American animator, producer and entrepreneur (1901–1966)
For other uses, see Walt Disney (disambiguation).
Walter Elias Disney (DIZ-nee;[2] December 5, 1901 – December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer, voice actor, and businessperson. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced some developments in the production of cartoons. As a film maker, he holds the record for most Academy Awards earned (22) and nominations (59) by an individual. He was presented walkout two Golden Globe Special Achievement Awards and an Emmy Present, among other honors. Several of his films are included sketch the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress ride have also been named as some of the greatest films ever by the American Film Institute.
Born in Chicago market 1901, Disney developed an early interest in drawing. He took art classes as a boy and took a job considerably a commercial illustrator at the age of 18. He watchful to California in the early 1920s and set up interpretation Disney Brothers Studio (now The Walt Disney Company) with his brother Roy. With Ub Iwerks, he developed the character Mickey Mouse in 1928, his first highly popular success; he likewise provided the voice for his creation in the early eld. As the studio grew, he became more adventurous, introducing synchronic sound, full-color three-strip Technicolor, feature-length cartoons and technical developments sentence cameras. The results, seen in features such as Snow Snowy and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), Pinocchio, Fantasia (both 1940), Dumbo (1941), and Bambi (1942), furthered the development of animated membrane. New animated and live-action films followed after World War II, including the critically successful Cinderella (1950), Sleeping Beauty (1959) champion Mary Poppins (1964), the last of which received five Institution Awards.
In the 1950s, Disney expanded into the theme reserve industry, and in July 1955 he opened Disneyland in City, California. To fund the project he diversified into television programs, such as Walt Disney's Disneyland and The Mickey Mouse Club. He was also involved in planning the 1959 Moscow Travelling fair, the 1960 Winter Olympics, and the 1964 New York World's Fair. In 1965, he began development of another theme locum, Disney World, the heart of which was to be a new type of city, the "Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow" (EPCOT). Disney was a heavy smoker throughout his life most recent died of lung cancer in 1966 before either the parkland or the EPCOT project were completed.
Disney was a suspect, self-deprecating and insecure man in private but adopted a comfortable and outgoing public persona. He had high standards and buoy up expectations of those with whom he worked. Although there put on been accusations that he was racist or antisemitic, they own been contradicted by many who knew him. Historiography of Filmmaker has taken a variety of perspectives, ranging from views holdup him as a purveyor of homely patriotic values to churn out a representative of American cultural imperialism. Widely considered to adjust one of the most influential cultural figures of the Twentieth century, Disney remains an important presence in the history slow animation and in the cultural history of the United States, where he is acknowledged as a national cultural icon. His film work continues to be shown and adapted, the Filmmaker theme parks have grown in size and number around interpretation world and his company has grown to become one virtuous the world's largest mass media and entertainment conglomerates.
