New Disney Legends! We have all the details about the newly minted Disneytastic honorees, including what makes a Disney Legend and all 300+ people who have earned the award since it began in 1987. Plus… a little speculation on future legends.
And the newest Disney legends are…
Disney Legends Class of 2022
Hang onto your mouse ears; there’s a long list of new Legends for 2022. We’ll present them in alphabetical order:
Anthony Anderson – The star and executive producer of the sitcom “black-ish” (which earned him seven Emmy and three Golden Globe nominations) and executive produced and appeared in the spinoff series “grown-ish” and “mixed-ish.”
Kristen Bell – Voiced Princess Anna in the two highest-grossing animated features of all time, “Frozen”and “Frozen 2” as well as in “Frozen Fever,” “Olaf’s Frozen Adventure,” “Ralph Breaks the Internet,” and” Once Upon a Snowman,” and voiced Priscilla, the sloth in “Zootopia” and the upcoming Disney+ series “Zootopia+.”
Chadwick Boseman – The late actor joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe as the African Super Hero Black Panther in “Captain America: Civil War” before bringing the character to the forefront in “Black Panther,” which broke global box office records, had a global cultural impact, and earned Marvel’s first-ever Best Picture nomination.
Rob’t Coltrin – Imagineering executive creative director who had a hand in creating Mickey’s PhilharMagic, Muppet*Vision 3D, Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin, Radiator Springs Racers, Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway, and recent expansions at Tokyo Disney Resort.
Patrick Dempsey – With a career that began in 1980s films like “Can’t Buy Me Love,” he has since become a Hollywood star with television and film roles, including the voice of Kenai in “Brother Bear 2,” as the star of “Enchanted” and the upcoming Disney+ film “Disenchanted,” and as Dr. Derek Shepherd (aka Dr. McDreamy) in 11 seasons of “Grey’s Anatomy.”
Robert Price “Bob” Foster – Joined the Walt Disney Productions legal department in 1956 and, in 1963, Walt and Roy O. Disney selected Bob to head the land search for their top-secret “Florida Project,” and he was later named Vice President (Legal), Secretary, and General Counsel for the Walt Disney World Co. and in 1970 was promoted to President of the Buena Vista Land Company.
Josh Gad – The Tony Award-winning actor and singer warmed the hearts of millions as the voice of Olaf, the snowman in “Frozen,” “Frozen 2,” “LEGO Disney Frozen: Northern Lights,” “Olaf’s Frozen Adventure,” and “Olaf Presents” and as LeFou in the live-action “Beauty and the Beast.”
Jonathan Groff – Voiced Kristoff in “Frozen,” “Frozen 2,” “Frozen Fever,” “LEGO Disney Frozen: Northern Lights,” “Olaf’s Frozen Adventure,” and “Once Upon a Snowman,” originated the role of King George III in Hamilton on Broadway, and was part of the featured cast in the Disney+ Original release of the hit show.
Don Hahn – Worked as an inbetweener on “Pete’s Dragon;” assistant director on “The Fox and the Hound;” produced “Who Framed Roger Rabbit,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “The Lion King,” “Maleficent,” and the live-action “Beauty and the Beast;” and directed the documentaries “Waking Sleeping Beauty” and “Howard.”
Doris Hardoon – Producer for Imagineering projects, including Epcot, Tokyo Disneyland, Disneyland Paris, and Disney’s Animal Kingdom theme park, as well as Disney Cruise Line and Disney entertainment centers nationwide, and served as executive art director, producer, and the creative portfolio lead for Hong Kong Disneyland.
Idina Menzel – Voiced Queen Elsa in “Frozen,” “Frozen 2,” and “Ralph Breaks the Internet” – along with numerous animated shorts and theme park experiences – and stars as Nancy Tremaine in “Enchanted” and “Disenchanted.”
Chris Montan – As VP of music for motion pictures and television for The Walt Disney Company, oversaw the film soundtracks for “The Little Mermaid,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “Aladdin,” “The Lion King,” “Pocahontas,” “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” and “Hercules,” later as President of Walt Disney Music oversaw the music for Disney and Pixar animated feature films, Disney Theatrical stage productions, and Disney Parks and Resorts, worldwide.
Ellen Pompeo – As Meredith Grey, she leads the cast of “Grey’s Anatomy,” the longest-running primetime medical drama in television history.
Tracee Ellis Ross – Producer, director, and star of “black-ish” (which earned her five Emmy nominations for Lead Actress in a Comedy Series), and appeared in “grown-ish” and “mixed-ish,” the latter she co-created and executive produced.
What Makes a Disney Legend?
For 35 years, exceptional animators, Imagineers, songwriters and composers, performers, and business leaders who have significantly impacted the Disney legacy have been named Disney Legends, and to date, 304 have been selected.
Initially honored each year (but since 2009, every two years), Disney Legends are selected by a committee of long-time Disney executives, historians, and other Disney authorities and are presented during the D23 Expo Legends Awards Ceremony (this year to be held on Sept. 9, 2022, at 10:30 a.m. – Noon PT).
