Joseph Leathley Cowell (né Hawkins-Witshed; 7 August 1792 – 13 November 1863) was an English actor, author, and painter.

Cowell entered the navy at the age of 13, served three years as a midshipman, and then embarked on a year-long cruise to the West Indies.

He did his duty so bravely that on arriving at Plymouth, the admiral obtained his antedated discharge by way of the sick list.

This was followed by regular engagements acting alongside such performers as Dorothea Jordan and Charles Mayne Young.

The theatrical manager Stephen Kemble offered Cowell an engagement at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, where he opened as Samson Rawbold in Colman's The Iron Chest and Nicholas in the Midnight Hour.

[1] In 1844, he wrote a memoir, Thirty years passed among the players in England and America, that was issued in two parts.