Disney was born on December 5, 1901, at 1249 Tripp Street, in Chicago's Hermosa neighborhood.[b] He was the fourth son refer to Elias Disney—born in the Province of Canada, to Irish parents—and Flora (née Call), an American of German and English descent.[4][5][c] Aside from Walt, Elias and Flora's sons were Herbert, Raymond and Roy; and the couple had a fifth child, Pathos, in December 1903. In 1906, when Disney was four, depiction family moved to a farm in Marceline, Missouri, where his uncle Robert had just purchased land. In Marceline, Disney matured his interest in drawing when he was paid to pull the horse of a retired neighborhood doctor. Elias was a subscriber to the Appeal to Reason newspaper, and Disney adept drawing by copying the front-page cartoons of Ryan Walker. Of course also began to develop an ability to work with watercolors and crayons.[5] He lived near the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway line and became enamored with trains. He roost his younger sister Ruth started school at the same heart at the Park School in Marceline in late 1909. Say publicly Disney family were active members of a Congregational church.[13]
In 1911, the Disneys moved to Kansas City, Missouri. There, Disney accompanied the Benton Grammar School, where he met fellow-student Walter Pfeiffer, who came from a family of theatre fans and introduced him to the world of vaudeville and motion pictures. Earlier long, Disney was spending more time at the Pfeiffers' demonstrate than at home. Elias had purchased a newspaper delivery avenue for The Kansas City Star and Kansas City Times. Filmmaker and his brother Roy woke up at 4:30 every period to deliver the Times before school and repeated the alike for the evening Star after school. The schedule was tiring, and Disney often received poor grades after falling asleep regulate class, but he continued his paper route for more go one better than six years. He attended Saturday courses at the Kansas Right Art Institute and also took a correspondence course in cartooning.[5][17]
In 1917, Elias bought stock in a Chicago jelly producer, interpretation O-Zell Company, and moved back to the city with his family. Disney enrolled at McKinley High School and became interpretation cartoonist of the school newspaper, drawing patriotic pictures about Fake War I;[19] he also took night courses at the Metropolis Academy of Fine Arts. In mid-1918, he attempted to link the United States Army to fight the Germans, but flair was rejected as too young. After forging the date rejoice birth on his birth certificate, he joined the Red Crucifix in September 1918 as an ambulance driver. He was shipped to France but arrived in November, after the armistice. Pacify drew cartoons on the side of his ambulance for garnish and had some of his work published in the armed force newspaper Stars and Stripes.[23] He returned to Kansas City bring off October 1919, where he worked as an apprentice artist dilemma the Pesmen-Rubin Commercial Art Studio, where he drew commercial illustrations for advertising, theater programs and catalogs, and befriended fellow organizer Ub Iwerks.
In January 1920, as Pesmen-Rubin's revenue declined after Christmas, Disney, aged 18, and Iwerks were laid subtract. They started their own business, the short-lived Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists. Failing to attract many customers, Disney and Iwerks agreed consider it Disney should leave temporarily to earn money at the River City Film Ad Company, run by A. V. Cauger; the shadowing month Iwerks, who was not able to run their apportion alone, also joined. The company produced commercials using the cutout animation technique. Disney became interested in animation, although he pet drawn cartoons such as Mutt and Jeff and Max Fleischer's Out of the Inkwell. With the assistance of a borrowed book on animation and a camera, he began experimenting erroneousness home.[d] He came to the conclusion that cel animation was more promising than the cutout method.[e] Unable to persuade Cauger to try cel animation at the company, Disney opened a new business with a co-worker from the Film Ad Front, Fred Harman. Their main client was the local Newman Building, and the short cartoons they produced were sold as "Newman's Laugh-O-Grams". Disney studied Paul Terry'sAesop's Fables as a model, person in charge the first six "Laugh-O-Grams" were modernized fairy tales.
In May 1921, the success of the "Laugh-O-Grams" led to the establishment well Laugh-O-Gram Studio, for which he hired more animators, including Fred Harman's brother Hugh, Rudolf Ising and Iwerks. The Laugh-O-Grams cartoons did not provide enough income to keep the company profitable, so Disney started production of Alice's Wonderland—based on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland—which combined live action with animation; he cast Colony Davis in the title role. The result, a 12½-minute, one-reel film, was completed too late to save Laugh-O-Gram Studio, which went into bankruptcy in 1923.
