Mickey Cottrell, Star Trek Actor and Hollywood Publicist, Dead at 79: He Was ‘So Full of Life,’ Says Sister

Mickey Cottrell, a veteran Hollywood publicist and film and television actor, who appeared in Star Trek and My Own Private Idaho, has died. He was 79.

Cottrell’s sister, Suzy Cottrell-Smith, confirmed the news to multiple outlets, including Deadline and Variety.

“My adorable, fun, critical, foodie, particular, brilliant, loving brother passed on to the next life early on New Year’s Day,” Cottrell-Smith wrote on Facebook, per Variety. “He was smiling when he died. Mickey Cottrell will be missed by many.”

Deadline reported that Cottrell died Monday at the Motion Picture & Television Fund in Woodland Hills, California. Citing his sister, the outlet added that Cottrell had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, and had a stroke in 2016.

Cottrell spent more than four decades in the film, television and PR industries after growing up in Little Rock, Arkansas, and attending the University of Arkansas.

After making his made his screen-acting debut as Daddy Carroll in 1991’s My Own Private Idaho, Cottrell cemented his screen presence with notable roles in Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Voyager in the 1990s.

According to IMDb, he also appeared in films like Paper Hearts (1993), Ed Wood (1994), Hellraiser: Bloodline (1996) and Apt Pupil (1998). His last on-screen role was 2012’s I Do.

Cottrell served as a publicist on more than 100 films over the course of his career, including Earth Girls Are Easy (1988), Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1993) and Dead Calm, a 1989 thriller starring Nicole Kidman, Sam Neill and Billy Zane.

Asked in a 2016 interview with Jeffrey Schwarz how he’d “characterize” his Hollywood life, Cottrell said, “Magical, thrilling, difficult, joyous — Hollywood is a place that you enter at your own risk.”

Cottrell’s sister told Deadline that “he was the most fun brother ever.” She added, “So many good memories of when I was a kid — we’d sing together, dance, just all kinds of fun things that went on all the time when he was around.”

“He was just so fun, full of life, entertaining,” continued Cottrell-Smith. “Every woman in the neighborhood adored him.”

Cottrell’s former Inclusive PR colleague John McAvoy told the outlet, “He was an artist first and he taught me that, at its best, publicity is about pure enthusiasm and joy and that it can be a vital part of a broader creative process rather than merely a necessary lubricant in the sales process.”

“RIP to the Wizard,” he added.

Cottrell is survived by two sisters — Suzy and Gigi Cottrell — plus nephew Jeremy Allen and great-nephew Gregory Allen, per Variety.