December 5

Film animator, producer, director and entrepreneur Walt Disney was born on December 5, 1901, in Chicago. He grew up in Marceline, Mo., and Kansas City, where he became interested in drawing, movies and a nearby amusement park. He started an early animation business that went bankrupt in 1923, so Walt and his brother, Roy, went to Hollywood and began Disney Brothers' Studio, which was stolen in its entirety by a New York distributor. They quickly made silent animated shorts featuring a character Walt created, Mickey Mouse, then the popular “Steamboat Willie” (1928) in sound, voiced by Walt. His first full-length animated film was the historic “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” (1937, pictured), which won eight Oscars. In the next five years, Disney completed “Pinocchio” (1940), “Fantasia” (1940), “Dumbo” (1941) and “Bambi” (1942).