Walt Disney (1901 - 1966) was an American entrepreneur, animator, and film producer who co-founded The Walt Disney Company and became one of the most influential figures in the entertainment industry. [1] With his brother Roy, he built a small animation studio into a global media enterprise, introducing Mickey Mouse in 1928 and producing Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), the first American full-length animated feature film. [2] He later expanded the company into live-action films, television, and theme parks, opening Disneyland in 1955, and won a record 22 competitive Academy Awards during his lifetime. [3]
Early life and early career
Disney was born in Chicago on 5 December 1901 and spent much of his childhood in Missouri, where he developed an early interest in drawing. [1] He studied briefly at the Kansas City Art Institute and, after serving with an ambulance corps in France in the aftermath of World War I, worked as a commercial illustrator. In the early 1920s he began producing short animated films in Kansas City before relocating to Hollywood in 1923, where he and his brother Roy founded the studio that would grow into The Walt Disney Company. [1]
Building the studio
The studio's early cartoons met with limited success until the 1928 debut of Mickey Mouse in Steamboat Willie, one of the first animated films with fully synchronized sound. [2] Disney pushed the medium forward with the Silly Symphonies series and, in 1937, released Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first American full-length animated feature, which proved both a critical and commercial success. [2] Further features followed, including Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo, and Bambi, establishing the studio as a leader in animation. [1]
Television and theme parks
After the disruption of World War II, Disney diversified the business well beyond animated shorts. [1] He moved into live-action filmmaking and embraced television, hosting programs that promoted the studio's output and built the Disney brand with a mass audience. [2] In 1955 he opened Disneyland in Anaheim, California, an ambitious park that pioneered a new form of family entertainment and became a major commercial venture. At the time of his death he was planning a far larger development in Florida that later became Walt Disney World. [1]
Death and legacy
Disney died of lung cancer in Burbank, California, on 15 December 1966. [1] Over his career he received a record 22 competitive Academy Awards and numerous other honors, among them the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal. [3] The company he founded grew into one of the world's largest media and entertainment conglomerates, and his blending of creative ambition with commercial enterprise made him a defining figure in twentieth-century business and popular culture. [1]
