About Walt Disney

Walter Elias Disney (/ˈdɪzni/ DIZ-nee;^[2] December 5, 1901 – December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer, voice actor, and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film producer, he holds the record for most Academy Awards won (22) and nominations (59) by an individual. He was presented with two Golden Globe Special Achievement Awards and an Emmy Award, among other honors. Several of his films are included in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress and have also been named as some of the greatest films ever by the American Film Institute.

Early life

Disney was born on December 5, 1901, at 1249 Tripp Avenue, in Chicago‘s Hermosa neighborhood.^[b] He was the fourth son of Elias Disney‍—‌born in the Province of Canada, to Anglo-Irish parents‍—‌and Flora (née Call), an American of German and English descent.^[4][5][6][c] Aside from Walt, Elias and Flora’s sons were Herbert, Raymond and Roy; and the couple had a fifth child, Ruth, in December 1903.^[9] In 1906, when Disney was four, the family moved to a farm in Marceline, Missouri, where his uncle Robert had just purchased land. In Marceline, Disney developed his interest in drawing when he was paid to draw the horse of a retired neighborhood doctor.^[10] Elias was a subscriber to the Appeal to Reason newspaper, and Disney practiced drawing by copying the front-page cartoons of Ryan Walker.^[11] He also began to develop an ability to work with watercolors and crayons.^[6] He lived near the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway line and became enamored with trains.^[12] He and his younger sister Ruth started school at the same time at the Park School in Marceline in late 1909.^[13] The Disney family were active members of a Congregational church.^[14] Disney later described his childhood in Marceline as one of the happiest and most formative periods of his life, and drew inspiration from the town for several of his future projects.^[15][16]

In 1911, the Disneys moved to Kansas City, Missouri.^[17] There, Disney attended the Benton Grammar School, where he met fellow-student Walter Pfeiffer, who came from a family of theatre fans and introduced him to the world of vaudeville and motion pictures. Before long, Disney was spending more time at the Pfeiffers’ house than at home.^[18] Elias had purchased a newspaper delivery route for The Kansas City Star and Kansas City Times. Disney and his brother Roy woke up at 4:30 every morning to deliver the Times before school and repeated the round for the evening Star after school. The schedule was exhausting, and Disney often received poor grades after falling asleep in class, but he continued his paper route for more than six years.^[19] He attended Saturday courses at the Kansas City Art Institute and also took a correspondence course in cartooning.^[6][20]