The Moment Steven Hill Knew He Had to Become Closer to Judaism

In the February 7, 1969 of edition of The Jewish Press, Irene Klass, the former publisher of the newspaper, wrote an article called “Steven Hill’s Million IMpossible.” The title, of course, was an homage to Hill’s lead role as Dan Briggs on TV’s Mission Impossible—a role he held onto for just one year, in part because of certain “difficulties,” including the actor’s refusal to work late on Shabbat. Hill died on Tuesday in Monsey, New York, where he lived for decades. He was 94.

Hill, who was born Solomon Krakovsky, became Orthodox in the early 1960s. His friend, Rabbi Mayer Schiller who’s based in Monsey and called the actor a mentor, said he remembers the day they met in 1964, during a series of visits Hill took to the village of New Square, which coincided with Schiller’s own internal search for meaning. Also there was Skverer Rebbe Yaakov Yosef Twersky. “The very first time we met, he turned to me and said, ‘He’s the Rebbe, he’s a very holy man.'”

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