Howard Hill
| Howard Hill | |
|---|---|
 Howard Hill in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) |
|
| Born | November 13, 1899 Wilsonville, Alabama, United States |
| Died | February 4, 1975 (aged 75) Birmingham, Alabama, United States |
| Occupation | Professional Archer, Actor |
Howard Hill (November 13, 1899 - February 4, 1975) was an archer who was unofficially referred to as the "World's Greatest Archer". He is the only person to win 196 archery field tournaments in succession.[1] He was also a football and basketball player at Auburn University.[2] He was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in 1971 for his skill in archery.[3]
Contents |
[edit] Performing
He would perform by doing difficult trick shots like shooting an apple or even a prune off of someone's head from as far as sixty feet, and then would likely top that by shooting at an even smaller target from the same distance or maybe even longer.[4] He put out several short documentaries on archery, often featuring himself performing other trick shots like shooting a flipped coin from a distance or splitting a rolling ball made of wood. He would also sit on the ground and push his bow with his feet while pulling the arrow back; even from this position he was able to hit the bullseye.
[edit] Filmography
[edit] Acting
- Cruise of the Zaca (1952)
- Deep Sea Fishing (1952)
- Tembo (1951)
- Arrow Artistry (1951)
- Battle of Champs (1947)
- Cavalcade of Archery (1946)
- Wild Boar Hunt (1940)
- Sword Fishing (1939)
- The Last Wilderness (1935)
[edit] Technical advisor and archery instructor
- Across the Wide Missouri (1951)
- The Bandit of Sherwood Forest (1946)
- Buffalo Bill (1944)
- The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
During his performance as stunt archer for the film The Adventures of Robin Hood (in which Errol Flynn plays the title character), Hill accomplished the most iconic archery shot of all time: Robin Hood splitting one arrow with another. In an episode of MythBusters, none of the cast were able to replicate the end to end splitting of an arrow, and it is concluded that Howard Hill used an arrow shaft made of bamboo, not wood, for the famous shot.
Byron Ferguson, traditional bow hunter and trick-shot (Hill's successor in archery showmanship), was able to perfectly split one arrow with another using a modern laminated longbow for the History Channel special "Extreme Marksmen". The average archer has a chance to shoot a "Robin Hood" (splitting an arrow with another) every 1 in 10,000 shots.[citation needed] Byron Ferguson, however, did not split a wooden arrow from nock to tip, as was portrayed in the movie, but telescoped a modern aluminum arrow into another. The aluminum and carbon fiber arrow shafts used by modern archers are more consistent and straighter than wood arrows, making for more consistent archery shots. These facts make Howard Hill's feat more impressive since he used only cedar wood arrows. Hill had, however, designed and used specially made aluminum shafts to hunt rogue elephants in Africa for his full length, color film Tembo.
The splitting of the arrow story is refuted by Hollywood stuntman Buster Wiles, in his book My Days With Errol Flynn. In the book, Wiles revealed that although Hill had split the end off of several arrows, he had been unable to split the arrow exactly as scripted (from end to end), and finally a specially constructed arrow with a large bladed head had been used, shot along a concealed wire. Nevertheless, Hill's accuracy was so great, he regularly hit the smallest of targets in live performances, as well as for films.
Both Wiles and Hill were long time friends of Errol Flynn and frequent guests at his house and on his yacht.
[edit] Fictional representations
In Book One of DC Comics' Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters by Mike Grell, Howard Hill is mentioned by Oliver Queen as having been his childhood idol. It is this series that depicts Ollie's meeting with Hill during a cruise that led to Queen's becoming the Emerald Archer.
In fact, it is repeatedly mentioned throughout the regular Green Arrow series that Oliver Queen met Howard Hill on a cruise ship shortly before falling overboard. Hill is shown shooting a quarter out of the air with the bow he used on the film The Adventures of Robin Hood. He then gives this bow to Queen, who later finds himself on a tropical island using that very bow to survive. The bow makes a reappearance in the world of Oliver Queen when he begins to seek "spiritual guidance". It then becomes the bow he regularly uses in his crimefighting escapades. When Oliver dies in Green Arrow #101 his son Connor Hawke starts to use the Hill Bow to fight crime, and is still using it to this day.
In the first issue of Green Arrow: Year One, Oliver Queen (Green Arrow) buys the bow Hill used during the filming of The Adventures of Robin Hood.
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.howardhillarchery.com/the-legends-story.html
- ^ http://www.thewareaglereader.com/2010/06/the-legend-of-howard-hill/
- ^ http://www.ashof.org/index.php?src=directory&srctype=display&id=104&submenu=Inductees&view=company_detail Alabama Sports Hall of Fame
- ^ Wiles, Buster (February 1989). My Days With Errol Flynn: The Autobiography of Stuntman Buster Wiles. Roundtable Publishing. ISBN 0-915677-36-9.
