Walter Elias "Walt" Disney (December 5, 1901 – December 15, 1966)[1] was an American entrepreneur, cartoonist, animator, voice actor, and film producer. He was responsible for bringing Felix Salten's book, Bambi: A Life in the Woods to film.
Life[]
Walter Elias Disney was born on December 5, 1901 in Chicago, Illinois to Elias and Flora Disney. His family later moved to a farm in Marceline, Missouri. There, Walt developed a love of farm animals and began to learn how to draw. He served as a Red Cross ambulance driver in World War I.[1] After the war, he began to draw for a living, eventually becoming the head of Laugh-O-Gram Studios in 1921. This venture was short-lived, and Walt would instead produce the animated series Alice Comedies and later Oswald the Lucky Rabbit for Winkler Studios. In 1928, he would broke from Winkler Studios to start producing Mickey Mouse films.
The success of Mickey Mouse led to Walt Disney's company, Walt Disney Studios, to expand. By 1937, the company was producing feature-length animated films, the first of which was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Walt reportedly wanted an animated adaptation of Felix Salten's novel, Bambi: A Life in the Woods, to be the studio's second feature-length animated film. However, this honor would instead go to Pinocchio and Bambi would not be released until 1942 after several other animated films.
Disney continued to produce animated films throughout his lifetime. He also produced various live-action films, started his own theme park called "Disneyland", and hosted his own television series, initially entitled Walt Disney's Disneyland.
Walt Disney passed away on December 15, 1966 after having been admitted to the hospital 10 days earlier, his 65th birthday.[1]
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