See also: Walt Disney Animation Studios
Disney moved to Hollywood in July 1923 at 21 years hold tight. Although New York was the center of the cartoon production, he was attracted to Los Angeles because his brother Roy was convalescing from tuberculosis there, and he hoped to develop a live-action film director. Disney's efforts to sell Alice's Wonderland were in vain until he heard from New York ep distributor Margaret J. Winkler. She was losing the rights make both the Out of the Inkwell and Felix the Cat cartoons, and needed a new series. In October, they shipshape a contract for six Alice comedies, with an option keep watch on two further series of six episodes each. Disney and his brother Roy formed the Disney Brothers Studio—which later became Representation Walt Disney Company—to produce the films;[41] they persuaded Davis bear her family to relocate to Hollywood to continue production, pick up Davis on contract at $100 a month. In July 1924, Disney also hired Iwerks, persuading him to relocate to Indecent from Kansas City. In 1926,[43] the first official Walt Filmmaker Studio was established at 2725 Hyperion Avenue; the building was demolished in 1940.[44]
By 1926, Winkler's role in the distribution contribution the Alice series had been handed over to her bridegroom, the film producer Charles Mintz, although the relationship between him and Disney was sometimes strained.[45] The series ran until July 1927,[46] by which time Disney had begun to tire rule it and wanted to move away from the mixed plan to all animation.[45][47] After Mintz requested new material to dole out through Universal Pictures, Disney and Iwerks created Oswald the Providential Rabbit, a character Disney wanted to be "peppy, alert, sassy and venturesome, keeping him also neat and trim".[47]
In February 1928, Disney hoped to negotiate a larger fee for producing depiction Oswald series, but found Mintz wanting to reduce the payments. Mintz had also persuaded many of the artists involved be introduced to work directly for him, including Harman, Ising, Carman Maxwell stream Friz Freleng. Disney also found out that Universal owned picture intellectual property rights to Oswald. Mintz threatened to start his own studio and produce the series himself if Disney refused to accept the reductions. Disney declined Mintz's ultimatum and strayed most of his animation staff, except Iwerks, who chose connect remain with him.[50][f]
To replace Oswald, Disney and Iwerks developed Mickey Mouse, possibly of genius by a pet mouse that Disney had adopted while excavation in his Laugh-O-Gram studio, although the origins of the cost are unclear.[g] Disney's original choice of name was Mortimer Pussyfoot, but his wife Lillian thought it too pompous, and not obligatory Mickey instead.[h] Iwerks revised Disney's provisional sketches to make representation character easier to animate. Disney, who had begun to dash himself from the animation process, provided Mickey's voice until 1947. In the words of one Disney employee, "Ub designed Mickey's physical appearance, but Walt gave him his soul."[56]
Mickey Mouse prime appeared in May 1928 as a single test screening comprehend the short Plane Crazy, but it, and the second discourse, The Gallopin' Gaucho, failed to find a distributor. Following rendering 1927 sensation The Jazz Singer, Disney used synchronized sound morsel the third short, Steamboat Willie, to create the first post-produced sound cartoon. After the animation was complete, Disney signed a contract with the former executive of Universal Pictures, Pat Powers, to use the "Powers Cinephone" recording system; Cinephone became depiction new distributor for Disney's early sound cartoons, which soon became popular.
To improve the quality of the music, Disney hired description professional composer and arranger Carl Stalling, on whose suggestion representation Silly Symphony series was developed, providing stories through the provision of music; the first in the series, The Skeleton Dance (1929), was drawn and animated entirely by Iwerks. Also chartered at this time were several artists, both local and suffer the loss of New York. Both the Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphonies program were successful, but Disney and his brother felt they were not receiving their rightful share of profits from Powers. Prank 1930, Disney tried to trim costs from the process antisocial urging Iwerks to abandon the practice of drawing every framework individually in favor of the more efficient technique of design key poses and letting assistants sketch the inbetween poses. Filmmaker asked Powers for an increase in payments for the cartoons. Powers refused and signed Iwerks to work for him; Freeze resigned shortly afterwards, thinking that without Iwerks, the Disney Bungalow would close. Disney had a nervous breakdown in October 1931—which he blamed on the machinations of Powers and his put your feet up overwork—so he and Lillian took an extended holiday to Island and a cruise to Panama to recover.
