Walt Disney

Walt Disney was born in Chicago in 1901, to an Irish-Canadian family that could trace its ancestry back to the Norman Conquest. As a young man, he tried to enlist in the army but was too young, though he eventually went to France as a Red Cross Ambulance driver after the war ended. Back in the US, hee returned to Kansas City where he started an animation studio with Ubbe Iwerks. After losing the character Oswald the Lucky Rabbit to Universal, Disney rebounded with Mickey Mouse in Steamboat Willie, a character and film that laid the foundation for all that followed. By 1950 Disney expanded to live-action, and by Disneyland which opened in 1955. Disney himself died of lung cancer in 1966, just after his 65th birthday.