Jess Hill

Jess Hill never chose film; film chose him on a movie set long before he could tell right from wrong. The son of Mario Girotti, the man the world knew as Terence Hill, his life has unfolded in that invisible border between stars and the people who make movies work. He was born in Los Angeles in 1969 and, from his earliest months, he was already a natural part of his father's productions' props.

Her debut in front of the camera came in 1970 with a brief appearance in They Call Me Trinity. That film not only defined the comic spaghetti western genre but also permanently tied his family name to the European film industry. Yet Jess never showed any real interest in carrying on the legacy of the blue-eyed leading man in the spotlight.

He preferred the quiet of production.

Moving Behind the Scenes

As young Hill grew older, he began taking on technical responsibilities on film sets. In 1994, he worked as assistant director on Y en Nochebuena… ¡Se armó el belén!, the last on-screen collaboration of the legendary duo formed by his father and Bud Spencer. It was a bittersweet experience that coincided with a period of profound change in how films were financed in Italy.

The family tragedy also shaped his professional character after the loss of his brother Ross in 1990. That event pulled the Hill family away from the spotlight for a while, but Jess stayed close to writing and script supervision. In 1997, he actively worked on the script for Potenza virtuale, a foray into science fiction that sought new commercial languages.

And then came creative maturity.

In 2009, he took on writing and producing duties for the miniseries Doc West. The project, shot in New Mexico, marked his father's return to the genre that made him famous, but with a much slower, twilight perspective. Jess Hill understood that the audiovisual market had changed and that nostalgia had to be paired with impeccable technical craftsmanship to survive in the digital age.

The Guardian of the Girotti Legacy

His most notable work in recent years centers on managing the family production company and launching projects with clear personal significance. In 2018, he served as executive producer on Mi nombre es Thomas. The film was conceived as a tribute to Bud Spencer following his death and required considerable logistical effort to shoot in desert locations in Almería and North Africa.

But his work isn't limited to nostalgia for guns and horses.

Hill has known how to diversify the assets of the family brand while operating with complete discretion in Italy and the United States. In 2023, he oversaw the restoration of classic materials for distribution on high-definition platforms, making sure the catalog from the 1970s wouldn't be lost to the chemical decay of celluloid. He has no interest in fame or promotional interviews where he's asked about his physical resemblance to his father.

The production of Mi nombre es Thomas in 2018 reached a budget of 5 million euros, funded through independent capital. Jess Hill remains tied to the production office in Rome, where he manages image rights and new ways to exploit the classic catalog. Filming for his next documentary project about border cinema is planned for the winter of 2027.