Bill Dauterive

Bill Dauterive
First appearance	Pilot
Last appearance	To Sirloin with Love
Portrayed by	Stephen Root
Information
Gender	Male
Occupation	Army Sergeant/ Barber
Spouse(s)	Lenore Dauterive (ex wife)
Relatives	Gilbert Dauterive (cousin) Violetta (cousin) Girac Dauterive (cousin) Rene Dautrive (cousin) Esme Dauterive (aunt) Alphonse Dauterive (uncle)
Religion	Catholic

Bill Dauterive ( /doʊˈtriːv/), born Guillaume Fontaine de la Tour D'Haute Rive (French for "William Fountain of the Tower of the Upper Bank") is a fictional character on the Fox animated series King of the Hill. He is the Hills' overweight, divorced, and clinically depressed neighbor, voiced by Stephen Root and named for series producer Jim Dauterive.

Production

Root used his background in Southern theater to help him develop the voice of Bill. Root attended the University Of Florida, and had performed in Southern plays in New York City prior to being chosen for the role. He originally auditioned for the role of Dale Gribble, which "didn't feel right" so he then auditioned for Bill.

Personality

Bill is indicated as coming from an upper-class Cajun family in Louisiana, who lived on a vast estate called the Chateau D'Haute Rive ("castle on the high river") until his cousin Gilbert is forced to sell it. He speaks fluent Cajun French and plays the accordion skillfully, which surprises him just as much as it does everyone else. His father was abusive, spanking him regularly, locking him in a rabbit hutch and making him wear dresses. (Bill attempts to justify these actions when he mentions them.) As of the second season episode "The Final Shinsuit," Bill's father is presumably still alive (though slowing down in his later years), based upon Bill's remark to Hank that his father "can't even load a hunting rifle anymore," with Bill further commenting that he has to "practically put it in his hands and pull the trigger." By the time of the fourth season episode "A Beer Can Named Desire," Bill's only living male relative is his dandified cousin Gilbert, who still lives in Louisiana. By the eleventh season, the two are guardians of the family's secret barbecue sauce recipe, which Gilbert refuses to allow Bill to sell. (However, Bill eventually gives the recipe to Bobby Hill so he can pass it on to his children, thus keeping the Dauterive tradition alive).

Although overweight, short (he claims to stand 5 foot 8 and 3/4 inches tall), balding, and emotionally needy in his later years, Bill was a muscular, confident athlete with long flowing hair in his youth. Nicknamed the "Billdozer", he held Arlen High's career touchdown record until a young athlete named Ricky Suggs broke it years later. Ricky, however, is simply allowed to score the record-breaking touchdown by the other team due to a torn ACL, rather than playing injured as Bill would have; to regain his honor Bill rejoins the team to score one last touchdown and re-tie the record (he had redshirt eligibility due to being drafted to the Army during his senior year). Bill's bright future was derailed when he attended a Molly Hatchet concert and found his future wife Lenore passed out in his lap; she would go on to cheat on and humiliate Bill before finally leaving him a broken shell of his former self. Although there appears to be several factors, it can generally be assumed that her leaving him was the major cause of his downward spiral. In the episode "Order of the Straight Arrow," Bill says "I'm so depressed, I can't even blink."

Bill is often a foil for his friends, who verbally and emotionally put him down on a regular basis, either because they don't realize how hurtful their remarks are or because Bill is too dimwitted to mind very much. He is the first person to be mentioned when any character refers to losers or bemoans a misfortune for fear their lives will be ruined, like his. For example, Hank, while telling Peggy that a lawn makes a man and gives him a purpose, says "Without my lawn, I am Bill," which disgusts Peggy as the thought of being with Bill nauseates her to no end. Bill, like Dale Gribble and Boomhauer, has a strong admiration for Hank and often seeks his advice before doing anything, and for his help when in trouble. He occasionally gets dragged into Dale's crazy schemes, and often is the one who accidentally ruins them. Of all his acquaintances, Boomhauer seems to be the one who gives him the most respect, possibly due to the fact that Bill once helped a brokenhearted Boomhauer get over a girl who dumped him. Bill has an obsessive crush on Peggy, and frequently makes bumbling, inappropriate remarks about her. Although his friends are often disgusted or frustrated at his stupidity and the number of times he has wrecked their plans, they were devastated when it appeared that he had sacrificed himself to save them when they were stuck on a military target zone, with Hank saying that he was a good friend - sweet, loyal, and brave. During their high school years as they have one last blowout in Bill's honor as he's being shipped off a drunken Hank stirs up a fight with a thug at a bar, but Bill intervenes and saves Hank.

