Heather Hill, Longtime ‘Young and the Restless’ Director, Dies at 85

Heather Hill, the longtime Young and the Restless director who collected six Daytime Emmys for her work on the CBS soap opera, has died. She was 85.

Hill died Friday at her home in Las Vegas, a family spokesperson announced.

Hill was nominated for the Outstanding Drama Series Directing Team Emmy every year from 1988 through 2000, winning in 1988, ’89, ’96, ’97, ’98 and ’99. She shared three of those wins and one nom with her husband, Randall Hill.

Born in Rye, New York, Hill graduated from Rye Country Day School before beginning her TV career in New York in the 1970s as a production assistant on the CBS soap opera Love of Life. She quickly advanced through the ranks to become an assistant director and then a director.

During her years in New York in the ’80s, she also helmed episodes of CBS’ Love Is a Many Splendored Thing, CBS’ As the World Turns and NBC’s Search for Tomorrow.

In 1985, Hill relocated to Los Angeles and joined The Young and the Restless as a contract director, and during her 15-year tenure, she guided hundreds of episodes of the Genoa City-set show.

Her credits also included installments of ABC’s General Hospital and the internationally popular series Baywatch, which starred former Young and the Restless player David Hasselhoff as Dr. Snapper Foster. (The actor and the Hills were neighbors.)

In addition to her husband, survivors include her sons, Tim and Chris; daughter-in-law Debbie; and grandchildren Violet, Quinn, and Carter.