Walt Disney

Elias Disney moved the family from Chicago to a farm at Marceline, Missouri in 1906, and the four-year-old who arrived called it the best stretch of his life. A retired doctor paid him to draw his horse. By 1911 they were in Kansas City, where Elias had bought a newspaper route and put his sons on it — Walt and Roy up at 4:30 to deliver the Times before school and the Star after, for more than six years. He slept through class, took Saturday courses at the Kansas City Art Institute and a mail-order course in cartooning. The Army turned him down as too young, so he altered the date on his birth certificate, joined the Red Cross in September 1918 and reached France in November, after the armistice.

Laid off from a Kansas City commercial art studio in January 1920 alongside Ub Iwerks, he built a company that went bankrupt in 1923 and then went to Hollywood at 21. He and Iwerks made Oswald the Lucky Rabbit for the distributor Charles Mintz, who cut his terms, hired his animators out from under him and kept the character, because Universal owned it. Mickey Mouse was the replacement. Iwerks redrew him to be easy to animate, Lillian talked her husband out of Mortimer, and Disney supplied the voice until 1947. Steamboat Willie was the first cartoon with post-produced sound. Snow White took four years and 1.5 million dollars, three times its budget, and had grossed 6.5 million by May 1939. Disneyland opened in July 1955. He holds the record for Academy Awards won by one person, at 22.

The name on everything was not always the hand. A studio employee summed up Mickey: Iwerks designed the body and Disney gave him his soul. Iwerks drew The Skeleton Dance alone in 1929, then left in 1930 when Pat Powers signed him away. Disney had a nervous breakdown in October 1931. Ten years later, after Pinocchio and Fantasia lost money and the studio ended February 1941 deep in debt, he cut salaries and the animators struck for five weeks. He bought a full-page advertisement in Variety blaming Communistic agitation, then accepted a government goodwill tour of South America that kept him out of the country while the settlement was negotiated. In 1947 he told the House Un-American Activities Committee that three of his former animators — Herbert Sorrell, David Hilberman and William Pomerance — were communist agitators.

He had smoked unfiltered cigarettes since the First World War. Lung cancer was diagnosed in early November 1966 and treated with cobalt. He went back to work until he collapsed weeks later. He died on December 15 at 65 of circulatory collapse, was cremated two days later and interred at Forest Lawn in Glendale. The freezing story is a legend his daughter Diane denied flatly. Art Babbitt, who organized the 1941 strike, said Disney attended German American Bund meetings. Neal Gabler, working from the appointment books and finding no second witness, concluded the evidence does not support it. The argument has not ended. EPCOT, the working city he announced in 1965, opened in 1982 as a theme park.

Walt Disney's life against the full span of the corpus.

• Steamboat Willie film
  The first cartoon with post-produced synchronized sound 1928
• Flowers and Trees film
  First three-strip Technicolor cartoon and the first Oscar for an animated short 1932
• Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs film
  Four years and 1.5 million dollars. The trade press called it Disney's Folly. 1937
• Disneyland, the television series television
  The ABC show that carried the park into American living rooms 1954
• Disneyland building
  Opened in July 1955. The opening broadcast reached 70 million viewers. 1955
• EPCOT other
  Announced in late 1965 as a working city. It opened in 1982 as a theme park. 1966

• 1906 aged ~5 The family moves to a farm at Marceline, Missouri A retired doctor paid him to draw his horse. He called it the best part of his childhood.
• September 1918 aged 16 Forges his birth date and joins the Red Cross as an ambulance driver He reached France in November, after the armistice.
• July 1923 aged 21 Laugh-O-Gram Studio goes bankrupt and he leaves for Hollywood at 21 His brother Roy was in Los Angeles convalescing from tuberculosis.
• 1928 aged ~27 Loses Oswald the Lucky Rabbit to Charles Mintz and makes Mickey Mouse Universal owned Oswald. Mintz also took most of the animation staff.
• October 1931 aged 29 Has a nervous breakdown he blamed on overwork and his distributor
• December 1937 aged 35 Snow White premieres after four years and three times its budget By May 1939 it had grossed 6.5 million dollars.
• 1941 aged ~40 The animators strike for five weeks and he leaves for South America Several strikers left afterward and founded United Productions of America.
• 1947 aged ~46 Names three former animators as communist agitators before HUAC
• December 15, 1966 aged 65 Dies of circulatory collapse caused by lung cancer, at 65 Diagnosed six weeks earlier. He was cremated two days later.

• Wernher von Braun 1912–1977
  German-American aerospace engineer who led the development of the Saturn V rocket that took humans to the Moon. collaborated with
• Jim Henson 1936–1990
  Creator of the Muppets and a central figure in Sesame Street and family television. worked in the form he built
• George Lucas b. 1944
  Filmmaker who created Star Wars and Indiana Jones, later selling Lucasfilm to Disney for over $4 billion. inherited the model
• Steven Spielberg b. 1946
  Director and producer whose blockbusters and dramas have defined American cinema for five decades. inherited the model
• Chuck Jones 1912–2002
  Warner Bros. animator who directed many of the studio's Bugs Bunny and Road Runner shorts. the competition at Warner Bros.