Walter Elias Disney was born on December 5, 1901 in Chicago Illinois to Elias Disney and Flora Call Disney. His father was of Irish-Canadian descent, and his mother was of German-American descent. He was one of five children--four boys and one girl. Disney grew up in Marceline, Missouri where he started drawing, painting, and selling pictures to family friends and neighbors. Throughout Walt's childhood, their family experienced financial troubles. After their farm's failure, his family moved to Kansas City in 1911 where Walt developed a love for trains. Walt's uncle, Mike Martin was a train engineer who worked the route between Fort Madison and Marceline, and later on, Walt would eventually work a job with the railroad. Walt went to McKinley High School in Chicago. During his high school years, he took drawing and photography classes and was a cartoonist for the school paper. He took night classes at the Chicago Art Institute. Walt dropped out of school at 16 to join the army. However, he was rejected because of his age. Instead, he joined the Red Cross and went to France for a year to drive an ambulance to serve in the war. Soon, he returned to Kansas City to work as an advertising cartoonist, but did not ultimately succeed right away.
Walt moved to California and partnered with his brother, Roy Disney. Roy dealt with business and financial aspects, while Disney dealt with the creative aspects of the partnership. Walt and Roy borrowed some money to set up a small studio in their uncle's garage and created a few black-and-white cartoons about a rabbit named Oswald which they produced for Universal Studios. After this contract ended in 1928, Disney created his own silent cartoon which he called Plane Crazy with a character named Mickey Mouse. He soon produced a second Mickey Mouse cartoon with sound called Steamboat Willie, which was the first animated film to use synchronized sound. Soon Walt got the rights to use Technicolor in animated films for two years and won his first Academy Award in 1932 for the short Flowers and Trees. This was also the first full-color cartoon. Over the span of his career, Walt would earn 26 Oscars, the most awards given to anyone.
Walt created Goofy, Donald Duck, and other characters to join Mickey Mouse. In 1937, he released Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first animated feature-length movie to be filmed in Technicolor. In 1938, tragedy struck. Thanks to the success of Snow White, Walt and Roy were able to purchase a North Hollywood home for their parents. There was a defective furnace in the home that went undetected and ultimately led to Flora Disney's death by asphyxiation (carbon monoxide poisoning) in November 1938. It was reported that Walt was sensitive about the tragedy until the end of his life because he could not help but blame himself. Many believe that this is the reason why there seems to be a noticeable absence of maternal figures in most of his animated feature films.
The Disney brothers soon built a studio in Burbank and employed over 1,000 people. Amazingly, Disney made it through the Great Depression and World War II by producing health and propaganda films for the government. Following many successes including the live-action film Treasure Island and opening an in-house distribution company, Disney began a TV program called Disneyland that revealed that Walt had much larger plans. Disney soon began planning the construction of the Disneyland theme park in secret. It opened in 1955 and was unlike any amusement park the world had seen before. Once Disneyland became a booming success, plans for a second park soon began. This second park became Walt Disney World and was built in Florida in the 1960s. This second park would ultimately complete Walt Disney's vision to create a wonderful place where families could truly enjoy themselves.
Walt Disney died of lung cancer on December 15, 1966 at age 65, five years before Disney World opened and 16 years before Epcot opened. Disney was cremated, and his ashes were placed at the Forest Lawn Cemetery in Los Angeles. Roy carried on his brother's vision, and Walt Disney World opened in Florida in 1971. Walt Disney world is recognized as one of the most significant people of the 20th century and one of the greatest entrepreneurs of all time. His most famous saying is, "I only hope that we never lose sight of one thing, that it all started with a mouse."
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