Walt Disney

Born on December 5, 1901 Walter Elias Disney is one of the most famous film producers, illustrators, and movie makers of all time. His Disney Studios still continue with Walt's dream of creating lasting significance and creating dreams. Disney started out by producing a series of animated shorts called Newman's Laugh-O-Grams. This company bent bankrupt and Disney and his animator Ub Iwerks traveled to Hollywood. Here they worked on the Alice Comedies, plus Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and finally Mickey Mouse.

Disney added synchronized sound to Steamboat Willie (1928) with Mickey. Disney created the Silly Symphonies and one of these Flowers and Trees (1932) was the first cartoon to be produced in color. It won an Oscar. Disney's Three Little Pigs (1933) was so popular it had first billing on major movie productions.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) was Disney's first full length feature cartoon film. The public adored this move and it received eight Oscars. Disney continued to produce cartoon shorts and he also produced Pinocchio(1940) Dumbo (1941) and Bambi (1942). Cinderella (1950) continued his feature film success. For many years the public could rely on Disney coming out with family-friendly full length animated feature films. In 1955 Disney opened a theme park in Southern California: Disneyland. With Disney Parks in over 10 countries (2 in the US) this enterprise is a huge success.

Disney produced television series: Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color (1954), The Mickey Mouse Club (1955) and Zorro (1957). He produced the hugely popular Mary Poppins (1964) and Disney Studios has not looked back. Disney's empire now owns the rights to Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean, plus several more.

Disney was married to Lillian Disney from July 1925 until his death of lung cancer in 1966. He has two children.