Bill is a 1981 American made-for-television biographical drama film starring Mickey Rooney and Dennis Quaid based on the life of Bill Sackter, who lived in a mental hospital for 44 years after being erroneously diagnosed as severely mentally handicapped as a child. The film was broadcast on CBS on December 22, 1981. A sequel, ', was released in 1983. Writer/filmmaker Barry Morrow, portrayed in Bill by Dennis Quaid, based the story on his own experiences in becoming SackterâÂÂs legal guardian. Sackter would also serve as a partial inspiration for the character of Raymond Babbitt in Morrow's early draft screenplay for the 1988 film Rain Man.
Bill is a man with an intellectual disability in his 60s. He ventures out into the world for the first time after spending most of his life at Grandville, a dreary inner city institution in Minneapolis, Minnesota, since age seven (when his mother sent him there). Bill is taken in by a kind family and learns what it means to love for the first time in his life.
Mickey Rooney won an Emmy Award and Golden Globe for his performance, and the film also received a Golden Globe for Best TV Film.