'Beverly Hills Cop' Star, Real 'Super Cop' Gil Hill, Dies

DETROIT, MI – Gil Hill, a former Detroit City Council president, nationally known homicide detective who could charm confessions out of notorious killers and occasional movie star, died Monday at a Detroit hospital. He was 84.

Hill was well-known and highly respected across Metro Detroit, but legions of movie fans came to know him as the quick-tempered, finger-pointing Inspector Todd in comedian Eddie Murphy’s “Beverly Hills Cop” films. He starred in three of them.

Hill had been hospitalized for the past two weeks at Sinai Grace Hospital with a respiratory ailment, but had been expected to recover, family spokesman Chris Jackson said in a statement.

“We are relieved that his passing was peaceful and painless,” Jackson said. “Details on the funeral will be forthcoming. We asked that you pray for the family and respect our privacy during this very difficult time”.

Though moviegoers came to know him as the boss of Murphy’s wise cracking character Axel Foley, a fictional Detroit detective who occasionally worked homicides in Beverly Hills, Hill was a “super cop” in real life who was among a handful selected to help solve the Atlanta Child Murders from 1979-1981.

Hill rose to national prominence as a super sleuth after clearing the Browning Gang Murders, which claimed 15 victims, the Detroit Free Press reports.

Wayne County Executive Warren C. Evans said he developed what would become a lifelong friendship with Hill when he was a rookie deputy for the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office.

“Occasionally I would deliver information from the Wayne County Jail to him regarding homicide cases,” Evans said in a statement. “Our friendship grew as I continued my career in law enforcement and he was always encouraging and supportive of my development. My thoughts and prayers are with Gil’s family during this difficult time.”

Gilbert Hill was born in Birmingham, AL, on Nov. 6, 1931. His family moved to Washington, DC, in the 1940s, and he joined the U.S. Air Force after his graduation from high school in 1949. While stationed at the Selfridge National Guard Air Base near Mount Clemens, he fell in love with the Motor City, the Free Press reported.

Hill joined the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office in 1957, then moved to the Detroit Police Department two years later. He was promoted to detective a decade later and later joined the homicide division, which he headed for a time.

“I loved being a detective; there was just something about it,” Hill told the Free Press in 2001. “I was good at it. At one time, I would have rated myself among any of the best homicide detectives in the world.”

In 1985 when Detroit gained the distinction as the “Murder Capital of America,” Hill was reassigned to a patrol division. He retired in 1989, and was elected to the Detroit City Council, where a former colleague, the Rev. Nicholas Hood, told the Free Press Hill“exhibited a civility in government that we don’t often see.”

Hill became city council president in 1997. Hill narrowly lost the 2001 mayor’s race to Kwame Kilpatrick and retired from public service.

Another former City Council colleague, Sheila Cockrel, told The Detroit News that Hill was “clearly a very charismatic, interesting and authentic Detroit presence.”

“He was a person who had a deep commitment to the people of the city,” Cockrel said. “He had an understanding for the average Detroiter’s experience. He was fair. He was a quiet kind of leader in that he really allowed of the voices on council to be heard.

“Gil Hill … loved the city of Detroit,” Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon, who knew Hill for more than four decades, told the Free Press. “We have lost a true, true champion of the people.”

Hill is survived by two sons, a daughter, three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his wife, Delores, late last year, Jackson said.

Funeral arrangements are pending.

» Paramount Pictures photo via YouTube