---
name: "William Cottrell"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/william-cottrell"
roles: ["Director","Writer"]
born: "19 November 1906"
died: "22 December 1995"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 4
average_fi1m_score: 78
updated: "2026-09-17T06:01:41.076703+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# William Cottrell

Director and writer. Born 19 November 1906 in South Bend, Indiana, USA. Died 22 December 1995.

## Details

- **Work:** Director, Writer
- **Born:** 19 November 1906, South Bend, Indiana, USA
- **Died:** 22 December 1995
- **Active:** 1938–1953
- **Also known as:** Uncle Bill, Bill Cottrell
- **Fi1m score by decade:** 1930s 85 (1), 1940s 88 (1), 1950s 70 (2)
- **Elsewhere:** https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1758110, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0183183/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/67373

## Streaming the US now

- **Disney+:** [*Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs*](https://film.one/film/snow-white-and-the-seven-dwarfs.md) (85)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Biography

William Cottrell, also credited as Bill Cottrell and known as Uncle Bill, was an American writer, sequence director and Imagineer who worked at the Walt Disney Studios from 1929 until his retirement in 1982.

He began in the camera department before moving to the story department, where he contributed to shorts and features. Cottrell served as a sequence director on *Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs* (1937), handling sequences involving the Evil Queen and Witch. He received story or adaptation credits on *Pinocchio* (1940), *Saludos Amigos* (1942), *The Three Caballeros* (1944), *Alice in Wonderland* (1951) and *Peter Pan* (1953).

Cottrell later headed the division responsible for designing and building Disneyland, becoming the first president of what is now Walt Disney Imagineering. He was married to Hazel Sewell, sister of Lillian Disney.

*Sources: imdb.com, snowwhitemuseum.com, disney.fandom.com, d23.com, latimes.com.*

## On Fi1m (4)

- *Peter Pan* (1953), Fi1m 68, Story — [page](https://film.one/film/peter-pan-1953.md)
- *Alice in Wonderland* (1951), Fi1m 71, Story — [page](https://film.one/film/alice-in-wonderland.md)
- *Pinocchio* (1940), Fi1m 88, Adaptation — [page](https://film.one/film/pinocchio.md)
- *Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs* (1938), Fi1m 85, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/snow-white-and-the-seven-dwarfs.md)

## Also known for

- *The Three Caballeros* (1944), Story
- *Saludos Amigos* (1942), Writer
- *The Tortoise and the Hare* (1935), Storyboard
- *Thru the Mirror* (1936), Story
- *The Reluctant Dragon* (1941), Screenplay
- *The Grasshopper and the Ants* (1934), Writer
- *Three Little Wolves* (1936), Storyboard, Screenplay
- *Toby Tortoise Returns* (1936), Storyboard

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/william-cottrell