When examining Bill's Army medical history, Dale discovered that Bill was unknowingly made part in an experiment called "Operation: Infinite Walrus", to create a hybrid soldier capable of operating in freezing cold waters. It is assumed that the experimental drugs are the cause of his weight gain, excessive body hair, baldness, and terrible body odor and breath until it's revealed that he was in the experimental group given a placebo. Bill is also shown to have a severe but easily treatable foot fungus, which actually comes in handy once to help Hank get revenge on a fraudulent mold inspector. It was once indicated that Bill has diabetes, but then later contradicted by the inept diagnosing doctor, who says that he only said Bill was likely to get diabetes. Originally the doctor made it seem like Bill already had the condition and ultimately would need to use a wheelchair. (Later, Bill beats him up for this, with Hank standing guard.) Ironically, this "diagnosis" leads Bill to a depressed slump, where he meets Thunder, a wheelchair-using muscle man who plays a wheelchair-friendly version of Rugby. This then leads Bill to get into better shape while playing the sport.

Bill's personal hygiene and other habits are shown to be very poor. As previously mentioned he has severe foot fungus, terrible breath and body odor (when opening the hatch of a tank Bill had stolen, Hank believed there was a dead animal inside due to the smell). Various comments indicate that he doesn't shower or brush his teeth on a regular basis. Bobby states that he has dandruff in spite of being bald. He is regularly shown eating food he finds in or under his couch, and has even been shown to eat food without dishes (as in one episode where he was cooking himself spaghetti, where he broke his only plate and was forced to eat the spaghetti off of his counter and drink the jar of sauce he was going to serve with it). He dumps garbage directly out his kitchen window despite having a garbage can. He has been shown to fall asleep while eating snacks, which attracts animals into his bedroom, though he seems incredulous or apathetic to this. His bathroom is described as disgusting, when asked if they would rather endure a dangerous and painful stunt (ex. stick a wasp up your nose) or shower in Bill's bathroom, his friends always choose the former. When assigned tasks to get his house ready for a family reunion after Nancy and Peggy are assigned the bathroom, both are horrified and desperately try to change assignments. He also has a foot fetish—finding Peggy's unnaturally over-sized feet very appealing.

Romantic relationships

Bill Dauterive's ex-wife was named Lenore, who was seen and voiced in the episode "Hank and the Great Glass Elevator", attempting to worm her way back into Bill's life when he became high profile while dating former Texas governor Ann Richards. During the early seasons, he often pined for Lenore to return after she ran out on him, but he was somewhat successful in getting over her in the episode "Pretty Pretty Dresses" after Hank resorts to pretending to be Lenore. Bill then finally symbolically confronts Lenore for leaving him, and after being told "I don't love you anymore" he becomes enraged and yells "You don't deserve William Fontaine De la Tour Dauterive!". During "Hank and the Great Glass Elevator", Lenore tries ordering Bill around in front of Ann Richards but he finally tells her off by mooning her. Other relationships include Luanne's mother Leanne Platter ("Leanne's Saga"), which ended when she reverted to her drunken violent ways and stole his truck, and Kahn's mother Laoma Souphanousinphone ("Maid in Arlen"), which was broken up by interference from Kahn, who convinced Bill that his mother was in love with astronaut Harrison Schmitt, but they then found out Kahn had been lying because seeing the two of them together disgusted him, and reunited with Kahn grudgingly saying they seemed right together (the show originally intended for Bill and Laoma to remain together, but the writing staff changed that plan and simply wrote her out of the series so Bill could remain hilariously unlucky in love). He also had a brief, mostly sexual, relationship with two of his cousins' widows ("A Beer Can Named Desire"). In the episode "The Untitled Blake McCormick Project," Bill dates a woman named Charlene, and she even moves in with him, however Charlene's past with John Redcorn complicates matters. In a later season, he dated Reverend Karen Stroup for a time and even moved her in with him, but eventually broke it off when he felt they were moving too fast. Due to his ability to keep going after virtually any rejection, Bill is the one able to snap Boomhauer out of his depression when rejected by a woman he truly had feelings for.

