Walt Disney

Walter Elias Disney was born on December 5, 1901, in Chicago, Illinois, to Elias and Flora Disney. His family moved to Marceline, Missouri, in 1906, and its rural setting later informed his nostalgic memories of small-town America. In 1911, the Disneys relocated to Kansas City. After World War I, Disney drove ambulances for the American Red Cross in France, arriving after the armistice. Back in Kansas City, he worked in commercial art and began experimenting with animation. In 1920, he met Ub Iwerks at the Pesmen-Rubin Commercial Art Studio. The two later collaborated on cartoons that helped establish Disney's career. In 1922, Disney formed Laugh-O-Gram Films in Kansas City and produced short animated adaptations of fairy tales. The company went bankrupt, prompting him to leave for Los Angeles in 1923. There, he and his brother Roy O. Disney created the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, which became the Walt Disney Studio. Their Alice Comedies combined a live-action girl with animated characters. After losing distribution rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Disney and Iwerks developed Mickey Mouse. Mickey's public debut came in Steamboat Willie in 1928, a synchronized-sound cartoon distributed by Pat Powers. The film followed Plane Crazy and The Gallopin' Gaucho. Disney expanded his studio through Silly Symphonies, whose 1932 film Flowers and Trees used three-strip Technicolor and won an Academy Award. In 1937, he released Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first full-length cel-animated feature film, after a difficult production financed partly through loans. Its success supported features including Pinocchio (1940), Fantasia (1940), Dumbo (1941), and Bambi (1942). During World War II, the studio made training and propaganda films for the United States government. Disney also produced live-action and nature films after the war. In 1950, Cinderella restored the animation department's fortunes. Disney received 22 competitive Academy Awards total. Disney pursued television and themed entertainment alongside filmmaking. The Disneyland anthology program began on ABC in 1954, while The Mickey Mouse Club premiered in 1955. Disneyland opened in Anaheim, California, on July 17, 1955, after Disney sought a controlled amusement-park experience for families. He supervised many creative decisions through WED Enterprises, later called Walt Disney Imagineering. In the 1960s, he developed plans for Florida's Walt Disney World and the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, or EPCOT. Disney died of lung cancer on December 15, 1966, in Burbank, California, before Walt Disney World opened in 1971. His brother Roy opened it.