Bill Marshall

Bill Marshall, CM, (June 13, 1939 – January 1, 2017) was a Scottish-born Canadian filmmaker, film producer and theater producer, and published author. In 1976, Marshall co-founded the Toronto Festival of Festivals, now known as the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), with Dusty Cohl and Henk Van der Kolk. The first Festival of Festivals drew just 35,000 attendees to view 127 films in October 1976. His father was a railway worker and socialist, and also a fan of drama, regularly visiting the left-wing Citizens Theatre in the city. In 1955, when Bill was just 15, the whole family emigrated to Canada, and Bill later became a Canadian citizen. Most recently, Marshall and Van der Kolk proposed a possible film festival in Trenton, Ontario, the location of one of Canada's first film studios, for Canada's 150th sesquicentennial in 2017.