These days, Disney Legends are introduced to D23 Expo audiences within minutes of making molds of their handprints and signature that will be turned into bronze plaques displayed in Legends Plaza at The Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, Calif. The Plaza was dedicated on Oct. 16, 1998, to commemorate the 75th anniversary of The Walt Disney Company.
Also on display in Legends Plaza is a larger-than-life sculpture of the Disney Legends award created by Imagineer Andrea Favilli, which features three distinct elements to characterize the contributions made by each talented recipient: The Spiral stands for imagination; the Hand holds the gifts of skill, discipline, and craftsmanship; and the Wand and Star represent the magic created when imagination and skill combine.
FUN FACT: HIDING AT THE BACK OF THE AWARD (AND STATUE) IS GUS, THE MOUSE FROM “CINDERELLA.”
The Plaza also features the famous Partners statue of Mickey and Walt created by 1993 Disney Legend Blaine Gibson, the fourth of five copies of the statue – the original at Disneyland (unveiled Nov. 18, 1993), Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom (June 19, 1995), Tokyo Disneyland (April 15, 1998), Walt Disney Studios (Dec. 5, 2001), and Walt Disney Studios Park at Disneyland Paris (March 16, 2002).
There are thirteen Legend categories – Administration, Animation, Attractions, Consumer Products, Family, Film, Imagineering, Music, Parks & Resorts, Publishing, Television, Theatrical, and Voice – although many Legends qualify for more than one category.
Who Has Been Named a Disney Legend?
Since 1987 Disney has been adding Legends to a long list of notables. Some are well-known names, others are people who helped shape the Disney magic behind the scenes. But all of them have made their mark on the company. Here are all of the Disney Legends named over the years…
1987 – The First Disney Legend Award
Fred MacMurray (Film) – Walt personally cast MacMurray in the Studio’s first live-action comedy, “The Shaggy Dog” (1959), and he appeared in seven Disney films in all, including “ “The Happiest Millionaire” (1967) – the last live-action movie Walt supervised before his death. He has the honor of being Disney’s very first legend.
Disney Legends Class of 1989 – The Nine Old Men
Eric Larson (Animation) – Animated on iconic films, including “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” “Fantasia,” “Bambi,” “Cinderella,” “Alice in Wonderland,” “Peter Pan,” “Lady and the Tramp,” “Sleeping Beauty,” and “The Jungle Book.”
Frank Thomas (Animation) – Drew some of Disney animation’s most memorable moments, including the Dwarfs crying at Snow White’s bier, Bambi and Thumper learning how to ice skate, and the spaghetti-eating sequence in “Lady and the Tramp.”
John Lounsbery (Animation) – Directing animator on “Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day,” which won an Academy Award for Best Short Subject (Cartoons), and directed “Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too,” which earned an Oscar nomination.
Les Clark (Animation) – The first of Walt’s “Nine Old Men,” Clark began animating Mickey Mouse in Mickey’s debut film, “Steamboat Willie” and would later animate the memorable scene in the “Sorcerer’s Apprentice” segment of “Fantasia,” when Mickey’s sleeves keep falling as he brings the magical brooms to life.
Milt Kahl (Animation) – Adept at animating animal characters, including Bambi, and Brer Rabbit, Brer Fox, and Brer Bear in “Song of the South,” and contributed to “Melody Time,” “The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad,” “Cinderella,” “One Hundred and One Dalmatians,” “The Jungle Book,” and “The Rescuers.
Ollie Johnston (Animation) – Animated Thumper from “Bambi,” Mr. Smee from “Peter Pan,” and the trio of fairies from “Sleeping Beauty” as well as the memorable friendships of Baloo and Mowgli in “The Jungle Book” and Sir Hiss and Prince John in “Robin Hood.”
Find out how you can stay in Ollie Johnston’s Southern California vacation home.
Wolfgang Reitherman (Animation) – The first animator in the Company’s history to direct an animated feature: “The Sword in the Stone.” He also directed “The Jungle Book,” “The Aristocats,” “Robin Hood,” and “Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day.”
FUN FACT: REITHERMAN’S SON BRUCE VOICED MOWGLI IN “THE JUNGLE BOOK.”
Marc Davis (Animation and Imagineering) – Known as the father of some of Disney’s most memorable animated women – including Cruella De Vil, Maleficent, and Tinker Bell – was one of Disney’s original Imagineers and contributed to Enchanted Tiki Room, it’s a small world, Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, and Jungle Cruise.
Ub Iwerks (Animation and Imagineering) – Credited with sketching Mickey Mouse for the first time and invented the technology that revolutionized feature animation, including the multi-head optical printer to combine live-action and animated footage.
Ward Kimball (Animation and Imagineering) – Animated Jiminy Cricket, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, and Lucifer the Cat in “Cinderella” and directed two Academy Award-winning short subjects, “Toot, Whistle, Plunk, and Boom” (the first CinemaScope cartoon) and “It’s Tough to Be a Bird,” which combined live action and animation.