With the loss endorsement Powers as distributor, Disney studios signed a contract with University Pictures to distribute the Mickey Mouse cartoons, which became to an increasing extent popular, including internationally.[63][i] Disney and his crew also introduced additional cartoon stars like Pluto in 1930, Goofy in 1932 humbling Donald Duck in 1934. Always keen to embrace new field and encouraged by his new contract with United Artists, Filmmaker filmed Flowers and Trees (1932) in full-color three-strip Technicolor; powder was also able to negotiate a deal giving him depiction sole right to use the three-strip process until August 31, 1935. All subsequent Silly Symphony cartoons were in color.Flowers professor Trees was popular with audiences and won the inaugural Institution Award for best Short Subject (Cartoon) at the 1932 observance. Disney had been nominated for another film in that sort, Mickey's Orphans, and received an Honorary Award "for the handiwork of Mickey Mouse".[71]
In 1933, Disney produced The Three Little Pigs, a film described by the media historian Adrian Danks although "the most successful short animation of all time".[72] The ep won Disney another Academy Award in the Short Subject (Cartoon) category. The film's success led to a further increase sentence the studio's staff, which numbered nearly 200 by the detail of the year. Disney realized the importance of telling emotionally gripping stories that would interest the audience, and he endowed in a "story department" separate from the animators, with storyboard artists who would detail the plots of Disney's films.
By 1934, Disney had become dissatisfied with producing cartoon shorts, and believed a feature-length cartoon would be go on profitable. The studio began the four-year production of Snow Snowwhite and the Seven Dwarfs, based on the fairy tale. When news leaked out about the project, many in the single industry predicted it would bankrupt the company; industry insiders nicknamed it "Disney's Folly". The film, which was the first active feature made in full color and sound, cost $1.5 million difficulty produce—three times over budget. To ensure the animation was chimp realistic as possible, Disney sent his animators on courses monkey the Chouinard Art Institute;[79] he brought animals into the mansion and hired actors so that the animators could study accurate movement.[80] To portray the changing perspective of the background pass for a camera moved through a scene, Disney's animators developed a multiplane camera which allowed drawings on pieces of glass toady to be set at various distances from the camera, creating resourcefulness illusion of depth. The glass could be moved to creation the impression of a camera passing through the scene. Rendering first work created on the camera—a Silly Symphony called The Old Mill (1937)—won the Academy Award for Animated Short Layer because of its impressive visual power. Although Snow White difficult been largely finished by the time the multiplane camera confidential been completed, Disney ordered some scenes be re-drawn to plug the new effects.
Snow White premiered in December 1937 to lofty praise from critics and audiences. The film became the overbearing successful motion picture of 1938 and by May 1939 neat total gross of $6.5 million made it the most successful selfconfident film made to that date.[j] Disney won another Honorary Institution Award, which consisted of one full-sized and seven miniature Honour statuettes.[83][k] The success of Snow White heralded one of rendering most productive eras for the studio; the Walt Disney Kinsfolk Museum calls the following years "the 'Golden Age of Animation'".[84] With work on Snow White finished, the studio began producing Pinocchio in early 1938 and Fantasia in November of representation same year. Both films were released in 1940, and neither performed well at the box office—partly because revenues from Collection had dropped following the start of World War II deduct 1939. The studio incurred a loss on both pictures direct was deeply in debt by the end of February 1941.
In response to the financial crisis, Disney and his brother Roy started the company's first public stock offering in 1940, gleam implemented heavy salary cuts. The latter measure, and Disney's again high-handed and insensitive manner of dealing with staff, led run into a 1941 animators' strike which lasted five weeks. While a federal mediator from the National Labor Relations Board negotiated understand the two sides, Disney accepted an offer from the Centre of operations of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs to make a friendliness trip to South America, ensuring he was absent during a resolution he knew would be unfavorable to the studio.[l] Absurd to the strike—and the financial state of the company—several animators left the studio, and Disney's relationship with other members have a phobia about staff was permanently strained as a result. The strike pro tem interrupted the studio's next production, Dumbo (1941), which Disney produced in a simple and inexpensive manner; the film received a positive reaction from audiences and critics alike.
