AMC Networks is honoring a member of The Walking Dead family. On Sunday, the network aired a special dedication to Frank Hildebrand, a unit production manager and producer of Fear the Walking Dead seasons 2-8 from 2016 until 2023. Hildebrand, who also appeared on screen in a small role as stranded German tourist Hildy in the eighth and final season of Fear the Walking Dead, died Nov. 21, 2024, after a brief illness. He was 73.
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“With respect and love to Frank Hildebrand, 1950-2024. From AMC and The Walking Dead Universe,” reads the tribute card that appeared before credits rolled on the May 11 episode of The Walking Dead: Dead City season 2, the first Walking Dead series to air on the network since Hildebrand’s death in November.
Scott M. Gimple, an executive producer of Fear the Walking Dead and the chief content officer who oversees AMC’s TWD Universe, previously paid tribute to Hildebrand with a photo showing the line producer posed with the SWAT van that once belonged to Althea on the set of Fear.
“We lost a great 1: FTWD’s Frank Hildebrand,” Gimple tweeted in November. “A maestro of mitigating madness & creating calm in the storm of 16 eps/yr, he knew how to work & how to play, all with class. He’s 1 of those people who sticks w/you: a notable character of character. We were lucky to know & work w/him.”
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Hildebrand previously made a cameo as a Lawton Ranger in the Fear the Walking Dead season 6 episode “Welcome to the Club” before briefly appearing as Hildy in the second half of season 8. Fear showrunners Andrew Chambliss and Ian Goldberg told AMC.com in 2023 that the minor role of Hildy — a councilmember of the German-speaking group that holed up in the Emissary Suites Hotel in Georgia during the initial outbreak — was written “specifically with Frank in mind” due to his Swiss German heritage. “He’s multi-hyphenate and multi-talented,” Chambliss said, referring to Hildebrand acting while serving as the show’s line producer.
Hildebrand is credited on nearly 100 episodes of Fear the Walking Dead, with location shoots in Mexico, Austin, Texas, and Savannah, Georgia. According to his resume, the veteran producer was fluent in English, German, French, and Italian. A member of both the DGA (Directors Guild of America) and the PGA (Producers Guild of America), Hildebrand’s first credit was as an assistant line producer on 1981’s Savage Harvest, a Mexico and Kenya-shot horror thriller about man-eating lions.
Over his 40-year career, Hildebrand also served as a co-line producer on Vice Squad (1982), as a producer/line producer on the Jim Carrey vampire comedy Once Bitten (1985), and a line producer on the Oliver Stone-executive produced Freeway (1996) and Miramax’s live-action Beowulf (1999). He also executive produced 2006’s The Hills Have Eyes with producer Wes Craven and 2007’s Into the Wild, the twice Oscar-nominated road trip drama directed by Sean Penn.
As executive in charge of production for River Road Entertainment, Hildebrand oversaw the Penn and Naomi Watts-starrer Fair Game (2010), coming-of-age biopic The Runaways (2010), and the Best Picture-nominated The Tree of Life (2011), starring Brad Pitt, Jessica Chastain, and Penn.
Per his IMDb, Hildebrand is slated to appear in Celluloid Wizards in the Video Wasteland: The Saga of Empire Pictures, a crowdfunded feature-length documentary “about the rise and fall of Empire Pictures, the most ambitious B-movie studio in the 1980s.” For Empire Studios, Hildebrand served as a line producer on the 1987 film Prison and the 1989 film Robot Jox.
