Who Was Walt Disney?
Walter Elias “Walt” Disney was a pioneering American film producer, director, animator, and entrepreneur who co-founded Walt Disney Productions (now known as The Walt Disney Company) with his brother Roy. The company grew to become one of the most influential and renowned entertainment enterprises globally. Disney is widely recognized for his creation of Mickey Mouse, one of the most iconic cartoon characters in history. Throughout his career, he won 22 Academy Awards, a testament to his innovation in animation. Disney was also the visionary behind Disneyland and Walt Disney World, the first two major theme parks that revolutionized the entertainment industry.
Walt Disney’s Parents and Siblings
Walt Disney was born to Elias Disney, an Irish-Canadian immigrant, and Flora Call Disney, who was of German-American descent. He was the fourth of five children in the Disney family, which included four boys and one girl.
Walt Disney’s Childhood
Walt Disney was born on December 5, 1901, in Chicago, Illinois, in the Hermosa neighborhood. His early years were spent in Marceline, Missouri, where his love for art began. Disney started drawing, painting, and selling his artwork to neighbors and family friends. His artistic inclinations would shape his future career.
In 1911, the Disney family moved to Kansas City, where Walt’s fascination with trains grew. His uncle, Mike Martin, was a train engineer who worked the route between Fort Madison, Iowa, and Marceline, which further fueled Disney’s interest in railroads. Disney would later work for the railroad during a summer job, selling snacks and newspapers to passengers.
At McKinley High School in Chicago, Disney honed his artistic skills, taking drawing and photography classes. He also contributed as a cartoonist for the school paper. After school, he attended night courses at the prestigious Art Institute of Chicago.
At 16, Disney dropped out of high school to enlist in the Army, but was rejected due to his age. Instead, he joined the Red Cross and was sent to France for a year to drive an ambulance during World War I. He returned to the United States in 1919, marking the beginning of his professional journey in animation.
Walt Disney’s Early Cartoons
In 1919, Walt Disney moved to Kansas City to pursue a career as a newspaper artist. His brother Roy secured him a job at the Pesmen-Rubin Art Studio, where he met cartoonist Ubbe Eert Iwwerks, later known as Ub Iwerks. Disney’s career took another turn when he began working at the Kansas City Film Ad Company, where he created commercials using cutout animation techniques. It was during this period that Disney began experimenting with a camera and hand-drawn cel animation, which laid the groundwork for his future endeavors.
Encouraged by his experiments, Disney decided to start his own animation business. He recruited Fred Harman, his first employee, from the ad company. Together, they struck a deal with a local theater to screen their cartoons, which they called Laugh-O-Grams. These cartoons gained significant popularity, allowing Disney to acquire his own studio, which he named Laugh-O-Gram Studios.
The studio hired a number of employees, including Iwerks and Harman’s brother Hugh. The team produced a series of seven-minute fairy tales that combined live-action and animation, collectively known as Alice in Cartoonland. However, by 1923, the studio was burdened with debt, leading Disney to declare bankruptcy.
Walt Disney Animation Studios
In 1923, Disney and his brother Roy, accompanied by cartoonist Ub Iwerks, moved to Hollywood, where they established the Disney Brothers’ Cartoon Studio. This company would eventually be renamed Walt Disney Studios, following a suggestion by Roy.
Their first major deal was with New York distributor Margaret Winkler, who agreed to distribute their Alice cartoons. The studio also introduced a new character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, and contracted the production of short films at $1,500 each. However, by the late 1920s, Disney’s studio parted ways with its distributors and began creating cartoons featuring a new character: Mickey Mouse.
In December 1939, Walt Disney Animation Studios opened a new campus in Burbank, California. The studio faced significant challenges in 1941 when animators went on strike, leading to the resignation of many staff members. It took years for the company to recover fully from this setback.
One of Disney’s most significant milestones came with the release of Flowers and Trees in 1932, which was the first animated film produced in color and won an Academy Award. In 1933, The Three Little Pigs, with its iconic song “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?”, became a rallying cry during the Great Depression.
Mickey Mouse and Other Iconic Characters
Disney’s breakthrough success came with the creation of Mickey Mouse. His first major film, Steamboat Willie, was an animated short equipped with synchronized sound and music. Released on November 18, 1928, at the Colony Theater in New York, it marked a revolutionary moment in animation, as sound had only recently been integrated into films. Walt Disney himself provided the voice for Mickey, a character developed by Disney and brought to life by his chief animator, Ub Iwerks. The film was an immediate sensation.
