Personality of the Day: Walt Disney

Every day, people across the world draw and look for inspiration from their surroundings. Moreover, people also take ideas and motivation from great personalities who have left a powerful mark on history or are continuing to change the world a little bit at a time. That is why today, we will be talking about a name that is still continuing to shape the entertainment industry. The name of the personality is Walt Disney and we will learn about why he became such an important personality, and how his ideas changed animation, storytelling, and theme parks forever. 

Personality of the Day: Walt Disney

Source: Disney Archives

According to IMDb, Walt Disney, born on 05 December 1901 in Chicago. He was born to Flora Disney and Elias Disney, who was a Canadian-born farmer and businessperson. Walt was the fourth child of the house. Walt Disney was an American animator, film producer, and entrepreneur. 

He was also the co-founder of The Walt Disney Company, which has now grown to be one of the world’s most recognized media and entertainment organisations. 

IMDb states: “Walter Elias Disney was born on December 5, 1901 in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Flora Disney (née Call) and Elias Disney, a Canadian-born farmer and businessperson. He had Irish, German, and English ancestry.”

Why is Walt Disney Famous? His Major Contributions

Here are some of his major works that changed the entertainment industry. 

Creating Iconic Characters

Walt Disney is famous because he introduced creativity and innovation. He introduced the world to characters like Mickey Mouse, who became a global icon. According to the Disney Archives, he was the first to bring synchronised sound to animation with “Steamboat Willie” (1928). Further, he helped create other beloved characters such as Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy.

Source: Disney Archives

Pioneering Feature-Length Animation

Walt Disney created the first full-length animated feature film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). Moreover,  Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo, and Bambi set new global standards for animated storytelling. 

Source: Disney Archives

Foundation of Disneyland

Walt Disney’s vision was extended beyond films. He later designed Disneyland, the first-of-its-kind theme park that opened in 1955. This changed the idea of amusement parks by offering immersive, story-driven experiences.

Source: Disney Archives

Disney’s name became synonymous with imagination, storytelling, and family-friendly entertainment. His contribution is often credited as the foundation of modern animation and theme park culture. 

Winning Multiple Academy Awards

According to Disney Archives, “As of 2025, Disney has received a total of 151 Academy Awards, but the impressive number is that of these, 32 were won by Walt Disney personally. This is by far the record, and Walt Disney is listed in the Guinness World Records book for this distinction. (Second in line is Cedric Gibbons, the MGM art director, with 11 awards.) Most of Walt Disney’s awards came to him as producer of a film. He also won the prestigious Irving Thalberg Award, given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.”

Walt Disney: Early Life, Career, and Family

Here are the details about the early life and how Walt’s interest in animation increased. 

Early Life

Although Walt was born in Chicago’s Hermosa neighbourhood, he grew up in Missouri. In 1906, when Disney was just four years old, the family moved to a farm in Marceline, Missouri. This was the place where his uncle Robert purchased land. Disney’s interest in drawing developed in Marceline when he was paid to draw the horse of a retired neighbourhood doctor. 

It was the year 1911, when the family moved to Kansas City where Walt attended the Benton Grammar School and met Walter Pfeiffer. It was Walter who introduced him to the fascinating world of vaudeville and motion pictures, and in no time, Disney was spending more time at the Pfeiffers' house than at home. 

His father Elias purchased a newspaper delivery route, and Walt and his brother Roy woke up every day at 4:30 A.M. to deliver the Kansas City Star and Times. This routine lasted for around six years, and Disney continued to struggle in class. However, his love for art never faded and he started Saturday classes at the Kansas City Art Institute and a correspondence course in cartooning. 

In the year 1917, the Disney family moved back to Chicago and Walt enrolled in McKinley High School, where he drew patriotic cartoons for the school paper. Further, he also took night classes at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. 

It was at the age of 16  in the year 1918 when he tried to enlist in the Army. However, Walt was turned away for being too young. Later, he forged the Date of Birth on his birth certificate and joined the Red Cross as an ambulance driver in September 1918. 

Career

Walt returned to Kansas City in 1919, and he started working at the Pesmen-Rubin Commercial Art Studio. This was the place where he met Ub Iwerks. However, both of them were laid off in 1920 and that is when they started their own short-lived venture, Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists. 

Source: Disney

This business was not in much profit and that is why Walt soon joined the Kansas City Film Ad Company, where he became fascinated with animation and began experimenting at home using a borrowed camera and animation book. He believed cel animation was better than cutout animation and later created short films called Newman’s Laugh-O-Grams, inspired by Paul Terry’s Aesop’s Fables.

It was the year 1921 when Walt founded the Laugh-O-Gram Studio and hired animators including Iwerks, Hugh Harman, and Rudolf Ising. The studio struggled financially, so Disney created Alice’s Wonderland. But, the film was completed very late and that is why Laugh-O-Gram Studio went bankrupt in 1923.

Later in the year 1923, Disney moved to Hollywood and partnered with his brother Roy to form the Disney Brothers Studio. It was the distributor Margaret Winkler who bought the Alice series, allowing Walt, Roy, Davis, and later Iwerks to continue production in Hollywood. By 1926, the studio moved to the Hyperion Avenue building.

Source: All About Los Angeles

When the Alice series slowed down, Disney and Iwerks created Oswald the Lucky Rabbit for Universal. But in 1928, producer Charles Mintz tried to cut Disney’s fees, and Disney lost most of his staff and the rights to Oswald.

This was the turning point for Disney and he went ahead to create the iconic character which was Mickey Mouse with the help of Iwerks. The character was originally named Mortimer before Walt’s wife suggested “Mickey.” Mickey first appeared in Plane Crazy and The Gallopin’ Gaucho, but both lacked distributors. In 1928, Disney released Steamboat Willie, one of the first cartoons with synchronized sound, making Mickey Mouse an instant success. Later in the years, Walt signed with Columbia Pictures and continued growing the characters such as Pluto, Goofy, and Donald Duck.

Walt also embraced new technology, adopting Technicolor for Flowers and Trees (1932), which became the first cartoon to win the Academy Award for Best Cartoon Short Subject. In 1933, The Three Little Pigs became one of the most successful animated shorts ever made. By 1934, Disney aimed for a full-length animated feature. This led to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which many predicted would fail, calling it “Disney’s Folly.” The film released in the year 1937, and it became one of the massive hits of Walt's career. The film was highest-grossing sound film of its time, and also won Walt an Honorary Academy Award.

Family

Walt Disney married Lillian Bounds in 1925. The couple had two daughters namely Diane Disney Miller and Sharon Mae Disney. Walt Disney took the heavenly abode on 15 December 1966, but his legacy continues through The Walt Disney Company and the global entertainment experiences he created.

Famous Quotes by Walt Disney

• “All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.”

• “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.”

• “It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.”

• “When you’re curious, you find lots of interesting things to do.”

• “Laughter is timeless, imagination has no age, dreams are forever.”

In conclusion, Walt Disney remains an iconic inspiration as he proved that imagination, hard work, and belief in one’s ideas can build something extraordinary.

READ| Quote of the Day by Martin Luther King Jr.!

Kansas City Film Ad Company