The fourth of five children, Walt was raised on a farm in Marceline, Missouri. He also lived in Kansas City where he studied art by correspondence courses and took Saturday museum classes.
He dropped out of high school at 17 to serve in World War I, then returned to Kansas City to apprentice as a commercial illustrator. Failing at his first business venture, he moved to Hollywood in 1923 and went into partnership with his brother Roy. He had his first success with the creation of Mickey Mouse in "Steamboat Willie" and quickly became the industry leader in animation. During the 1930s he was a worldwide success as he invented more cartoon characters like Donald Duck, Minnie, and Goofy. In 1937, his studio made the first feature length cartoon, "Snow White". Other animated features followed before the company started making regular movies like "Treasure Island". These cornered the family market, and his biggest movie hit was "Mary Poppins". In 1954, he started producing the Mickey Mouse Club television programs. A year later,
he opened Disneyland. At the time of his death in 1966, the Disney studio had made 21 full-length animated films and over 1,000 hours of television shows.
Walt was married to his wife, Lillian, for 41 years. The couple had two daughters, Diane and Sharon.
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