The Death of Walt Disney

Walter Elias Disney was born on December 5, 1901 in Chicago. Walt lived most of his childhood in Marceline, Missouri and showed an interest in drawing and art early in his life.

He was rejected by the army in 1918, because he was underage and instead he joined the Red Cross in France. He returned one year later and wanted to pursue a career in commercial art. After a troubled start, he went to Hollywood at age 21 and slowly, but surely made it to the top of the cartoon world.

On July 13, 1925, Walt married Lillian Bounds and three years later, Mickey Mouse was born. They would also be blessed with two daughters, Diane and Sharon.

UPDATE NOVEMBER 2008 Walt's mother died tragically in 1939. Read about that here.

Walt et al lived in a nice house in Holmby Hills, very close to where Barbara Streisand lived. Here's the Disney Mailbox.

Lots of movies and Disneyparks later, Walt was diagnosed with lung cancer, caused by many years of smoking. He preferred to smoke unfiltered Lucky Strikes, but later switched to Gitanes, French cigarettes. (Lungbusters.) Walter’s cough always warned his employees that he was near.

He was in bad health for a few months, before he finally entered St. Joseph Hospital in Burbank, CA on November 2, 1966, complaining of pain in his neck and back. An X-ray revealed a tumor (The actual quote is, and here it comes again, his left lung was riddled with tumors the size of walnuts. Mmm.) on his left lung and surgery was advised. Walt, however checked out to finish some studio business and re-entered the hospital on November 6. Surgery was performed the next day and his left lung was found to be cancerous and was removed.

Disney was released from hospital after two weeks. After spending Thanksgiving Day with his family, he collapsed at his home in Palm Springs on November 30 and was driven back to St. Joseph’s Hospital. He would lose consciousness regularly in the days to come. He spent his 65th birthday in the hospital with his wife and children at his bedside.

His wife Lillian spent some time with him on December 14 and he was visited by his brother Roy in the evening, who left the room crying. Roy ordered the lights at the Disney Studio across the street, to stay on at all times, which Walt was in the hospital. Walt would ask the nurses to prop him up so he could see the studios. He died a few hours later, at 9:30 AM on Thursday, December 15, 1966.

Interesting bit I choose to believe - added April 26, 07 - Kurt Russell has confirmed a long-standing industry legend... that the last thing Walt Disney did before he died was write the words, "Kurt Russell".

The cause of Disney’s death was announced as acute circulatory collapse and was listed as cardiac arrest on his death certificate. The cancer in his lungs was probably considered to be of secondary importance.

Disney’s funeral was held at the Little Church of the Flowers at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, CA at 5:00 PM on December 16. No announcements of his funeral were made after it had taken place and only close relatives were in attendance. Walt didn’t like funerals and rarely attended one. During his life, he made it clear that he wished not to have a funeral. His daughter Diane once quoted her father as saying:

He was cremated instead and his ashes were interred in a vault at Forest Lawn. J. Edgar Hoover said, he was deeply saddened by Disney’s death. Samuel Goldwyn lost a great friend. and President Johnson sent his condolences to Disney’s wife. A rumor was spread soon after Disney’s death, that he was cryogenically frozen, but his family always denied this.

Its been widely denied that Walt was cryogenically frozen, and is being preserved under this statue in Disneyland.

31 Years later – to the day – Lillian Disney died. Apparently Lillian persuaded Walt to name his mouse character Mickey instead of Mortimer.

Findadeath.com friend EJ Fleming sends us this: The Disney family hired Thelma Pearl Howard as a housekeeper and nanny type for their kids in the early 1950's. She lived with them for years, died in 1994 at 79. Beginning in the 1950's Disney gave her holiday and birthday gifts of Disney stock, and told her never to sell it. She never knew how much she had, how many shares, how much they were worth, etc. They were just pieces of paper to her. When she died, she had been living in a small apartment in L.A. on a Disney pension with her mentally handicapped son. Her executors found her Disney stock was worth over $10,000,000! She didn't even know how many shares she had. Left half in trust for her son, whose in a group home, and the other half in a charitable trust.