Disney Legends Class of 1990
John Hench (Animation and Imagineering) – Created special effects on “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” (earning him an Oscar) and designed attractions for Tomorrowland in Disneyland (pictured right).
Herb Ryman (Imagineering) – Sketched a map of Walt’s dream of an amusement park that would appeal to both children and adults, and within two years, Disneyland became the first theme park of its kind in the world.
Joe Fowler (Attractions) – Personally invited by Walt to lead the construction of Disneyland, and after overseeing the park’s construction, oversaw the planning and building of Walt Disney World (pictured far left).
Richard Irvine (Imagineering) – Convinced Walt the best people to design Disneyland were his own staff, leading to the formation of the design and engineering arm of the Company charged with developing theme parks – later known as Imagineers (pictured right).
Roger Broggie (Imagineering) – Walt tasked Broggie to work on “Project Little Man,” so he constructed a nine-inch tall figure of a man that moved and talked – the prototype of Audio-Animatronics technology.
Richard Sherman and Robert Sherman (Music) – Won Oscars for “Mary Poppins” (best score and best song for “Chim Chim Cher-ee”), and wrote music for “The Parent Trap,” “The Jungle Book,” “Bedknobs and Broomsticks,” the Winnie the Pooh series, as well as Disneyland attractions, including The Enchanted Tiki Room and the iconic song “It’s a Small World” (Robert pictured left and Richard pictured center).
Disney Legends Class of 1991
Carl Barks (Animation) – Dedicated to retelling the exploits “Disney Ducks” – Donald Duck, his nephews (Huey, Dewey, and Louie), and his most memorable creation, Donald’s wealthy uncle, Scrooge McDuck.
Sterling Holloway (Voice) – Supplied voices for Winnie the Pooh, the Cheshire Cat in “Alice in Wonderland,” and Kaa, the hypnotic snake, in “The Jungle Book” (for which he sang “Trust in Me”).
Claude Coats (Animation and Imagineering) – Part of the creative team for the Grand Canyon and Primeval World dioramas, Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, Submarine Voyage, Carousel of Progress, and it’s a small world.
Ken Anderson (Animation and Imagineering) – Art director for “Song of the South,” who contributed technical innovations that combined live-action footage and animation (which he later improved for “Pete’s Dragon”). Walt later tapped him to work on Disneyland’s Fantasyland attractions, including Peter Pan’s Flight, Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, and Storybook Land.
Don DaGradi (Animation and Film) – Designed the underground cavern sequences for “Darby O’Gill and the Little People,” and collaborated on the screenplays for “Son of Flubber,” “Mary Poppins,” “Bedknobs and Broomsticks,” and “The Love Bug.”
Julie Andrews (Film) – Captured the hearts of audiences as Mary Poppins in her feature film debut (winning the 1964 Oscar for Best Actress) and charmed a new generation as Queen Clarisse in The Princess Diaries movies.
Bill Walsh (Film and Television) – Produced and wrote for the Mickey Mouse Club and Davy Crockett television programs and feature films “The Shaggy Dog,” “The Absent-Minded Professor,” “Son of Flubber,” “That Darn Cat!” “The Love Bug,” “Bedknobs and Broomsticks,” and “Mary Poppins” (pictured left).
Fess Parker (Film and Television) – Donned a coonskin cap to play the historical character Davy Crockett for a three-part television show and went on to star in “The Great Locomotive Chase,” “Old Yeller,” “The Light in the Forest,” and two additional Davy Crockett television shows.
Mary Blair (Animation and Imagineering) – Introduced an artistic style that influenced “Song of the South,” “Cinderella,” “Alice in Wonderland,” and “Peter Pan,” and created the iconic design of it’s a small world attraction and the murals in the Grand Canyon Concourse in Walt Disney World’s Contemporary Hotel.
Disney Legends Class of 1992
Jack Hannah (Animation) – Directed 65 Donald Duck shorts, which have been praised as the funniest of Disney’s animated duck tales. Also credited with introducing the troublesome chipmunks, Chip and Dale (pictured left).
Joe Grant (Animation) – Contributed animation to Disney classics like “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” and “Pinocchio,” and later consulted on “Beauty and the Beast,” and worked on “Aladdin,” “The Lion King,” and “Mulan” (picured center).
FUN FACT: IN 1940, GRANT CONTRIBUTED TO “FANTASIA,” AND 50 YEARS LATER, FATHERED THE “FLAMINGO WITH A YO-YO” CONCEPT FOR THE “CARNIVAL OF THE ANIMALS” SEQUENCE IN “FANTASIA 2000.”
Ken O’Connor (Animation and Imagineering) – Created the magical coach in “Cinderella,” the marching cards in “Alice in Wonderland,” and the dancing hippos in “Fantasia,” and later lent his imagination and artistry to Epcot Center’s Universe of Energy and World of Motion attractions.
