Walt Disney
The Boy Who Never Left Marceline
Born Walter Elias Disney on 5 December 1901 in Chicago, Walt Disney co-founded the studio that created Mickey Mouse and made Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Hollywood's first full-length cel-animated feature. He opened Disneyland in 1955 and won more Academy Awards than any other individual.
- 18 min listen
- Animator
- Film producer
- Creator of Disneyland
Walt Disney’s full 18 min audio biography, The Boy Who Never Left Marceline, is available on Lyfestori for iOS. Listen to a free preview below.
A life in brief
Walt Disney: life and timeline.
He spent four years of his childhood on a farm outside Marceline, Missouri, drawing a neighbour's horse for pocket money, then six years delivering newspapers before dawn in Kansas City. Walt Disney's first studio went bankrupt; his first hit character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, was taken from him by his distributor. On the train home he came up with a mouse. He went on to bet his studio on Snow White, his life insurance on Disneyland, and spent his last weeks planning a city in Florida.
- 1901
Born in Chicago
Born 5 December, the fourth of five children of Elias Disney, a stern carpenter and contractor, and Flora, a former schoolteacher.
- 1906
The farm at Marceline
The family moves to a farm outside Marceline, Missouri. He draws the animals, watches the trains and is paid by a local doctor to sketch his horse. He later called these years among the most important of his life.
- 1911
The paper route
The family moves to Kansas City, where his father puts him and his brother Roy to work delivering newspapers before dawn, seven days a week. He takes Saturday classes at the Kansas City Art Institute.
- 1918
Red Cross ambulance driver
At sixteen he changes his birth year to 1900 on his application and joins the Red Cross Ambulance Corps, arriving in France after the Armistice.
- 1922
Laugh-O-Gram Films
Incorporates his first animation studio in Kansas City, working alongside the gifted artist Ub Iwerks. It is bankrupt within a year.
- 1923
Hollywood
Takes a train to Los Angeles with a reel of his Alice's Wonderland short and founds the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio with Roy. In 1925 he marries Lillian Bounds, an ink-and-paint artist at the studio.
- 1928
Mickey Mouse
After losing Oswald the Lucky Rabbit to Universal and his distributor Charles Mintz, he and Iwerks create Mickey Mouse. Steamboat Willie, with synchronised sound and Walt voicing Mickey, premieres in New York on 18 November.
- 1937
Snow White
Derided as "Disney's Folly", Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs premieres on 21 December at the Carthay Circle Theatre after its budget grows to about $1.5 million. Its success pays for a new studio in Burbank.
- 1941
The animators' strike
The Screen Cartoonists Guild strikes after Disney refuses to recognise the union. He takes it as a betrayal, and in 1947 testifies before the House Un-American Activities Committee, naming former employees as communist influences.
- 1955
Disneyland
Financed partly through a deal with ABC and his own life insurance, Disneyland opens in Anaheim on 17 July. The chaotic opening day becomes known as "Black Sunday", but the park welcomes its millionth visitor by September.
- 1964
Mary Poppins and Florida
Mary Poppins becomes one of the studio's biggest hits, and audio-animatronic figures debut at the New York World's Fair. Through dummy companies he secretly buys about 27,000 acres in central Florida.
- 1966
Death in Burbank
On 27 October he films his pitch for EPCOT, a planned city of the future. Days later doctors find lung cancer, and he dies at St Joseph's Hospital in Burbank on 15 December, aged sixty-five.
Major achievements
Walt Disney: major achievements.
- 01
Mickey Mouse
Created in 1928 after the loss of Oswald, Mickey became one of the most recognisable characters on earth within a few years and the foundation of a merchandising business.
- 02
The animated feature
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) proved that audiences would sit through a feature-length cartoon, and its earnings built the Burbank studio that made Pinocchio, Fantasia and Bambi.
- 03
A record at the Oscars
He won twenty-two competitive Academy Awards from fifty-nine nominations, plus four honorary awards — more than any other individual. Flowers and Trees won the first Oscar for an animated short in 1932.
- 04
Inventing the theme park
Disneyland replaced the chaos of the amusement pier with a clean, story-driven world where parents and children shared the same experience, a model copied around the globe.
- 05
Owning the characters
Losing Oswald taught him to keep the rights to his creations. That principle became the basis of the Walt Disney Company's empire.
Turning points
Walt Disney: defining moments.
- 1928
Losing Oswald
In New York to ask for better terms, he learned that Charles Mintz would pay less and had hired away most of his animators — and that Universal owned the character. Only a few people, Ub Iwerks above all, stayed loyal. Out of that humiliation came Mickey Mouse.
- 1934–1937
Disney's Folly
Hollywood insisted no one would watch a feature-length cartoon. As Snow White's costs ballooned, he showed unfinished footage to a Bank of America executive to secure the loans to finish it. The premiere ended in a standing ovation.
- 1941
The strike
The nine-week strike ended the family atmosphere of the studio and hardened his hostility to unions and the left. Six years later he gave testimony before Congress against former employees, claims that were disputed.
- 1953–1955
Betting on a park
When Roy and the company balked at funding Disneyland, he borrowed against his life insurance, sold his vacation home and traded a weekly television show to ABC for its investment. The gamble created a new kind of entertainment.
I only hope that we never lose sight of one thing — that it was all started by a mouse.
Disneyland television programme, 1954
What you’ll take away
Lessons from Walt Disney’s life.
- 01
Own what you make
He lost his first hit character because someone else held the rights. Every decision afterwards protected ownership of his work.
- 02
Childhood can be a blueprint
Main Street, U.S.A. is his memory of Marceline, polished for decades. The world he loved before he was ten became the template for the places he built.
- 03
Visionaries can be unkind
The same man who inspired his artists also fought their union, named names before Congress and made Song of the South. Admiration for the work does not settle the record on the man.
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FAQ
Frequently asked questions about Walt Disney.
What was Walt Disney's full name?
Walter Elias Disney. His middle name came from his father, Elias Disney. He was born in Chicago on 5 December 1901.
How did Walt Disney die?
Of lung cancer, after decades of heavy smoking. Doctors removed his left lung in November 1966, and he died at St Joseph's Hospital in Burbank on 15 December 1966, aged sixty-five.
Is Walt Disney cryogenically frozen?
No. That is a long-running myth. He was cremated two days after his death and his ashes were interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.
What did Walt Disney do before Disney?
He delivered newspapers as a boy, drove for the Red Cross in France after the First World War and worked in commercial art in Kansas City. His first animation company, Laugh-O-Gram Films, went bankrupt in 1923.
Where did Walt Disney grow up?
In Marceline, Missouri, from about four to nine, and then in Kansas City. The small-town Main Street of Marceline later inspired Main Street, U.S.A. at Disneyland.
Who was Walt Disney's wife?
Lillian Bounds, an ink-and-paint artist at his studio, whom he married in 1925. By family tradition she persuaded him to call his new mouse Mickey rather than Mortimer.
Did Walt Disney have kids?
Yes, two daughters: Diane, born in 1933, and Sharon, whom the couple adopted in 1936.
Did Walt Disney see Walt Disney World?
No. He died in December 1966 while planning the Florida project; Roy Disney saw it through, and the Magic Kingdom opened in October 1971.
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18 min · one sitting