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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

In passing: Arthur Hill, TV and stage actor

The Spokesman-Review

Arthur Hill, a veteran actor whose career was punctuated by two distinctly different roles – the weary, abused husband in the Broadway production of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” and the stalwart attorney in the ABC television series “Owen Marshall: Counselor at Law” – has died. He was 84.

Hill died Oct. 22 of Alzheimer’s disease at an assisted-living facility in Pacific Palisades, according to his son, Douglas.

Known for his deep, pensive eyes and soft, calming voice, Hill fashioned a busy career over 40 years. He won a Tony Award for his work in the groundbreaking production of Edward Albee’s “Virginia Woolf.”

Hill’s portrayal of Owen Marshall, a small-town attorney, ran on ABC from 1971 to 1974. The show, which featured such up-and-coming actors as Lee Majors and David Soul as Marshall’s associates, was modeled after another popular ABC series, “Marcus Welby, M.D.,” which featured Robert Young as a small-town doctor.

LOS ANGELES

Tommy Johnson, ‘Jaws’ tuba player

Tuba player Tommy Johnson, who played the low, ominous and relentlessly accelerating notes from the soundtrack to the movie “Jaws,” has died.

A “first call” studio musician who played tuba on thousands of film scores over nearly 50 years, Johnson died Oct. 16 from complications of cancer and kidney failure at the University of California, Los Angeles, Medical Center, his wife Patricia Johnson said. He was 71 and had been working until a few weeks before his death.

The first movie Johnson played on was “Al Capone,” with a score by David Raksin. That 1959 film was followed by a seemingly endless list highlighted by “The Godfather,” “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” the “Indiana Jones” trilogy, the “Star Trek” movie series, “The Lion King,” “Titanic” and “The Thin Red Line.”

But Johnson called “Jaws” his most memorable experience in the recording studio. Besides working on film, television and music recordings, Johnson performed with ensembles including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and the Academy Awards Orchestra.

San Francisco

Sally Lilienthal, peace fund creator

Sally Lilienthal, 87, who founded the Ploughshares Fund, an influential foundation dedicated to the prevention of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons of war, died of a bone infection that led to pneumonia Tuesday at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco.

Lilienthal, a sculptor who had long been involved with human rights activism, founded the organization in her living room in 1981 at the height of the Cold War.

As of 2006, the fund has given away more than $40 million, mostly for startup research, becoming the largest grant-making foundation in the United States focusing exclusively on peace and security issues.