In the early ’60s, Tony Bill was fresh out of college and serious-minded about his career in the film industry. He couldn’t relate to the beach-party movies that were everywhere those days. Then he read Charles Webb’s novel “The Graduate” and found a soul mate in the character Ben Braddock.
“I gave it to the two guys who gave me my first job on ‘Come Blow Your Horn,’ Bud Yorkin and Norman Lear. They didn’t see a movie in it,” Bill said in a phone interview from California.
Eventually, another producer did see a movie in it. Bill will show that movie, the now-legendary “The Graduate,” on June 23 at Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art. The screening marks the 50th anniversary of the film’s release in 1967.
Bill has another connection to “The Graduate.” He was one of the handful of actors in serious consideration for the role of Ben. “There was me, Dustin Hoffman, Charles Grodin, Robert Redford. I can’t remember if there was a fifth,” he said. Hoffman became an instant superstar when the film was released.
Losing that role didn’t stop Bill from succeeding in the film industry. As a producer, he won an Oscar for “The Sting.” He also produced more than a dozen other TV and theatrical films, including the original “Going in Style” and this year’s remake of that film. He has directed 32 films, including “My Bodyguard,” “Untamed Heart” and episodes of “Chicago Hope,” “Felicity” and “The Wonderful World of Disney.” As an actor, he has about 60 credits, including roles in “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure,” “Shampoo,” “Ice Station Zebra” and countless roles in TV episodes.
Bill has become an avid collector of “The Graduate” facts and inside stories. He will give Atheneum viewers an alternate way to look at the classic film.
“I’m going to talk about aspects of the movie that almost no one knows about. I think it’s a fun way to see the movie in a new way.
“I’m going to start with the assumption that everybody in the audience has already seen it. I’m going to force them to see it in a new way,” he said. “Once I tell them what I want to tell them, they won’t be able to avoid it. You won’t be able to put the genie back in the bottle.”
Bill, who lives most of the year in Venice, Calif., and a few months each year in Washington Depot, visited the Atheneum in 2012 to present “Five Corners,” a 1987 Jodie Foster-Tim Robbins crime drama he directed.
He said he also will bring an old screen test of his and will do a Q&A after the movie. “After I do that to them, I’ll owe them,” he said.
The film will be shown at 7 p.m. at the Atheneum (thewadsworth.org) with a reception with Bill at 6 p.m. Admission is $30, $28 members for the reception, talk and film, and $12, $10 members for just the talk and film. The movie is rated R.
In the lobby of the theater, a duplicate of the wedding dress worn by Katharine Ross in the film will be on exhibit.