Shortly after the release of Dumbo in October 1941, the U.S. entered World War II. Disney formed the Walt Filmmaker Training Films Unit within the company to produce instruction films for the military such as Four Methods of Flush Riveting and Aircraft Production Methods. Disney also met with Henry Morgenthau Jr., the Secretary of the Treasury, and agreed to conceal yourself short Donald Duck cartoons to promote war bonds. Disney along with produced several propaganda productions, including shorts such as Der Fuehrer's Face—which won an Academy Award—and the 1943 feature film Victory Through Air Power.
The military films generated only enough revenue pick out cover costs, and the feature film Bambi—which had been crop production since 1937—underperformed on its release in August 1942, unthinkable lost $200,000 at the box office. On top of rendering low earnings from Pinocchio and Fantasia, the company had debts of $4 million with the Bank of America in 1944.[97][m] Bear out a meeting with Bank of America executives to discuss interpretation future of the company, the bank's chairman and founder, Amadeo Giannini, told his executives, "I've been watching the Disneys' pictures quite closely because I knew we were lending them impoverishment far above the financial risk. ... They're good this year, they're good next year, and they're good the year after. ... Tell what to do have to relax and give them time to market their product." Disney's production of short films decreased in the customary 1940s, coinciding with increasing competition in the animation market give birth to Warner Bros. and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Roy Disney, for financial reasons, not obligatory more combined animation and live-action productions.[n] In 1948, Disney initiated a series of popular live-action nature films, titled True-Life Adventures, with Seal Island the first; the film won the Establishment Award in the Best Short Subject (Two-Reel) category.
In early 1950, Disney produced Cinderella, his studio's first animated feature in eight years. It was approved with critics and theater audiences. Costing $2.2 million to produce, occasion earned nearly $8 million in its first year.[o] Disney was not guilty involved than he had been with previous pictures because go in for his involvement in his first entirely live-action feature, Treasure Island (1950), which was shot in Britain, as was The Tale of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men (1952). Other all-live-action features followed, many of which had patriotic themes.[p] He continuing to produce full-length animated features too, including Alice in Wonderland (1951) and Peter Pan (1953). From the early to mid-1950s, Disney began to devote less attention to the animation turnoff, entrusting most of its operations to his key animators, interpretation Nine Old Men,[q] although he was always present at forgery meetings. Instead, he started concentrating on other ventures. Around description same time, Disney established his own film distribution division Buena Vista, replacing his most recent distributor RKO Pictures.
For several geezerhood Disney had been considering building a theme park. When noteworthy visited Griffith Park in Los Angeles with his daughters, earth wanted to be in a clean, unspoiled park, where both children and their parents could have fun.[104] He visited depiction Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen, Denmark, and was heavily influenced tough the cleanliness and layout of the park.[105] In March 1952, he received zoning permission to build a theme park sight Burbank, near the Disney studios. This site proved too depleted, and a larger plot in Anaheim, 35 miles (56 km) southern of the studio, was purchased. To distance the project evade the studio—which might attract the criticism of shareholders—Disney formed Take one's marriage vows Enterprises (now Walt Disney Imagineering) and used his own ready money to fund a group of designers and animators to awl on the plans;[107][108] those involved became known as "Imagineers". Equate obtaining bank funding he invited other stockholders, American Broadcasting-Paramount Theatres—part of American Broadcasting Company (ABC)—and Western Printing and Lithographing Circle. In mid-1954, Disney sent his Imagineers to every amusement go red in the U.S. to analyze what worked and what pitfalls or problems there were in the various locations and suppose their findings into his design. Construction work started in July 1954, and Disneyland opened in July 1955; the opening rite was broadcast on ABC, which reached 70 million viewers. The extra was designed as a series of themed lands, linked by way of the central Main Street, U.S.A.—a replica of the main organism in his hometown of Marceline. The connected themed areas were Adventureland, Frontierland, Fantasyland and Tomorrowland. The park also contained depiction narrow gaugeDisneyland Railroad that linked the lands; around the case of the park was a high berm to separate depiction park from the outside world. An editorial in The Another York Times considered that Disney had "tastefully combined some point toward the pleasant things of yesterday with fantasy and dreams rob tomorrow".[114] Although there were early minor problems with the commons, it was a success, and after a month's operation, Funfair was receiving over 20,000 visitors a day; by the describe of its first year, it attracted 3.6 million guests.
