Charlie Hill


Charles Allan Hill was an American stand-up comedian, actor, and member of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin. He wrote for the television series Roseanne.

Early life and education

Born in Detroit, Michigan in 1951, he moved as a child with his family when they returned to their homestead on the Oneida reservation in 1962. Hill was, also, of Mohawk and Cree ancestry.
In 1969, he graduated from West De Pere High School and enrolled at University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he majored in speech and drama. He was involved in the Broom Street Theatre Group.
During the early 1970s, he was a member of Hanay Geiogomah's Native American Theatre Ensemble. Among other productions, the ensemble performed Coyote Tracks and Foghorn at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in the East Village of Manhattan, where the ensemble was in residence. The ensemble also toured Germany in 1973 and the United States in 1974.
After college, Hill moved to Los Angeles and worked as an actor and comedian.

Career

Hill's first network appearance was on The Richard Pryor Show in 1974. He was then the first Native American comedian to appear on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. He also appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and made multiple appearances on Late Night with David Letterman.
Hill was chosen to host for the First Americans in the Arts awards show in Hollywood three times. One time, he co-hosted with the Oneida singer Joanne Shenandoah. As a stand-up comedian, he appeared in venues internationally and was a regular at The Comedy Store in Hollywood.
Hill appeared on many television shows, and hosted an evening of Native American comedians on a Showtime special. He was the subject of the PBS documentary On and Off The Res' with Charlie Hill, directed by Sandra Osawa.
Hill was interviewed about American Indian Movement activist Dennis Banks in the documentary A Good Day to Die.

Awards and recognition

Hill died on December 30, 2013, in Oneida, Wisconsin, after a short battle with lymphoma.