William Harry Dennis Cottrell was an American writer for Walt Disney Animation Studios and a driving force behind Disneyland's creation.
Cottrell was born in 1906 to English parents in South Bend, Indiana and graduated from Occidental College in Los Angeles, California, where he studied English and journalism. After working for a time on George Herriman's "Krazy Kat" comic strip, he was offered a job working cameras at Disney Studios in 1929. He soon moved into the Story department and contributed ideas for shorts, including Who Killed Cock Robin?, Peculiar Penguins, and Water Babies.
He went on to direct the Wicked Witch and Evil Queen sequences in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and contributed to story on Pinocchio. In 1938, he married Lillian Disney's sister, Hazel Sewell. In 1941, Bill and Hazel joined Walt Disney and a small group of artists on a goodwill tour of South America on behalf of the United States Government, which inspired Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros.
During the 1950s, he carried his interest in story over to WED Enterprises (now Walt Disney Imagineering), where he served as its first president and helped develop storylines and dialog for Disneyland attractions, such as Snow White's Adventures. Keen on nomenclature, he encouraged others quit using the term 'ride' and to refer to attractions as an 'experience'.
He also helped develop the popular Zorro television series and, in 1964, was named president of Retlaw Enterprises, the Walt Disney family corporation. He held that position until 1982, when he retired after 53 years of service.
A lifelong fan of Sherlock Holmes, Bill's idea for a movie about an animal detective inspired the 1986 animated feature film The Great Mouse Detective.
In 1994, Cottrell was honored as a Disney Legend. He passed away on December 22, 1995, in Los Angeles.
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.jpg "Disney staff in January 1930 (2).jpg (65 KB)")
Kneeling, from left, Dick Lundy, Charles Byrne, Carlos Manriquez, Norman Ferguson, Merle Gilson, Chuck Couch, Carl Stalling, Johnny Cannon, Walt Disney.
