Thomas Hill

Thomas Hill was a character actor and director. He played Owen Lars in the Star Wars radio drama from NPR. He performed alongside his real-life wife Anne Gerety, who played Beru Lars.

Born in India to missionary parents, Hill moved to Indiana at the age of thirteen. He pursued a career in the theater in the 1950s. By the late 1960s, he and his wife Anne Gerety were together directing the American Theatre Company, a performing collective based at Portland State University, Oregon. In 1970, the shooting of Kent State student protesters prompted the couple to engage in more radical anti-war theatre, and, seeking more independence, they left the university to found a new company, the Storefront Actors' Theatre. The Storefront continued to produce radical and experimental productions for the next twenty years. Meanwhile, Hill continued to act, performing hundreds of roles in theaters across the United States.

In the 70s and 80s, Thomas Hill was cast in a number of roles in movies, notably the old shopkeeper Mr. Koreander in The Neverending Story. He had a recurring role in the TV series Newhart and performed on other shows. He and his wife were cast as Owen and Beru for the Star Wars radio drama in 1981. They had five sons but later divorced. Hill retired in Indiana and died of a heart attack in 2009.