David Gill; Film Historian, Documentarian

David Gill, a member of that rare breed of film enthusiast who not only documented the history of motion pictures but helped restore many of their early, silent spectaculars, has died.

A spokesman said Gill was 69 when he died Sept. 28 at his home in Huntington, England after a heart attack.

Gill was trained as a dancer and performed with Britain’s famous Sadler’s Wells Theater Ballet before becoming interested in films. His most famous documentary probably remains “Hollywood,” a 13-part series made in 1980 for Thames Television and shown primarily on PBS TV stations in the United States. It examined the film industry from its beginnings as a carnival attraction through the eras of wide-screen epics and special effects.

He produced it and a subsequent three-part series, “The Unknown Chaplin,” with longtime partner Kevin Brownlow. Brownlow had restored Abel Gance’s five-hour silent spectacular “Napoleon,” and Gill helped stage the pioneering French picture, which had futuristic split-screen dramatics.

His “Till I End My Song,” a documentary on the River Thames, was nominated for Emmy and British film awards in 1968, while his documentaries on Vietnam, South Africa and Northern Ireland became mainstays on the British series “This Week.”

With Brownlow he also produced the Thames Silents series, which have been seen in such diverse locations as Radio City Music Hall in New York and in Australia. Among the silent pictures they restored were D. W. Griffith’s “Birth of a Nation” and Charlie Chaplin’s “The Gold Rush.”

In the late 1980s they produced “Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow,” and “Harold Lloyd: The Third Genius.”

Most recently he had produced “Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood,” a 1995-96 TV series.

His death prevented his life from coming full circle. When Sadler’s Wells reopens next year, Gill was to return to the stage where he began as a dancer to present many of his old films.

Gill is survived by his wife, Pauline, and two daughters.