Mickey Cottrell Dies: Veteran Actor & Publicist Was 79
Mickey Cottrell, a veteran Hollywood publicist and actor, who appeared in TV series such as Star Trek: Voyager, has died. He was 79.
He passed on New Year’s Day at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California, his friend Ian Birnie told the Hollywood Reporter. He’d previously suffered a major stroke in 2016.
Born September 4, 1944, in Little Rock, Arkansas, Cottrell attended Catholic High School and later the University of Arkansas. His love of film and acting started early, having worked at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis and later managing the Loyola Theater.
Cottrell started out working publicity at various firms before launching Cottrell and Lindeman Associates in 1989 and then his own firms, Mickey Cottrell Film Publicity in 2002 and Inclusive PR in 2004.
He worked with many big-name independent filmmakers throughout his career, including Andrew Haigh, Phillip Noyce, Win Wenders, and, most notably, Gus Van Sant, having worked with the director on publicity for three of his films, Drugstore Cowboy, My Own Private Idaho, and Even Cowgirls Get the Blues.
His other publicity work includes the films Bagdad Cafe (1987), Earth Girls Are Easy (1987), Dead Calm (1989), Tarnation (2003), Ballets Russes (2005), The Price of Sugar (2007), Skin (2008), Bill Cunningham: New York (2010), Salt (2010), and Tab Hunter Confidential (2015), and many more.
Cottrell also dabbled in production work, having produced the 1992 Linda Fiorentino film Chain of Desire and the Paul Bartel-directed film Shelf Life in 1993.
On the acting side of things, Cottrell appeared in Van Sant’s My Own Private Idaho and Drugstore Cowboy, in addition to Tim Burton’s Ed Wood and the TV series Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Voyager, 413 Hope St., and The Practice. His most recent on-screen role was in the 2012 film I Do.
He is survived by sisters Gigi and Suzy Cottrell, his nephew Jeremy Allen, and great-nephew Gregory Allen.
