Mickey Cottrell, the dependable Hollywood publicist who went to bat for independent films for decades while also dabbling in acting and producing, has died. He was 79.
Cottrell died on New Year’s Day at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, his friend Ian Birnie, former LACMA film curator, told The Hollywood Reporter. He suffered a major stroke in 2016.
Cottrell did PR for three Gus Van Sant-directed films: Drugstore Cowboy (1989), My Own Private Idaho (1991), where he also played the clean freak Daddy Carroll in the movie, and Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1993).
He also repped Bagdad Cafe (1987), Earth Girls Are Easy (1987), Phillip Noyce’s 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), among many other films.
Films and filmmakers he represented were honored with eight Sundance jury prizes and three Oscars, he once noted.
As an actor, the Arkansas native portrayed aliens on episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1992 and Star Trek: Voyager in 1997 and showed up in such films as Grief (1993) — with his character doing a Lionel Barrymore impersonation — Ed Wood (1994), Speechless (1994), Apt Pupil (1997), Volcano (1997), Jolene (2008) and I Do (2012).
His producing credits included Chain of Desire (1992), starring Linda Fiorentino, and Shelf Life (1993), directed by Paul Bartel.
Born on Sept. 4, 1944, in Springfield, Illinois, Richard Edward Cottrell attended Catholic High in Little Rock, Arkansas, and the University of Arkansas. He acted at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis before coming west and managing and serving as a projectionist at the Loyola Theatre, an art deco masterpiece in Westchester that shuttered in 1982.
Cottrell started out in publicity in L.A. at Landmark Theaters, working there from 1982-84 (he also was the publicist for the Indian guru now known as Prem Rawat). He spent three years with Josh Baran & Associates before launching Cottrell and Lindeman Associates with Doug Lindemann in 1989. In 2002, he went out on his own with Mickey Cottrell Film Publicity and then in 2004 with Inclusive PR.
After his stroke, Cottrell returned to Arkansas for about three years before moving into the Motion Picture home about four years ago, Birnie said.
Survivors include his sisters, Suzy and Gigi. Plans for a memorial service will be announced.
