Bill Mitchell was the son of a Buick dealer and developed a talent for sketching automobiles at an early age.

[6] Mitchell set out to break with the styling cues used under Harley Earl, wanting to eliminate chrome excess, fat fins and similar signature marks.

[citation needed] Mitchell gave GM designers the assignment of combining Rolls-Royce and Ferrari styling cues to create Buick's classic 1963 Riviera.

The designs for both the 1963 Corvette and the 1963 Riviera were accepted by their respective divisions on Christmas Eve 1961, in what Mitchell referred to as perhaps the greatest moment of his life.

[citation needed] The split rear window would be eliminated (and re-worked into one pane of curved glass) for the 1964 Corvette coupe.

The 1963-1967 Stingray (in both coupe and roadster editions), with its slightly bulged front and rear quarter-panels, would be one of the first General Motors cars to feature what came to be known as "Coke bottle" styling, creating an aggressive and muscular look.

Mitchell also influenced the dramatic styling of the second generation 1965 rear-engine Corvair, which, like other GM models introduced for that year, used curved side-window glass to enhance its "Coke Bottle" profile.

Bill Mitchell died at the age of 76 from heart failure at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan, on September 12, 1988.