Roy Williams (Animation and Television) – Although Williams started his career at The Walt Disney Studios as an artist, Walt personally cast the “300 pounds of walking pixie” in a new role – as “the Big Mooseketeer” on the “Mickey Mouse Club.”
FUN FACT: WILLIAMS IS CREDITED WITH DESIGNING THE TRADEMARK EARS WORN BY THE “MICKEY MOUSE CLUB” CAST.
Winston Hibler (Film) – Narrated Walt Disney’s True-Life Adventures films, produced and co-produced more than 150 films, and composed lyrics for Disney songs, including “Following the Leader” from “Peter Pan” and “I Wonder” from “Sleeping Beauty” (pictured left).
Annette Funicello (Film and Television) – Starred in “The Mickey Mouse Club” (and the show’s serials) as well as “The Shaggy Dog,” “Babes in Toyland,” and “The Monkey’s Uncle.”
Bill Evans (Imagineering) – After landscaping the grounds of Walt’s home and backyard railroad, Evans was tasked with landscaping Disneyland, including the Jungle Cruise’s two-acre man-made jungle.
Jimmie Dodd (Television) – Hosted the “Mickey Mouse Club” and composed more than 30 songs for the show, including the title “Mickey Mouse Club March.”
Disney Legends Class of 1993
Card Walker (Administration) – President of Walt Disney Productions who led the Comany through the uncertain times following the deaths of Walt and Roy O. Disney. Under his supervision, the Company grew to include Epcot Center, Tokyo Disneyland, and The Disney Channel (pictured right).
Donn Tatum (Administration) – Served in senior executive roles, including working with Roy O. Disney to build Walt Disney World and with Card Walker to develop Epcot. He succeeded Roy O. Disney as chairman and CEO of The Walt Disney Company.
Clarence Nash (Voice) – The voice of Donald Duck for more than 50 years, from Donald’s debut in “The Wise Little Hen” through more than 150 shorts and five feature films, including “Saludos Amigos,” “The Three Caballeros,” “Fun and Fancy Free,” and “Melody Time.”
Jimmy Macdonald (Voice) – Voice credits include yodeling, whistling, and sneezing for the seven dwarfs, barks for Pluto, and the high-pitched voices of Chip and Dale, but his greatest role was Mickey Mouse, who he voiced from 1946 until 1977, when Walt handpicked him to be his successor as Mickey’s official voice.
Pinto Colvig (Voice) – Voiced Goofy from the time of the character’s 1932 debut in “Mickey’s Revue” until Pinto’s death in 1967. He also voiced Practical Pig in “Three Little Pigs” and Grumpy and Sleepy in “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.”
Buddy Ebsen (Film and Television) – Best known as George Russell in the Davy Crockett television series, Ebsen’s tap dancing moves also served as a prototype for Walt’s earliest experiments in Audio-Animatronics technology (pictured left).
Irving Ludwig (Film) – Helped grow the newly formed Buena Vista Distribution Co. and created the division that arranged the exhibition of Disney movies at theaters throughout the US and Canada. Among the high points of his career was “Mary Poppins,” which he initially opened in only a handful of theaters and eventually became Disney’s greatest box office success.
Peter Ellenshaw (Film) – As a matte painter and production designer, created the memorable movie moments of Mary Poppins gliding through the air beneath an umbrella, fifty chimney sweeps dancing over London rooftops, and Captain Nemo piloting his submarine.
FUN FACT: ELLENSHAW’S SON HARRISON PRODUCED MANY OF THE MATTE VISUAL EFFECTS BACKGROUNDS FOR “STAR WARS” AND “EMPIRE STRIKES BACK.”
Harper Goff (Film and Imagineering) – Designed the Nautilus submarine for “20,000 Leagues Under The Sea,” conceptual ideas for Disneyland (including Main Street, USA, and the Jungle Cruise), and the layout of Epcot’s World Showcase and concepts for the Japan, Italy, and United Kingdom Pavilions.
Blaine Gibson (Imagineering) – Supervised creation of sculptures for Audio-Animatronics figures, including for Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, and the Enchanted Tiki Room. In 1993, created the bronze “Partners” statue of Walt and Mickey located at the Hub in Disneyland and Disney parks around the world.
Disney Legends Class of 1994
Frank Wells (Administration) – President and COO of The Walt Disney Company who oversaw the Company’s unprecedented growth, making it one of the most successful film studios in the world.
FUN FACT: WELLS SET OUT TO CLIMB THE HIGHEST MOUNTAIN ON EACH OF THE WORLD’S CONTINENTS WITHIN A YEAR. HE ONLY SCALED SIX, BUT DISNEYLAND’S MATTERHORN HONORS THE ACCOMPLISHMENT WITH MOUNTAIN CLIMBING EQUIPMENT BEARING THE NAME “WELLS EXPEDITION.”
David Hand (Animation) – Directed the animated shorts “Pluto’s Judgement Day,” “Alpine Climbers,” and “Little Hiawatha,” and the Studio’s first full-length animated feature, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.”
Adriana Caselotti (Voice) – Never lost her enthusiasm for the Disney character she played in 1937 – Snow White – and even proudly displayed a “wishing well” on her Los Angeles front lawn.
Bill Cottrell (Animation and Imagineering) – Directed the Wicked Witch and Evil Queen sequences in “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” and helped develop storylines and dialog for Snow White’s Adventures attraction.
FUN FACT(S): COTTRELL WAS THE FIRST PRESIDENT OF WHAT IS TODAY KNOWN AS WALT DISNEY IMAGINEERING AND WAS MARRIED TO LILLIAN DISNEY’S SISTER, HAZEL SEWELL.
Jack Lindquist (Attractions) – Disneyland’s first advertising manager who played a key role in making it a world-famous tourist attraction (including marketing the original “E tickets”).
Van France (Attractions) – Founder of the “University of Disneyland” training center (today called The Disney University), France promoted Walt Disney’s philosophy of creating happiness through smiles on employees’ faces and the treatment of visitors as very important guests.
Marvin Davis (Film and Imagineering) – Worked with Walt to design Disneyland, including Main Street, USA, New Orleans Square, Sleeping Beauty Castle, and the exterior of the Haunted Mansion, and later developed the master plans for the Magic Kingdom and Epcot at Walt Disney World.
Bill Martin (Imagineering) – Created the layout for Disneyland’s Fantasyland attractions and the Monorail’s course around the park. Later oversaw the master layout of Florida’s Magic Kingdom and designed Cinderella Castle, the utilidors, and the 27,000-acre property’s canal system.
Paul Smith (Music) – Wrote scores for 70 animated shorts, received Oscar nominations for “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” “Cinderella,” “Song of the South,” “Saludos Amigos,” and “The Three Caballeros,” and won an Academy Award for the music in “Pinocchio.”
Disney Legends Class of 1995
Fred Moore (Animation) – Credited with transforming the look of Mickey Mouse from the “rubber hose and round circle” style of drawing to the design still used today and animated the Dwarfs in “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” Lampwick in “Pinocchio,” and Timothy in “Dumbo.”
Thurl Ravenscroft (Voice) – Voiced Fritz, the German parrot in the Enchanted Tiki Room, is heard and seen in the Haunted Mansion, where guests often mistake his mustachioed face on a broken bust in the graveyard scene for that of Walt Disney (pictured far right).
FUN FACT: RAVENSCROFT’S NON-DISNEY CREDITS INCLUDE “HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS,” FOR WHICH HE SANG “YOU’RE A MEAN ONE, MR. GRINCH.”
Betty Taylor (Attractions) – Graced the stage of Disneyland’s Golden Horseshoe Revue for more than 31 years as Slue Foot Sue, the leader of a troupe of western dance hall girls (and Pecos Bill’s sweetheart).
Edward Meck (Attractions) – Publicist and architect of the first Disneyland press event to give journalists firsthand exposure to the park and instrumental in the 1971 opening of Walt Disney World.
Fulton Burley (Attractions) – Performed at Disneyland’s Golden Horseshoe Revue for 25 years and was also the voice of the Enchanted Tiki Room parrot Michael.
Wally Boag (Attractions) – Performed as Pecos Bill in Disneyland’s Golden Horseshoe Revue, appeared on the original “Mickey Mouse Club” and “Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color” television shows and “The Absent-Minded Professor” and “The Love Bug” movies, and provided the voice of Jose, the parrot in the Enchanted Tiki Room.
FUN FACT: IN 1997, BURLEY, BOAG, AND RAVENSCROFT RECORDED NEW NARRATION FOR WALT DISNEY WORLD’S THE ENCHANTED TIKI ROOM (UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT).
Angela Lansbury (Film) – Made her musical comedy motion picture debut Eglantine Price in Disney’s fantasy “Bedknobs and Broomsticks,” and twenty years later, returned to Disney as Mrs. Potts in “Beauty and the Beast,” in which she sang the film’s Academy Award-winning title song, and more recently as The Balloon Lady in “Mary Poppins Returns.”
Dean Jones (Film) – Appeared in “The Love Bug,” “That Darn Cat,” “Snowball Express,” “The Ugly Dachshund,” “The $1,000,000 Duck,” and “Blackbeard’s Ghost” as well as the Disney remakes “The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes” (1995), “That Darn Cat” (1997), and the ABC television movie “The Love Bug.”
Wathel Rogers (Imagineering) – Credited with “breathing life” into the robotic Audio-Animatronics figures in the Enchanted Tiki Room at Disneyland and The Hall of Presidents at Walt Disney World and helped create the first “walking” Audio-Animatronics figure, Benjamin Franklin, for the American Adventure at Epcot.
Disney Legends Class of 1996
Bill Peet (Animation) – Worked on “Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs,” “Pinocchio,” “Cinderella,” “Peter Pan,” “Alice in Wonderland,” “Sleeping Beauty,” and “The Jungle Book” and was the sole developer of “One Hundred and One Dalmatians” and “The Sword in the Stone,” for which he drew the characters, wrote the screenplays, and directed the actors’ voice performances.
Betty Lou Gerson (Voice) – Provided the “Once upon a time…” narration for “Cinderella,” but it was her work as the voice of Cruella De Vil – Disney’s first non-magical villainess – in “One Hundred and One Dalmatians” that brought her notoriety (pictured center).
Bob Moore (Animation and Film) – Headed the one-man art department for publicity, where he developed promotional art concepts for Disney films and theme parks and served as one of Walt Disney’s official “autographers,” signing thousands of photographs with Walt’s famous signature.
Bill Justice (Animation and Imagineering) – Directed the “Mickey Mouse March,” on the “Mickey Mouse Club,” and programmed Audio-Animatronics figures for Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, Mission to Mars, Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, Country Bear Jamboree, and America Sings.
X Atencio (Animation and Imagineering) – Developed dialogue and music for Adventure Thru Inner Space, Haunted Mansion (for which he co-wrote the song “Grim Grinning Ghosts”), and Pirates of the Caribbean (for which he wrote “Yo Ho, Yo Ho, A Pirate’s Life for Me”).
Bob Allen (Attractions) – Began working with Disney in 1955 as a ride operator at Disneyland and eventually became vice president of Walt Disney World. In between, he managed the Celebrity Sports Center in Colorado and helped prepare for the opening of Walt Disney World.
Bob Matheison (Attractions) – Responsible for “anything audible” at Disneyland, from recorded music to teaching Jungle Cruise guides how to use their microphones, helped produce live radio and television broadcasts from Disneyland, and helped develop Walt Disney World and create its executive training program.
Rex Allen (Film and Television) – Performed as a narrator, singer, and actor in more than 40 Disney westerns for the “Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color” television series, “Pancho, the Fastest Paw in the West,” “The Legend of Lobo,” and “Charlie, the Lonesome Cougar.”
FUN FACT: ALLEN PROVIDED THE VOICE OF FATHER IN THE ORIGINAL CAROUSEL OF PROGRESS AND GRANDFATHER IN THE UPDATED 1993 VERSION OF THE SHOW.
Sam McKim (Imagineering) – Known to Disney fans as the creator of the Disneyland souvenir maps issued between 1958 and 1964, which remain among the most sought-after pieces of Disney memorabilia. In 1992, he created a new map in his unique style to commemorate the opening of Disneyland Paris.
Disney Legends Class of 1997
Joe Potter (Attractions) – Oversaw construction of Walt Disney World and served as president of the Board of Supervisors of the Reedy Creek Improvement District, which led to the nickname “Mister Disney” because of his liaison work between the park and the surrounding community during the 1960s and 1970s.
André Vanneste (Consumer Products) – Developed corporate promotional tie-ins with Disney animated releases such as “Cinderella” and “Peter Pan.”
Antonio Bertini (Consumer Products) – Initiated the production and marketing of Disney shorts and educational films throughout Italy, increasing the Company’s revenue and paving the way for dominance in the home video market during the early 1980s.
Armand Bigle (Consumer Products) – Served as Disney’s premier European special sales representative charged with opening new territories for Disney merchandise and publications by recruiting licensees in Russia, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Yugoslavia, Greece, Israel, Indonesia, Benelux, and the Middle East.
Gunnar Mansson (Consumer Products) – Disney’s representative in the Nordic countries of Norway, Finland, Denmark, Iceland, and Sweden, responsible for merchandising, promotions, character licensing, music, educational materials, and publishing.
Horst Koblischek (Consumer Products) – Created a junior tennis tournament for German children called the Sport Goofy Trophy, which produced future champs Steffi Graf, Monica Seles, and Michael Chang, who made their debuts on the Sport Goofy tennis courts.
Armand Paliyoda (Film) – Distributed Disney movies in Switzerland, and when Walt decided to produce the live-action “Third Man on the Mountain” on location in Zermatt, he established Swiss contacts for the production team and conducted on-site publicity (pictured left).
Cyril Edgar (Film) – Disney liaison with RKO (which distributed Disney movies at the time), and later director of sales for Disney’s own distribution operation in the UK and joint managing director of Walt Disney Productions Ltd. (pictured left).
Roberto de Leonardis (Film) – Hired by Disney to translate films, including “Bambi,” “Dumbo,” and “Pinocchio,” for Italian audiences, and executive produced a 360-degree motion picture that features a tour of Italy using a cutting-edge camera invented by Disney Imagineers.
Wally Feignoux (Film) – Responsible for supervising RKO’s distribution of Disney films throughout Continental Europe and surreptitiously buried all the Disney film prints in his possession to keep them out of Nazi hands when Hitler seized Paris.
Cyril James (Consumer Products and Film) – Handled all financial and administrative affairs for Walt Disney Productions, Ltd., in London and served as its liaison with RKO, which distributed Disney movies, including the all-live-action films produced in the UK, beginning with “Treasure Island” in 1950.
Lucien Adés (Music) – Pioneered the first “read-along” record album for Disney Consumer Products that combined albums with beautifully-illustrated companion books, which later inspired “storyteller” albums and “sing-along” videos.
Angel Angelopoulos (Publishing) – Launched the first Greek Disney magazine, Mickey Mouse Weekly, recruited licensees to manufacture character merchandise (including Disney-themed stickers and sticker books), and fought against piracy of Disney characters in Greece, creating an environment in which Disney licensees could thrive.
Arnoldo Mondadori (Publishing) – Published the Italian children’s magazine Topolino in a pocket-size format so children could easily carry it and share it with their friends. The success of Topolino led to Donald Duck magazine, as well as other Disney comic books (pictured far left).
Didier Fouret (Publishing) – Worked on the 1952 re-issue of the weekly magazine Le Journal de Mickey, which introduced Mickey Mouse to a whole new generation of French children, and in 1979, recruited chefs Paul Bocuse, Gaston LeNotre, and Roger Verge as his partners in Les Chefs de France in Epcot.
Gaudenzio Capelli (Publishing) – Developed the popular Italian Manuali (Disney Handbooks) series of “how-to” manuals for children featuring Disney characters on subjects like sports, cooking, and gardening. The success of the Manuali led to the creation of Enciclopedia Disney and Enciclopedia Disney Geografica, general knowledge books for children (pictured right).
Mario Gentilini (Publishing) – Transformed the monthly Mickey Mouse-starring Topolino into a weekly publication, featured original Disney stories by classically trained Italian artists, and published a series of Disney-themed handbooks for the Italian boy scouts called Manuale dell Giovani Marmotte.
Paul Winkler (Publishing) – The first to establish Disney’s presence in France through publishing, with the first French Mickey Mouse comic magazine, Le Journal de Mickey.
Poul Brahe Pederson (Publishing) – Hired highly-skilled English specialists to translate American stories into Danish and talented artists and writers to develop original artwork and stories for Donald Duck magazine.
Disney Legends Class of 1998
Don Escen (Administration) – Oversaw The Walt Disney Studios’ financial affairs in Burbank and its overseas film distribution and merchandising offices.
Masatomo Takahashi (Administration) – As chairman of the Oriental Land Company (OLC), led efforts to bring Disneyland to the children of Japan and guided the multi-million dollar Tokyo Disneyland theme park to completion in 1983.
Lloyd Richardson (Film) – Edited Disney animated and live-action motion pictures, including “The Three Caballeros,” “Make Mine Music,” “Alice in Wonderland,” the combination live-action/animated feature “Song of the South,” and the Academy-Award winning True-Life Adventure “The Vanishing Prairie.”
Virginia Davis (Animation) – Appeared in the first 13 titles of Walt’s “Alice Comedies” series, which featured an innovative blend of live action and animation.
Bill Tytla (Animation) – Nicknamed “Animation’s Michelangelo,” who created the evil puppeteer Stromboli in “Pinocchio,” the endearing baby elephant in “Dumbo,” and the menacing winged devil Chernabog in “Fantasia.”
Wilfred Jackson (Animation) – Devised a method of synching animation with music (featured in “Steamboat Willie”) and directed three Oscar-winning shorts –”The Tortoise and the Hare,” “The Country Cousin,” and “The Old Mill” – plus the “Night on Bald Mountain” sequence in “Fantasia” and all combination cartoon/live-action footage in “Song of the South.”
Kathryn Beaumont (Voice) – The voice of Alice in “Alice in Wonderland” and Wendy Darling in “Peter Pan,” for which she served as both speaking voice and physical model of the animated character; she also recorded vocals for Disneyland’s Alice in Wonderland attraction and was heard as Wendy calling out to Peter Pan in Fantasmic!
Ben Sharpsteen (Animation and Film) – Walt’s right-hand man for animated and live-action film production who animated 97 Mickey Mouse cartoons, directed 21 animated shorts, produced 12 of the 13 True-Life Adventures (eight of which earned Oscars), and established an in-house animation training program to recruit artists.
James Algar (Animation and Film) – Directed the Mickey Mouse short “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” which became the foundation of the 1940 animated classic “Fantasia,” and wrote and produced Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln and the CircleVision 360 production “America the Beautiful.”
Kay Kamen (Consumer Products) – Set an unprecedented standard in licensing Disney character merchandise that helped transform Mickey Mouse and other Disney characters into megastars and introduced the first-ever Mickey Mouse watch – and Macy’s department store in New York City sold a record of 11,000 timepieces in one day (pictured left).
Matsuo Yokoyama (Consumer Products) – Developed relationships with licensees that introduced Mickey Mouse to the Japanese people, established Disney’s copyrights in Japan, and created the Disney Licensing Association to encourage cooperation among legitimate licensees.
Al and Elma Milotte (Film) – Inspired and created the first True-Life Adventure film – the Oscar-winning “Seal Island” – and then traveled the globe for the True-Life Adventures series, winning a total of six Oscars, including for “Beaver Valley,” “The Alaskan Eskimo,” “Bear Country,” “Nature’s Half Acre,” and “Water Birds.”
