Bill

Background

Bill is the oldest survivor of Left 4 Dead. Bill fought in active combat during the Vietnam War with the Green Berets.

Bill is the oldest, theorized to be in his 60s due to his involvement in Vietnam, of the original Survivor team and appears to hold a strong presence as the group leader. He also appears to show some previous experience of fighting the Infected as he is able to recognize a Witch immediately on sight in the opening cutscene and he is also able to infer that the Infected are mutating into Special Infected simply by examining goo left on the ground.

Official Description

The following is an official description of Bill written by Valve.

"It took two eventful tours in Vietnam, a handful of medals, a knee full of shrapnel, and an honorable discharge before the unthinkable happened: Bill ran out of wars. But now an army of infected undead has declared war on humanity. After decades of aimless drifting and dead-end jobs, Bill's finally gotten back the only thing he ever wanted: an enemy to fight."

Memorable Quotes

• "Pills here!"
• "Francis!"
• "Louis!"
• "Zoey!"
• "I didn't sign up for this shit!"
• "Francis, is there something you don't hate?"
• "Don't be an ass, Francis."
• "Son, we just cross the street. Let's not throw a party til we're out of the city."
• "Close your mouth and open your eyes Francis. You'll aim better."
• "You know who's gonna survive this mess, Francis. It ain't the fellow making jokes."

Cameos

Bill's head and hat appears in the Steam version of Mevo and the Grooveriders.

Bill's trademark hat was released for use in the PC version of Team Fortress 2 with valid pre-orders of Left 4 Dead 2.

In the Cold Stream announcement Valve revealed that Bill will appear as a skin in the XBLA version of Minecraft.

Trivia

• Bill is voiced by Jim French, who also played Father Grigori in Half-Life 2.
• Bill's face model is Bernard Fouquet.
• The name Overbeck can be spotted above the right pocket on the front of Bill's jacket thus telling us of his last name. His name could have possibly come from the character William "Wild Bill" Overbeck in the movie Rocket Man, although this is incredibly unlikely. This also makes Bill the only character to have a known last name in the first Left 4 Dead.
• Bill is found dead (presumably from a Tank attack) in the DLC "The Passing" in Left 4 Dead 2 after the new survivors get to the campaign's finale. This fate was most likely chosen for him due to the fact that Valve has not been able to get in contact with his voice actor for Crash Course and the DLC preceding it; in addition, in-universe it would make the most sense for Bill to sacrifice himself, as he is the oldest Survivor and seems to regard the others (even Francis) with a kind of fatherly affection.