Hillard Elkins

Hillard (Hilly) Elkins (October 18, 1929 – December 1, 2010) was an American theatre and film producer.

Born in Brooklyn in New York City, Elkins attended Erasmus Hall and Midwood High Schools and Brooklyn College. At the age of eighteen he already had his degree and was studying law while working in the mail room at the William Morris Agency, quickly moving up the ranks to agent and then head of the theatrical department. After serving in the Korean War by making training films in Manhattan, he returned to agency work, but in 1953 left to open his own management company, where he represented James Coburn, Robert Culp, Steve McQueen, Mel Brooks, Herbert Ross, Charles Strouse, and Lee Adams.

Elkins turned to Broadway theatre producing in 1962 with the Garson Kanin play Come on Strong. The following year, he saw former client Sammy Davis, Jr. performing at the Prince of Wales Theatre in London, and approached him about starring in a musical version of Clifford Odets' Golden Boy. When Davis expressed interest, Elkins approached Odets to adapt his 1937 hit play and write the book for the musical (revised by William Gibson when Odets died in August 1963) and hired Strouse and Adams to compose the score. The 1964 Broadway production, directed by Arthur Penn, earned Elkins Tony Award nominations for Best Musical and Best Producer of a Musical. Additional Broadway credits include Oh! Calcutta!, The Rothschilds, and Hedda Gabler and A Doll's House, the latter two with his then-wife Claire Bloom (they married in 1969 and divorced in 1972).

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