Before Steamboat Willie, Disney and his team had produced two earlier silent shorts featuring Mickey, Plane Crazy and The Gallopin’ Gaucho. However, these films failed to find distribution due to the rise of sound in cinema. Compounding this, Disney’s New York distributor, Margaret Winkler, and her husband, Charles Mintz, had stolen the rights to Disney’s popular character Oswald, taking all but Iwerks from his animation team.
In 1929, Disney introduced Silly Symphonies, a series of animated shorts that featured Mickey’s newly introduced friends: Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, and Pluto. These characters would go on to become some of the most beloved figures in animation history.
Walt Disney Movies
Walt Disney was a visionary who produced more than 100 feature films throughout his career, shaping the landscape of animation and entertainment. His groundbreaking achievement came with the release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs on December 21, 1937. As Disney’s first full-length animated film, it was an immense success, grossing an astonishing $1.499 million despite the economic challenges of the Great Depression, and winning eight Academy Awards. This success paved the way for a series of animated features over the next five years.
During the mid-1940s, Disney began experimenting with “packaged features,” which consisted of collections of shorts combined to run at the length of a full feature film. However, by 1950, Disney refocused on producing full-length animated films.
One of Disney’s final major successes, which he personally produced, was Mary Poppins (1964), a groundbreaking film that seamlessly blended live-action and animation.
Some of Disney’s other iconic films include:
- Pinocchio (1940)
- Fantasia (1940)
- Dumbo (1941)
- Bambi (1942)
- Cinderella (1950)
- Treasure Island (1950)
- Alice in Wonderland (1951)
- Peter Pan (1953)
- Lady and the Tramp (1955)
- Sleeping Beauty (1959)
- 101 Dalmatians (1961)
Disney’s Television Series
In addition to his film success, Walt Disney was a pioneer in the use of television as a medium for entertainment. His series Zorro and Davy Crockett were particularly popular among children, as was The Mickey Mouse Club, a variety show featuring a cast of young performers known as the Mouseketeers. Another highly popular show was Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color, which became a Sunday evening staple. This show also served as a platform for Disney to promote his emerging theme park, Disneyland, expanding his influence beyond the world of cinema.
Walt Disney Parks
Disneyland
Disneyland, the first of the iconic Disney theme parks, opened on July 17, 1955, in Anaheim, California. The park, which was built at a cost of $17 million on what was once an orange grove, was presided over by actor and future U.S. President Ronald Reagan. Despite a chaotic opening day marked by a series of mishaps—including the distribution of counterfeit invitations—Disneyland quickly became a beloved destination for families. It offered an immersive experience where visitors could enjoy thrilling rides and interact with beloved Disney characters.
In the years following its opening, Disneyland experienced significant growth, attracting tourists from around the globe. Over time, the park expanded its attractions and became a cornerstone of the Disney empire, with new parks opening in Florida, Tokyo, Paris, Hong Kong, and Shanghai. Disneyland’s sister park, California Adventure, opened in Los Angeles in 2001.
Walt Disney World
Following the success of Disneyland, Walt Disney began planning a second major theme park along with his vision for the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow (EPCOT) in Florida. Construction of Walt Disney World began soon after Disneyland’s success but was still underway when Walt Disney passed away in 1966. His brother, Roy Disney, took over the completion of the project. The park opened in 1971 under the name Walt Disney World, marking the beginning of another monumental chapter in the Disney legacy.
Walt Disney’s Family
In 1925, Walt Disney met and hired Lillian Bounds, an ink-and-paint artist, whom he married shortly after a brief courtship. Together, they had two children: Diane Disney Miller, born in 1933, their only biological daughter, and Sharon Disney Lund, whom they adopted in 1936.
Diane and her husband, Ronald Miller, had seven children, including Christopher, Joanna, Tamara, Walter, Jennifer, Patrick, and Ronald Miller Jr. Sharon, who had three children, married twice. Her second husband, Bill Lund, was a real estate developer who played a pivotal role in securing the 27,000 acres in Orlando that would eventually become Walt Disney World. Sharon and Bill had twins, Brad and Michelle, born in 1970.
However, the Disney family was not immune to controversy. After Sharon’s death in 1993, her trust became the subject of a protracted legal battle. The trust contained a provision allowing Sharon’s ex-husband, Bill Lund, and her sister Diane to withhold funds from Sharon’s children if they believed they could not manage the inheritance. This led to accusations of conspiracy and mental incompetence, culminating in a highly publicized trial in December 2013.
Walt Disney’s Death
Walt Disney was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1966 and passed away on December 15, 1966, at the age of 65. His legacy lives on in the parks, films, and global brand he created. Disney was cremated, and his ashes were interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Los Angeles, California, where his influence continues to be celebrated worldwide.