Work and personality

Bill holds the fictional military occupational specialty, barber in the United States Army. Though his rank has been revealed through dialogue as being sergeant, his uniform does not bear sergeant rank or any other real US military insignia. He has never deployed in his Army career. He briefly served as a recruiter when his position was eliminated for being wasteful, but it was secretly restored when Hank donated a new chair, with a cover job as an electrician. It is revealed in one episode that as an athletic young man entering the army, he wanted to serve in the armored cavalry in a tank crew. He also was briefly a professional hair stylist with Luanne at the trendy salon Hottyz until it was discovered he wasn't homosexual.

Several times through out the series Bill is revealed to be very talented at cutting hair. When Hank receives a bad hair cut, Bill is able to fix it. While working at Hottyz, Bill and Luanne rise to become "first chair." On another episode it is revealed that the General of the base that Bill cuts hair at won't allow anyone, but Bill, to cut his hair.

When he is engaged by other pursuits, such as when he toured with a choir group called the Harmonoholics or when he decided to run his own halfway house, Bill uses up all his personal and sick days from the army almost to the point of going AWOL; otherwise he doesn't use them at all. He is described as being nice but often depressed and lonely; his overwhelming need to make people like him makes him easily taken advantage of, particularly by Dale.

In the episode "Bill of Sales" it is also suggested that Bill has emotionally masochistic tendencies—explaining his lust for Peggy. No one finds Bill more repellent than her—and everyone finds Bill very repellent. After learning this, Peggy's attempt to, in her words, "'motivate' him, business term, with a little 'praise', my term, he goes plumb loco, Spanish term." Hank's response, "You must have confused him; being dumped on is all Bill knows" leads Peggy to conclude that "Bill has had a hard life and he likes it that way" and subsequently refers to him as a "nut job". She manages to persuade him to go back to work for her by verbally abusing him. However, she soon fires him out of feelings of guilt for taking advantage of his low self-esteem. It's also during this episode that Bill shows exceptional skills as a salesman, helping Peggy achieve her sales quotas quickly. However it could be seen as Bill didn't want to betray Hank (afraid that Peggy was coming onto him), and the reason for going back to help Peggy was fear she didn't want to even talk to him anymore.

Despite Bill's complete infatuation with Peggy, she seems to loathe him just as much. She brings him a great deal of heartache, though it's not always intentional. For example, during a game of baseball, she once accidentally threw a bean-ball at his head, knocking him to the ground. She then mistakenly threw another at his crotch, putting him in excruciating pain and embarrassment. Another time, angry at his endless pursuit of her, she hit him once at a game and wound up knocking him off the bleachers- his arm later in a sling. She stole his prized American flag and accidentally destroyed it, driving him to absolute tears. Despite all of this, she says she considers him "a friend."

According to Drawn to Television by M. Keith Booker, Bill "is a lonely figure who adds a touch of pathos to the humor of King of the Hill, which is often bittersweet." Jim Bawden of the Toronto Star describes Bill as a "sad sack". Voicing Bill and a couple other characters on the show is Stephen Root's favorite job.