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Rogue Valley remembers Bill Cottrell By AL REISS Mike Footh, commander of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1833 in Medford, remembers Bill Cottrell. "Everybody knew Bill. They called him 'Hollywood.' That was his nickname." In recent years, when he was able, Cottrell spent quite a bit of time at the VFW post. "Before last December, he was in every day," Footh recalls. "He would walk down from his home on Quince Street (off West Main Street in Medford). He'd have a few glasses of wine, which he called 'imitation water.' Then we'd call a cab for him to go home.'' William D. Cottrell, a member of the original acting company of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival who went on to appear in several films, died in Medford early Thursday, eight days after his 86th birthday. He was a native of the Rogue Valley, born here in 1915. "He liked to talk about being raised on the upper Rogue River," Footh said Friday, "and his school days in Phoenix." During World War II, Cottrell served in the U.S. Army in England. When he returned, he resumed acting and theater studies he had begun before the war. He would later teach them. He was a member of the first festival company in 1935, working with Angus L. Bowmer and Angus' wife at the time, Lois Bowmer. He continued to work with the festival and, in 1940, directed all four plays, when Angus took time away for a sabbatical in Europe. Eugene Bennett, Jacksonville artist, was in that 1940 season as an actor. He played Verges in "Much Ado About Nothing." Bennett remembers that Cottrell included a song, written by Bennett, in the play. "I don't think he would have done it later," Bennett says, "because it wasn't Shakespeare." The song was "My Love in Her Attire," sung by La Murle Beck, whose family owned Beck's Bakery in Medford. Bennett adds, "Bill was marvelous at coming up with titles for paintings." He says that he, Cottrell and the late Ray Lewis, of Jacksonville, would get together to put titles to Bennett's paintings, which Cottrell continued to do until recently. "He would come up with a wonderful title. Then he would call the next day, or the day after that, and say he had a better title. "Bill used to paint. Quite a bit. He had a landscape painting that used to change with the seasons. Trees. In the summer they would be green. In the fall they would change to autumn colors. In the winter they would lose their leaves and go bare. Then they would get new leaves in the spring. It was a seasonal painting," Bennett recalls. "Instead of starting a new one, he would go on working on the same one. His painting was always in production, always going on." "He was an artist," says Millie Perkins. The actress knew Cottrell from her time living in Jacksonville in the late 1970s, and corresponded with him for many years. Perkins played Anne Frank in the 1959 film, "The Diary of Anne Frank." She later played a role in "Wild in the Country," with Elvis Presley (1964), and major roles in two movies with Jack Nicholson, "Ride the Whirlwind" and "The Shooting," both in 1966. From her home in North Hollywood on Friday, she said, "I met a man who was gentle. He was an artist, and I was happy to see a man like that living on this quiet little Quince Street in Medford, Oregon. He had class. He had quality. He had quality you would expect to meet in New York, in Paris, in Italy. He had quality to the end. I not only liked him. I admired him. I'm sorry he is gone." Shirley Patton, of Ashland, an actress who worked in many plays with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, said Friday, "I remember being struck with Bill's energy at the time of the 50th anniversary celebration." In the summer of 1985, when the festival observed its 50th year, Cottrell was one of several people from that original 1935 group invited to take part in ceremonies commemorating the anniversary. Cottrell's career took him to New York, Paris, Hollywood and many places in between. He worked with contemporaries such as Charles Boyer, Charles Laughton, Agnes Moorehead, Marlon Brando, Marilyn Monroe, Burgess Meredith and many others. Bob Campbell, of Medford, met Cottrell 18 years ago and became close friends with him. Late in Cottrell's life, right up until last Thursday, Campbell cared for Bill, driving him places he needed or wanted to go, including the VFW post. In conversation Thursday afternoon, Campbell asked, "How do you isolate the entire experience of this man?" Al Reiss is a freelance writer and critic living in Jacksonville. Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.