William Scott was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. During World War II he served in the U.S. Army’s First Motion Picture Unit (reporting to Lt. Ronald Reagan), where he worked with such animators as Frank Thomas. After the war, he became what was then known as a “story man” at Warner Bros., working under director Arthur Davis. He later worked at the cutting-edge studio United Productions of America where he was one of the writers who adapted Dr. Seuss‘s original story for the 1951 Academy Award-winning short Gerald McBoing-Boing, which later became a television show, as well as adapting the 1953 Academy Award-nominated short film of Edgar Allan Poe‘s The Tell-Tale Heart.
Scott began work as a voice actor as well when he joined Jay Ward as head writer and co-producer, and voice acted in such television series as The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show (most notably as Bullwinkle, as well as Dudley Do-Right). In a 1982 interview, Scott said, “I got a call from Jay [Ward] asking if I’d be interested in writing another series, an adventure script with a moose and a squirrel. I said, ‘Sure.’ I didn’t know if I could write an adventure with a moose and a squirrel, but I never turned down a job.”[2]
Bullwinkle in Manhattan:
