R.I.P. Steven Hill, veteran TV actor

Steven Hill, the veteran TV actor best known for playing District Attorney Adam Schiff on Law & Order, has died, The New York Times reports. He was 94.
Hill was born Solomon Krakovsky in 1922 to Russian immigrant parents. The Seattle native graduated from the University Of Washington, and served four years in the U.S. Naval Reserve before moving to Chicago to work in radio. But he soon heard the call of New York City and the Great White Way, making his Broadway debut in 1946 in Ben Hecht’s A Flag Is Born. By 1948, he was appearing with Henry Fonda in the Tony Award-winning Mr. Roberts. And in 1950, he appeared in the Hedy Lamarr-led A Lady Without A Passport.
Four episodes of Actors Studio served as Hill’s entry to TV, where he eventually set up a decades-long residency. Hill had many guest spots in series like Playhouse 90, The Untouchables, and The Fugitive before moving on to become a regular in Bruce Geller’s Mission: Impossible in 1966. Hill played Dan Briggs, the IMF team’s leader, for the first season of the series.