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Walt Disney
Age: 65 (passed away Dec. 15th, 1966)
Height: 5' 10"
Birth Place: Chicago, Illinois, USA
Born: Dec. 31st, 1969
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Walt Disney's Main TV Roles
NOTE: Complete List of Works can be found at
IMDB
BIOGRAPHY: At age 16, during World War I, he lied about his age to join the American Red Cross. He soon returned home, where he won a scholarship to the Kansas City Art Institute. There, he met a fellow animator, Ub Iwerks. The two soon set up their own company. In the early 20s, they made a series of animated shorts for the Newman theater chain, entitled "Newman's Laugh-O-Grams". Their company soon went bankrupt, however. The two then went to Hollywood in 1923. They started work on a new series, about a live-action little girl who journeys to a world of animated characters. Entitled the "Alice Comedies", they were distributed by M.J. Winkler (Margaret). Walt was backed up financially only by Winkler and his brother Roy O. Disney, who remained his business partner for the rest of his life. Hundreds of "Alice Comedies" were produced between 1923 and 1927, before they lost popularity. Walt then started work on a series around a new animated character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. This series was successful, but in 1928, Walt discovered that M.J. Winkler and her husband, Charles Mintz, had stolen the rights to the character away from him. They had also stolen all his animators, except for Ub Iwerks. While taking the train home, Walt started doddling on a piece of paper. The result of these doddles was a mouse named Mickey. With only Walt and Ub to animate, and Walt's wife Lillian Disney (Lilly) and Roy's wife Edna Disney to ink in the animation cells, three Mickey Mouse cartoons were quickly produced. The first two didn't sell, so Walt added synchronized sound to the last one, Steamboat Willie (1928), and it was immediately picked up. It became the first cartoon to use synchronize sound. With Walt as the voice of Mickey, it premiered to great success. Many more cartoons followed. Walt was now in the big time, but he didn't stop creating new ideas. In 1929, he created the 'Silly Symphonies', a cartoon series that didn't have a continuous character. They were another success. One of them, Flowers and Trees (1932), was the first cartoon to be produced in color and the first cartoon to win an Oscar; another, Three Little Pigs (1933), was so popular it was often billed above the feature films it accompanied. The Silly Symphonies stopped coming out in 1939, but Mickey and friends, (including Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, Pluto, and plenty more), were still going strong and still very popular. In 1934, Walt started work on another new idea: a cartoon that ran the length of a feature film. Everyone in Hollywood was calling it "Disney's Folly", but Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) was anything but, winning critical raves, the adoration of the public, and one big and seven little special Oscars for Walt. Now Walt listed animated features among his ever-growing list of accomplishments. While continuing to produce cartoon shorts, he also started producing more of the animated features. Pinocchio (1940), Dumbo (1941), and Bambi (1942) were all successes; not even a flop like Fantasia (1940) and a studio animators' strike in 1941 could stop Disney now. In the mid- 40s, he began producing "packaged features", essentially a group of shorts put together to run feature length, but by 1950 he was back with animated features that stuck to one story, with Cinderella (1950), Alice in Wonderland (1951), and Peter Pan (1953). In 1950, he also started producing live-action films, with Treasure Island (1950). These began taking on greater importance throughout the 50s and 60s, but Walt continued to produce animated features, including Lady and the Tramp (1955), Sleeping Beauty (1959), and One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961). In 1955, he even opened a theme park in southern California: Disneyland. It was a place where children and their parents could take rides, just explore, and meet the familiar animated characters, all in a clean, safe environment. It was another great success.
Walt also became one of the first producers of films to venture into television, with his series "Disneyland" (1954) which he began in 1954 to promote his theme park. He also produced "The Mickey Mouse Club" (1955) and "Zorro" (1957). To top it all off, Walt came out with the lavish musical fantasy Mary Poppins (1964), which mixed live-action with animation. It is considered by many to be his magnum opus. Even after that, Walt continued to forge onward, with plans to build a new theme park and an experimental prototype city in Florida. He never did finish those plans, however; in 1966, he contracted lung cancer. He died in December at age 65. But not even his death, it seemed, could stop him. Roy carried on plans to build the Florida theme park, and it premiered in 1971 under the name Walt Disney World. What's more, his company continues to flourish, still producing animated and live-action films and overseeing the still- growing empire started by one man: Walt Disney, who will never be forgotten.
TRIVIA:
- Profiled in in J.A. Aberdeen's "Hollywood Renegades: The Society of Independent Motion Picture Producers.".
- Became friends with Charles Chaplin during their respective days at United Arists in the 1930s; Disney credited Chaplin for helping him correctly pace his feature films.
- It is Hollywood legend that, lying on his deathbed at St. Jospeh's Hospital in Burbank (across the street from the Disney Studios) his last words were about how shabby the studio's water tower looked. Visible from a nearby freeway, towering above the backlot, it is adorned with the image of his most beloved creation, Mickey Mouse. In adherance with what they believed were their founder's last wishes, studio executives have made sure the water tower was regularly repainted since he died in 1966.
- Theme parks Disneyland and Disneyworld are respectively located in Orange County (Anaheim, California) and Orange County (Orlando, Florida).
- Walt's ancestors were named d'Isigny, and came from Isigny-sur-Mer in Normandy, France. In 1066, two soldiers, Hughes d'Isigny and his son Robert, fought with William the Conqueror during the conquest of England. After the conquest, Hughes d'Isigny and his son decided to stay in England. Their name was, over the generations, transformed into "Disney". In the XVII century, a branch of the Disney family emigrated to Ireland. In 1834, Arundel Elias Disney and his brother Robert emigrated from Kilkenny County, Ireland, to Northern America with their families. They left Liverpool and arrived to New York on October 3rd. Once in America, the two brothers parted. Robert established himself in a farm in the Midwest, whereas Arundel decided to reach Goderich Township, Ontario, a few steps from Canada.
- He often called composer 'Robert B. Sherman' (qv) into his office to play the piano for him. His favorite song was Feed the Birds from _Mary Poppins (1964)_ (qv).
- Nephew of 'Robert Disney' (qv).
- Disney had been in bad health for a few months, before he finally entered St. Joseph Hospital in Burbank, California, on 2 November 1966, complaining of pain in his neck and back. An X-ray revealed a tumor on his left lung and surgery was advised. Disney, however checked out to finish some studio business and re-entered the hospital on 6 November. Surgery was performed the next day and his left lung was found to be entirely cancerous and was removed.
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