Walt Disney

Walt Disney was an American animator, filmmaker, and businessman who built one of the biggest entertainment companies in the world. He lived from 1901 to 1966. He created Mickey Mouse, made the first full-length animated movie, and built the first modern theme park. The company he started, the Walt Disney Company, still makes movies, TV shows, and theme parks today.

Disney was born in Chicago and grew up on a farm in Missouri. As a boy, he loved to draw. He sold his first sketches to neighbors when he was only seven. After serving as an ambulance driver at the end of World War I, he moved to Kansas City and started making short cartoons. His first company went broke in 1923. With just $40 in his pocket, he took a train to Hollywood to try again.

In 1928, Disney and his lead animator, Ub Iwerks, created a cheerful black-and-white mouse named Mickey. Mickey starred in a short film called "Steamboat Willie." It was one of the first cartoons with sound, and audiences loved it. Mickey Mouse became a star almost overnight.

Disney kept pushing animation forward. In 1937 he released "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." It was the first feature-length animated movie ever made in the United States. Many people in Hollywood thought it would fail. They called it "Disney's Folly." Instead, it became the highest-earning film of its time. Disney followed it with "Pinocchio," "Fantasia," "Bambi," "Cinderella," and many more.

In 1955, Disney opened Disneyland in Anaheim, California. He wanted a clean, safe park where parents and kids could have fun together. Before Disneyland, most amusement parks were dirty and a little rough. Disney's idea changed the whole industry. Today more than 18 million people visit Disneyland every year.

Disney was not loved by everyone. Some of his early animators went on strike in 1941 over low pay and long hours. Historians also point out that some of his older films contain harmful stereotypes about race that were common at the time but are not acceptable today. The company has since pulled some of these films from public release.

Walt Disney died of lung cancer in 1966, before Walt Disney World in Florida was finished. His brother Roy opened the new park in his memory in 1971. The characters Disney drew, the movies he produced, and the parks he imagined still shape childhood for millions of kids around the world.