served in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. He was stationed at Benson, Oxfordshire and in Germany as an air frame fitter instructor. After leaving the service, he flew himself out of Germany headed to England in an Avro Lancaster.
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In the late 1960's Gerry Anderson started to create new live action TV shows in combination with model miniatures and props. These included UFO (1970), The Protectors (1972 ), and Space:1999 (1975). He now took on various roles as art director, producer and executive producer. Just as he did with the puppet series, Hill continued to be involved in series concepts, vehicle, character and set design for the live action series.
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After work on Superman II he officially went into full retirement.
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Although he wrote stories and directed he is best known for working as a model maker and animator. His best work was with Gerry and Sylvia Anderson on the puppet shows Fireball XL5, Stingray, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, Joe 90, and The Secret Service (which combined puppetry with live action).
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Died in Surrey, United Kingdom at 85 in late 1999.
$14 Million