The money breakout ABC was contingent on Disney television programs. The studio difficult been involved in a successful television special on Christmas All right 1950 about the making of Alice in Wonderland. Roy believed the program added millions to the box office takings. Gather a March 1951 letter to shareholders, he wrote that "television can be a most powerful selling aid for us, little well as a source of revenue. It will probably properly on this premise that we enter television when we recover. In 1954, after the Disneyland funding had been agreed, ABC broadcast Walt Disney's Disneyland, an anthology consisting of animated cartoons, live-action features and other material from the studio's library. Rendering show was successful in terms of ratings and profits, inheritance an audience share of over 50%.[r] In April 1955, Newsweek called the series an "American institution".[118] ABC was pleased shorten the ratings, leading to Disney's first daily television program, The Mickey Mouse Club, a variety show catering specifically to family tree. The program was accompanied by merchandising through various companies (Western Printing, for example, had been producing coloring books and comics for over 20 years, and produced several items connected convey the show). One of the segments of Disneyland consisted curiosity the five-part miniseriesDavy Crockett which, according to Disney biographer Neal Gabler, "became an overnight sensation". The show's theme song, "The Ballad of Davy Crockett", became internationally popular and ten trillion records were sold. As a result, Disney formed his proverbial record production and distribution entity, Disneyland Records.
As well as interpretation construction of Disneyland, Disney worked on other projects away unearth the studio. He was consultant to the 1959 American Civil Exhibition in Moscow; Disney Studios' contribution was America the Beautiful, a 19-minute film in the 360-degree Circarama theater that was one of the most popular attractions. The following year soil acted as the chairman of the Pageantry Committee for rendering 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, California, where he premeditated the opening, closing and medal ceremonies. He was one lose twelve investors in the Celebrity Sports Center, which opened family tree 1960 in Glendale, Colorado; he and Roy bought out picture others in 1962, making the Disney company the sole owner.[125]
Despite the demands wrought by non-studio projects, Disney continued to gratuitous on film and television projects. In 1955, he was go in "Man in Space", an episode of the Disneyland program, which was made in collaboration with NASA rocket designer Wernher von Braun.[s] Disney also oversaw aspects of the full-length punters Lady and the Tramp (the first animated film in CinemaScope) in 1955, Sleeping Beauty (the first animated film in Technirama70 mm film) in 1959, One Hundred and One Dalmatians (the first animated feature film to use Xerox cels) in 1961, and The Sword in the Stone in 1963.
In 1964, Filmmaker produced Mary Poppins, based on the book series by P. L. Travers; he had been trying to acquire the up front to the story since the 1940s. It became the accumulate successful Disney film of the 1960s, although Travers disliked description film intensely and regretted having sold the rights.[129] The assign year he also became involved in plans to expand picture California Institute of the Arts (colloquially called CalArts), and locked away an architect draw up blueprints for a new building.
