Walt Disney
Early Life
- Walt Disney was born December 5, 1901 in Chicago, Illinois.
- One of five children, and he lived most of his childhood in Marceline, Missouri.
- Attended McKinley High School, where he took drawing and photography classes.
- He was a contributing cartoonist for the school paper.
- Also attended the Chicago Art Institute, and the Kansas City Art Institute and School of Design.
Traits and Characteristics
- Walt Disney had a personality anyone could learn from.
- He was creative and passionate about his work.
- Disney would spend hours creating sketches, or thinking of new ideas for characters.
- He was open to criticism, and other's opinions.
Beginning Careers
- Disney worked at the Kansas City Film Ad Company, where he made commercials with cutout animation.
- He began to gain an interest in cameras, and making his own hand-drawn animations.
- He then decided to open his own animation business.
- From the ad company, he recruited Fred Harman as his first employee.
- Disney and Harman made a deal with a local Kansas City theater to screen their cartoons, called Laugh-O-Grams.
- He was able to have his own studio due to the popularity of his cartoons, from this he hired several employees.
- The studio went into debt, and Disney was forced to declare bankruptcy.
- Disney and his brother Roy then moved to Hollywood, and there began the Disney Brother's Studio.
- Throughout his careers, Disney created several cartoons in which made him very successful and popular.
- Disneyland theme park was also a great accomplishment for him.
- Disney died December 15th, 1966 due to lung cancer.