Walt Disney

Trivia

• Death caused by circulatory failure due to complications from lung cancer.
• Disney's death spawned two rumors that became urban legends. The first is that he had his body cryogenically frozen. The second held that he was buried somewhere on the grounds of Disneyland. Both rumors are completely untrue. Disney was cremated and his ashes interred at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Los Angeles, California.
• Active anti-communist.
• As a teenager, Walt Disney was a member of the Order of DeMolay, a youth organization affiliated with Free Masons.
• Interred at Forest Lawn, Glendale, California, USA. Facing the Freedom Mausoleum, to your left hand side are two small private gardens. His is the one farthest back. Plaque is on the wall behind the trees (to your left standing at the gate).
• Holds the record of winning the most Academy Awards with 22 wins in competitive categories. Additionally, he won three honorary Oscars and an Irving Thalberg Memorial Award.
• Identified as the founder of the Tomorrowland Transit Authority in film clips shown in the queue area of Rocket Rods (formerly, the CircleVision 360 Theater) at Disneyland.
• Became interested in personalizing animals' characters after carelessly killing a small owl as a young boy. He felt deeply remorseful and guilty and vowed never again to kill a living creature.
• Inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2000 for the multiplane camera.
• Worked as a paperboy as a youth.

Quotes

• "Every time they make a pornographic film, I make money."
• "The proper comedy for the screen is visual. Films try to get too many laughs out of the dialogue. We use pantomime not wisecracks. Portrayal of human sensations by inanimate objects such as steam shovels and rocking-chairs never fail to provoke laughter. Human distress exemplified by animals is sure-fire. A bird that jumps after swallowing a grasshopper is a natural. Surprise is always provocative."
• "Around here, however, we don't look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious... and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths."
• "You know, every once in a while I just fire everybody, then I hire them back in a couple of weeks. That way they don't get too complacent. It keeps them on their toes."
• "I sell corn, and I love corn."
• "People like to think their world is somehow more grown up than Papa's was."
• "It's kind of fun to do the impossible."
• "I happen to be an inquisitive guy and when I see things I don't like, I start thinking why do they have to be like this and how can I improve them."
• "I hope we'll never lose sight of one thing--that it was all started by a mouse."
• "I'm not interested in pleasing the critics. I'll take my chances pleasing the audiences."