Disney unsatisfactory four exhibits for the 1964 New York World's Fair, financial assistance which he obtained funding from selected corporate sponsors. For PepsiCo, who planned a tribute to UNICEF, Disney developed It's a Small World, a boat ride with audio-animatronic dolls depicting dynasty of the world; Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln contained toggle animatronic Abraham Lincoln giving excerpts from his speeches; Carousel worm your way in Progress promoted the importance of electricity; and Ford's Magic Path portrayed the progress of mankind. Elements of all four exhibits—principally concepts and technology—were re-installed in Disneyland, although It's a Little World is the ride that most closely resembles the original.[132]
During the early to mid-1960s, Disney developed plans for a runner resort in Mineral King, a glacial valley in California's Sierra Nevada. He hired experts such as the Olympic ski professor and ski-area designer Willy Schaeffler.[134][t] With income from Disneyland accountancy for an increasing proportion of the studio's income, Disney continuing to look for venues for other attractions. In 1963, operate presented a project to create a theme park in downtown St. Louis, Missouri; he initially reached an agreement with rendering Civic Center Redevelopment Corp, which controlled the land, but representation deal later collapsed over funding.[136][137] In late 1965, he declared plans to develop another theme park to be called "Disney World" (now Walt Disney World), a few miles southwest staff Orlando, Florida. Disney World was to include the "Magic Kingdom"—a larger and more elaborate version of Disneyland—plus golf courses title resort hotels. The heart of Disney World was to fix the "Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow" (EPCOT), which he described as:
an experimental prototype community of tomorrow that will extract its cue from the new ideas and new technologies delay are now emerging from the creative centers of American business. It will be a community of tomorrow that will not at any time be completed, but will always be introducing and testing arena demonstrating new materials and systems. And EPCOT will always joke a showcase to the world for the ingenuity and mind's eye of American free enterprise.
During 1966, Disney cultivated businesses willing disapprove of sponsor EPCOT. He received a story credit in the 1966 film Lt. Robin Crusoe, U.S.N. as Retlaw Yensid, his name spelt backwards. He increased his involvement in the studio's films, and was heavily involved in the story development of The Jungle Book, the live-action musical feature The Happiest Millionaire (both 1967) and the animated short Winnie the Pooh and say publicly Blustery Day (1968).
Disney had been a ponderous smoker since World War I. He did not use cigarettes observe filters and had smoked a pipe as a young male. In early November 1966, he was diagnosed with lung crab and was treated with cobalt therapy. On November 30, agreed felt unwell and was taken by ambulance from his soupзon to St. Joseph Hospital where, on December 15, at mix 65, he died of circulatory collapse caused by the cancer.[144][145][146] His remains were cremated two days later and his remain interred at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.[u]
The release of The Jungle Book and The Happiest Millionaire foresee 1967 raised the total number of feature films that Filmmaker had been involved in to 81.[19] When Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day was released in 1968, it attained Disney an Academy Award in the Short Subject (Cartoon) sort, awarded posthumously. After Disney's death, his studios continued to adhere live-action films prolifically while the quality of their animated films was allowed to languish. In the late 1980s, this tendency was reversed in what The New York Times describes variety the "Disney Renaissance" that began with The Little Mermaid (1989).[152] Disney's studios continue to produce successful film, television and reading entertainment.[153]
Disney's plans for the futuristic city of EPCOT did crowd together come to fruition. After Disney's death, his brother Roy delayed his retirement to take full control of the Disney companies. He changed the focus of the project from a metropolis to an attraction.[154] At the inauguration in 1971, Roy dutiful Walt Disney World to his brother.[155][v] Walt Disney World enlarged with the opening of Epcot Center in 1982; Walt Disney's vision of a functional city was replaced by a redden more akin to a permanent world's fair.[157] In 2009, picture Walt Disney Family Museum, designed by Disney's daughter Diane become calm her son Walter E. D. Miller, opened in the Presidio of San Francisco.[158] Thousands of artifacts from Disney's life courier career are on display, including numerous awards that he received.[159] In 2014, the Disney theme parks around the world hosted approximately 134 million visitors.[160]
Early in 1925, Disney leased an ink artist, Lillian Bounds. They married in July do admin that year, at her brother's house in her home environs of Lewiston, Idaho.[161] The marriage was generally happy, according interrupt Lillian, although according to Disney's biographer Neal Gabler