cartoonist, was born in Kalgoorlie, WA. He left school aged 15 and moved to Perth where he became a copy boy on the West Australian 'to fill in the time before joining the Air Force’. The air force 'knocked me back because my eyes were crook, so I ended up becoming a press artist’. Simply because there was a vacancy, he was put in the art department in 1969 and began drawing cartoons. He was soon appointed the daily cartoonist, the first since the paper began publication in 1933 [in 1934 according to the Australian 31/10/1998, 11]. He remained until 1978 then moved to Sydney to join the Daily Telegraph (1979-80). In 1980 he transferred to the Australian where he remained for 14 years, until his death. Rigby , who was drawing in Perth when Mitchell was growing up, was a key influence on his work (as he was on so many newspaper cartoonists, e.g. Benier , Slapp ), though Les Tanner 'influenced me a lot on caricature’ and he was a fan of Jolliffe 's 'for years and years’.
Mitchell had work syndicated worldwide through New York. He won Stanley Awards for the best editorial/political cartoonist in 1985, 1987 and 1992 and for best comic strip artist in 1987-88 for Bustards of the Bush . Probably his best-known work, this weekly strip was developed from In the Scrub with Harry Bottler (a parody of the TV 'bush’ personality Harry Butler). It appeared in the Weekend Australian from 1983 until he died; a collection, Mitchell’s Bustards of the Bush was published by Cumberland Press, Parramatta, in 1984. In 1989, when Mitchell was dying of leukaemia, News Ltd instituted the Bill Mitchell Memorial Award for young artists. He lived to present the first in 1990, joking that the name needed to be changed. Despite chemotherapy he continued to produce cartoons from his home at Muswellbrook (NSW) – faxed to Sydney – until he died in May 1994. He was survived by his wife, Rhonda, their four sons – Stuart, Leigh, Dale and Christopher – and various grandchildren. The Bill Mitchell Memorial Art Award continued to be sponsored by the Australian newspaper for some years.
- Writers:
- Kerr, Joan
- Date written:
- 1996
- Last updated:
- 2007