An amusing article I read was written by a man who worked for Disney. "As we finished our first lunch together, my roommates and I were surprised to see Snow White, Cinderella and Pocahontas sitting down in the next booth. It seemed like it was going to be a special moment, but we had no idea how special until we saw that Snow White was smoking and Cinderella had a pissed-off sneer on her lips as she sipped her coffee. For the next 10 minutes we listened to them dish: Mary Poppins had a big butt, Ariel was a slut… When she finished her cigarette, Snow White got up. "Fuck this," she sighed, and left the cafeteria. I glanced over at my roommate across the table. He had a sick look on his face. "My childhood," he gasped, "has just been decimated.?"

In 1998, four cheetahs, a hippopotamus and two rhinos died in Disney’s new Animal Kingdom theme park. Also, within 6 months, two otters and a pair of West African cranes also died.

Over the years, several deaths have occurred at Disneyland in Anaheim, I was there recently, and I’ve photo documented the locations.

June 1983 another 18 year old drowns in the Rivers of America. Trying to reach Tom Sawyer Island in a raft, he hit a rock and fell out.

December 1998 – Christmas Eve. The ship Columbia was being docked, when an overzealous employee tied a rope from the ship to a metal cleat, before it stopped moving. Zam POW. The cleat was ripped from the dock and wailed into the crowd nailing one employee in the leg, and a man in the head. Two days later, they declared him brain dead, and he was taken off life support. The cleat has been replaced with this thing. I'm sure his family is very very well off right now. I found it a tad amusing that this was painted on the ship.

Findadeath.com friend Coors sends in this: Another death occurred at Disneyland ... forget which date... a woman was crushed to death in "America Sings" which is now closed. The rotating room moved viewers around in a circle from stage to stage ... she was crushed while attempting to move to another stage while the stage was turning.

Other stuff: This year for Halloween, they changed the Haunted Mansion to the theme of A Nightmare Before Christmas. This is the hearse and graveyard.

Here is the only place in Disneyland where you can get a drink. The private "Club 33".

Other Disney deaths of note: Eleanor Audley died on November 25, 1991. She was the voice of the evil stepmother in Cinderella, Maleficent in Sleeping Beauty, and Madame Leota in the Haunted Mansion.

January 13, 2000 saw the death of Marc Davis, one of Disney’s inner circle. Marc was a "ladies man," in that he created women characters, Tinkerbell, Cruella De Vil and Cinderella.

March of 2000 saw the death of David Gengenback, who oversaw the creation of the Pirates of the Caribbean and Space Mountain, and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

Scott,
Loved your Disney story, but you forgot to add he was a rabid Republican and anti Semite, and in the second World War did a lot to hurt Jews in Hollyweird, and was even worse during the McCarthy era, all public record. Also, only one of his daughters was a "natural" child, the other was adopted, the adopted one as she grew up was increasingly ignored by Walt and left VERY little of his estate. I was horrified when I found out he was an anti Semite and one of the McCarthy persons, it took SO much away from my enjoyment of his work, however brilliant.

All the best always,
Mike from Canada

Walt Disney's widow did not die 31 years to the day of her husband's death. Her birthday was on the 15th (but in February, not December). Lillian actually died 31 years and one day after Walt, on December 16, 1997, from a stroke. She was 98 years old. Their adopted daughter, Sharon, died from cancer on February 16, 1993, the day after Lillian's birthday.

Thanks for the info, Mark!

UPDATE February 2006, from Findadeath friend Jennifer:

Hi Scott, I am looking at your Findadeath.com site and came across some info about deaths at Disneyland under the "Walt Disney" section. There is one important death that you left out -- the gruesome death of 18 year old Disney cast member, Debbi Stone. Debbi was crushed to death in the America Sings attraction on July 8, 1974. The building is still there in Tomorrowland. At the time, the building had one fixed center stage and then multiple theaters that rotated around the stage in a clockwise (or is it counterclockwise?) direction. Debbi was apparently standing on the fixed stage and tried to jump into one of the theaters just before it completed its rotation.

Unfortunately she didn't make it and was crushed to death in a space only a few inches wide. They had to cut the walls around her to remove her body. Oddly, this is something that has both fascinated and horrified since I first heard about it as a kid. From approximately 1992-1994, I worked at Disneyland and met somebody that was as interested as I was in finding out what happened. We went to the scene several times, took pictures, visited her family and grave and obtained a copy of the coroner's report. I know that this is not necessarily your area of interest, but I thought you might find it interesting.

Also, there are books that were written about deaths at D-Land (Mouse Tales). Before the second one was published, we spoke with the author and actually provided him with most of his info about Debbi.

Thanks, Jennifer!

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