Cotton Hill

Cotton Lyndal Hill (September 1, 1927—November 11, 2007) was a fictional character in the Fox animated series King of the Hill voiced by Toby Huss. He was the father of Hank Hill, Good Hank Hill (or "G.H."), Junichiro (his illegitimate half-Japanese son), and, according to him, at least 270 possible others. He was a World War II veteran who had his shins "blowed off by a Japanman's machine gun" in combat and later had his feet attached to his knees as a result. This made him a foot shorter than his relatives and caused a characteristic waddle. According to Hank, Cotton was 6'4" with his shins and was 5'0" without them. Despite his disability, he eventually reached the rank of Colonel in the Texas State Defense Forces and was addressed as such by his friends. Cotton Hill dies in the 12th season of King of the Hill at age 80 after suffering severe burns from slipping on a flat top grill. Early life and military service If Cotton's story is to be believed, he was born around 1927, making him about 70 in the first season of the show. In a third-season episode Hank says Cotton is 70, and in the Season 4 episode "Cotton Comes Marching Home", he states himself to be 71. Little is known about Cotton's childhood other than that he started out with a gun at an early age according to Hank in the episode "How to Fire A Rifle Without Really Trying", that he attended Fort Birk when he was very young and spent much of his childhood there as he revealed in "An Officer and A Gentle Boy", that he apparently joined the army when he was only 14 years old as revealed in "Shins of the Father", and that Cotton's mother apparently died giving birth to him, as he exaggerates in "Death Picks Cotton". Almost nothing is known about Cotton's father, except that he may have been German, as Peggy tells Bobby in the episode "Tears of an Inflatable Clown" and the only time Cotton ever himself refers to his father during the entire series is when he shouts at Hank: "You ain't my daddy, I'm your daddy!". Cotton also has an unnamed brother (Dusty's father). Cotton was zealously proud of his military service record and his status as a war hero, although he tended to exaggerate his exploits. He often claims to anyone who will listen that he killed "fitty [50] men" during the war. He consistently reminded everyone within earshot about how he lost his shins during World War II: "I was 14, just a little older than Bobby. But I knew Uncle Sam needed me, so I lied and signed up.