Marianna Hill
American Actress
Marianna Hill was born Marianna Schwarzkopf on February 9, 1942. She enjoyed a long and varied career in television and film, acting in over 70 productions that spanned the years 1962 to 1986.
She was born in Santa Barbara, California to contractor and architect Frank Schwarzkopf and writer Mary Hawthorne Hill, who worked as a script 'doctor'. If the name ‘Schwarzkopf ‘ sounds familiar, Retired United States Army General Norman Schwarzkopf Jr. was a cousin.
Her father's work took the family to several countries, which resulted in Hill becoming adept at many different accents and fluent in Spanish. In her teenaged years, her father bought a restaurant in southern California where the family finally settled down, but her previous travels helped her in her acting career. Because of her skill with different dialects, she got a five-year contract with Paramount Pictures.
Hill's first acting experience came at the Laguna Playhouse where she apprenticed. She then worked three summers at the La Jolla Playhouse and later gained more experience at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre. She adopted her mother's last name 'Hill' as her professional name.
An early shot
Her film debut came in 1962 when she landed a role as Maria in Married Too Young.
She co-starred in the Elvis Presley film Paradise, Hawaiian Style in 1966.
She also starred in the Clint Eastwood film High Plains Drifter in 1973 as Callie Travers.
She was in The Godfather Part II in 1974 as Deanna Dunn-Corleone, Fredo Corleone's hard-drinking wife.
Hill also guest-starred in many 1960s sitcoms, including My Three Sons, Hogan's Heroes and Love American Style, as well as in the original Star Trek series in Dagger of the Mind in 1966, as Dr. Helen Noel. She is one of the 19 women William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk kissed on Star Trek.
Hogan's Heroes (1969)
She was in Perry Mason episode The Case of the Greek Goddess", 1963, as Theba). She guest-starred in Death Valley Days, The High Chaparral, Gunsmoke, The Wild Wild West, The F.B.I., Mission: Impossible, Quincy, M.E., S.W.A.T., Kung Fu, The Outer Limits, Mannix, Batman, Daniel Boone, The Tall Man and the first pilot movie for Harry O. Hill's final TV guest appearance was in a 1984 episode of Remington Steel.
Batman
Outer Limits with Leonard Nimoy
After moving to New York to teach at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute, Hill moved to England in 1988 to teach at the Lee Strasberg Studio in London. She remained there until its closure in 2001. Hill continued to teach at the Method Studio in London, and made an appearance in the 2005 British film Coma Girl: The State of Grace, a part she got through the association of one of her students with the film's writer and director Dina Jacobsen.
Her last American film was Chief Zabu which was filmed on the campus of Bard College in New York in 1986. The film was not released until 2016. In a rare public appearance Hill attended the premier of the movie at the 2016 Fort Lauderdale Film Festival.
Chief Sabu
Marianna Hill currently lives in London and still teaches acting privately and at acting workshops. She is scheduled to make an appearance at the Destination Star Trek Germany Convention in late 2020, though with the Corona Virus pandemic, whether she keeps this engagement is doubtful.
And of course, her role Delores Tenino in Ponderosa Matador is the one we probably know the best!
