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His life and how it affected his work
Walt Disney was born on December 5 1901 and died on December 15, 1966 (aged 65). He was a heavy smoker and died of lung cancer before the amusement had opened. However he had high standards and high expectations of those with whom he worked. Although there have been accusations that he was racist or anti-Semitic, they have been contradicted by many who knew him. His reputation changed in the years after his death -
First Steps
He took art classes as a boy and got a job as a commercial illustrator at the age of 18. -
Setting up the buisness
He moved to Hollywood in the early 1920s and set up the Disney Brothers Studio (later The Walt Disney Company) with his brother Roy. -
Creating a legend
Walt developed the character Mickey Mouse in 1928, his first highly popular success; he also provided the voice for his creation in the early years. -
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More films he made
The results, seen in features such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), Fantasia, Pinocchio (both 1940), Dumbo (1941) and Bambi (1942), furthered the development of animated film. New animated and live-action films followed after World War II, including the critically successful Cinderella (1950) and Mary Poppins (1964), the second of which received the Academy Award for Best Picture, among others. -
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Disney land and other projects he works on
In the 1950s, Disney expanded into the amusement park industry, and in 1955 he opened Disneyland. 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 Fair and the 1960 Winter Olympics. In 1965 he began development of another theme park, Disney World (now Walt Disney World), the heart of which was to be a new type of city, the "Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow" EPCOT
