Goodbye

George Roy Hill, the Oscar-winning director who twice struck box office gold by pairing Robert Redford and Paul Newman as outlaws, in ''The Sting'' and ''Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,'' died Friday at 81 in his Manhattan apartment. The cause was complications of Parkinson's disease, his son told the Associated Press.

Hill, a former actor who turned to directing TV and theater in the 1950s and films in the 1960s, tried his hand at various movie genres (the 1966 epic ''Hawaii,'' the 1967 musical ''Thoroughly Modern Millie'') before hitting on a successful formula with 1969's ''Butch Cassidy.'' With that film, he and screenwriter William Goldman all but invented the buddy movie, the action-comedy genre of mismatched partners. Starring Redford and Newman, ''Cassidy'' was an enormous hit. The director reunited with the stars four years later for another buddy film, the con caper ''The Sting,'' which won seven Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director for Hill. He would direct Redford again in ''The Great Waldo Pepper'' and Newman again in the cult favorite ''Slap Shot.''

Hill's trademark was a breezy balance of comedy and drama that worked for both light farces (1964's ''The World of Henry Orient'' with Peter Sellers, 1988's underrated ''Funny Farm,'' with Chevy Chase) and tricky literary adaptations (such as 1972's ''Slaughterhouse-Five'' and 1982's ''The World According to Garp,'' which gave Robin Williams his first dramatic role). After ''Funny Farm,'' Hill retired from filmmaking to teach at his alma mater, Yale.