Walt Disney

Walter Elias Disney was born in Chicago in 1901 and spent formative years on a farm in Marceline, Missouri, whose small-town main street he would later idealize. After driving ambulances in France following the First World War, he worked as a commercial artist in Kansas City, where he began experimenting with animation. In 1923 he moved to Hollywood and founded a studio with his brother Roy.

In 1928 Disney introduced Mickey Mouse in Steamboat Willie, one of the first cartoons with synchronized sound, and the character became a worldwide phenomenon. He pushed the medium relentlessly, adding color, depth, and emotional storytelling, and in 1937 released Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first full-length cel-animated feature. Classics such as Pinocchio, Fantasia, and Bambi followed, establishing animation as serious art.

In 1955 Disney opened Disneyland in Anaheim, California, inventing the modern theme park, and he was planning Walt Disney World in Florida when he died of lung cancer in December 1966. He won twenty-two competitive Academy Awards, more than any other individual. His name became a byword for family entertainment, and the company he founded grew into one of the world's most influential storytellers.