Who was Walt Disney?

Walt Disney was an American entrepreneur, animator, writer, voice actor, and film producer who lived from December 5, 1901 until December 15, 1966. He was a pioneer in the American animation business, introducing various innovations in cartoon production. He holds the record for most Academy Awards won by a person as a film producer, with 22 wins out of 59 nominations. Among other awards, he received two Golden Globe Special Achievement Awards and an Emmy Award. The Library of Congress has listed many of his films in the National Film Registry.

Disney, who was born in Chicago in 1901, took up drawing at a young age. He began taking drawing courses as a child and, at the age of 18, landed a job as a commercial artist. In the early 1920s, Walt and his brother Roy relocated to California and founded the Disney Brothers Studio. In 1928, he created Mickey Mouse with Ub Iwerks, which became his first big hit, and he also gave the character's voice in the early years. He got increasingly daring as the studio evolved, introducing synchronised sound, full-color three-strip Technicolor, feature-length cartoons, and camera technological advances. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), Pinocchio, Fantasia (both 1940), Dumbo (1941), and Bambi (1942) are examples of the outcomes. Following WWII, new animated and live-action films emerged, notably the highly acclaimed Cinderella (1950) and Mary Poppins (1964), the latter of which won five Academy Awards.

In the 1950s, Disney ventured into the amusement park business, opening Disneyland in Anaheim, California, in July 1955. He branched into television shows like Walt Disney's Disneyland and The Mickey Mouse Club to help fund the project. He also worked on the 1959 Moscow Fair, the 1960 Winter Olympics, and the 1964 World's Fair in New York. In 1965, Walt started work on a new theme park, Disney World, with the "Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow" as its centre (EPCOT). Disney smoked heavily his whole life and died of lung cancer in December 1966, before the park or the EPCOT project were finished.

Disney is a shy, self-deprecating and insecure person in private, but he is a warm and open character. He has high standards and high expectations of the people he works with. Although there have been allegations that he is racist or anti-Semitic, they have contradicted many who knew him. His reputation changed in the years following his death, from a purveyor of patriotic family values to a representative of American imperialism. However, he remains an important figure in the history of animation and cultural history of the United States, where he is considered a national cultural icon. His film work continues to be screened and adapted; His studio and company of the same name maintain high standards in the production of their popular entertainment, and Disney theme parks have grown in size and number to attract visitors to several countries.