Glynis Johns (Film) – Best known as Winifred Banks in “Mary Poppins,” but also starred as Mary Tudor in “The Sword and the Rose” and as Helen Mary MacGregor in “Rob Roy, the Highland Rogue.”
Hayley Mills (Film) – Made her American film debut in “Pollyanna” (for which she earned a special Oscar), but is best remembered for “The Parent Trap,” in which she played both twin sisters who scheme to reunite their divorced parents. She later appeared in three “Parent Trap” sequels and the series “Good Morning, Miss Bliss” for The Disney Channel.
Kurt Russell (Film) – Appeared in “The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes,” voiced Copper in “The Fox and the Hound; hosted a “The Wonderful World of Disney” episode where he introduced viewers to a new Disney theme park adventure – the Haunted Mansion – and more recently, appeared as Ego in “Guardians of the Galaxy, Volume 2.”
Paul Kenworthy (Film) – Shot footage for “The Living Desert” (including a wasp battling a tarantula and a snake pursuing baby kangaroo rats underground), directed “Rusty and the Falcon,” about a boy who finds an injured falcon and tries to train him, and developed a story about the first ascent of the Matterhorn, which became the 1959 live-action feature “Third Man on the Mountain.”
Larry Lansburgh (Film and Television) – Recorded footage of a goodwill trip with Walt to South America that was featured in the film “Saludos Amigos” and produced “The Littlest Outlaw” about a young boy in Mexico who rescues a horse from a bullring.
FUN FACT: “THE LITTLEST OUTLAW” WAS FILMED TWICE – ONCE IN ENGLISH AND ONCE IN SPANISH – FOR A SIMULTANEOUS RELEASE ON BOTH SIDES OF THE BORDER.
Buddy Baker (Music) – Composed more than 200 scores for Disney movies, television, and theme parks, including “The Fox and the Hound,” the original three Winnie the Pooh films, the “Mickey Mouse Club,” Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion attraction, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh attraction at Walt Disney World, and Sindbad’s Seven Voyages at Tokyo DisneySea.
Norman “Stormy” Palmer (Film) – Edited “Make Mine Music,” “Melody Time,” “The Living Desert,” “The Incredible Journey,” and the innovative CinemaScope short “Grand Canyon” (pictured right).
Roy E. Disney (Administration, Animation, Family, and Film) – Walt’s nephew, writer-producer, and director of “Varda, the Peregrine Falcon,” “The Owl That Didn’t Give a Hoot,” and “Pancho, the Fastest Paw in the West,” and later the Company’s vice chairman and head of Animation who oversaw “The Little Mermaid,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “The Lion King,” and “Fantasia 2000.”
Dick Van Dyke (Film) – Best remembered by Disney fans as Bert the chimney sweep in Mary Poppins, but also played Mr. Dawes Sr., (the intimidating chairman of the bank who dies laughing), and his son, Mr. Dawes Jr. in the sequel “Mary Poppins Returns.”
Disney Legends Class of 1999
Norm Ferguson (Animation) – Animator on more than 75 shorts, including “The Chain Gang,” “Mickey’s Orphans,” and “The Three Little Pigs,” and the famous flypaper sequence in the 1934 Disney short “Playful Pluto,” and supervising animator of the first Disney villain: the evil witch in “Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs.”
Bill Garity (Film) – As the Studio’s first manager, headed the department of engineers who created the multi-plane camera, which gave depth to animated films and made it possible to create camera movements that simulated live-action films (earning an Academy Award in the Scientific and Technical category).
Mary Costa (Voice) – The voice of Princess Aurora Sleeping Beauty, who helped make “I Wonder” and “Once Upon A Dream” Disney music classics.
Yale Gracey (Animation and Imagineering) – Special effects and lighting artist at Imagineering who created favorite illusions, including the “grim, grinning ghosts” in the Haunted Mansion, the flames of the burning city in Pirates of the Caribbean, and the “CenterCore” finale of Epcot’s World of Motion attraction.
Ham Luske (Animation) – Supervising animation for “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” responsible for the most challenging character – Snow White – and sequence director on “Fantasia,” “Cinderella,” “Alice in Wonderland,” “Peter Pan,” “Lady and the Tramp,” “One Hundred and One Dalmatians,” and the cartoon sequences in “Mary Poppins.”
Charlie Ridgway (Attractions) –Journalist-turned-publicist who authored some of the first articles about Disneyland to appear in any major metropolitan newspapers (including covering the 1955 grand opening celebration) and later promoted Disney theme parks by assisting with the planning of more than 150 major press events and launching the opening of Walt Disney World and Disneyland Paris.
Dick Nunis (Attractions) – Worked his way up from a 1955 “summer job” at Disneyland to attractions supervisor who developed operating procedures for all the park’s attractions (many still used today), chairman of the Park Operations Committee, and eventually president of the Outdoor Recreation Division, overseeing Walt Disney World, Epcot, and, later, Disney-MGM Studios.
Al Konetzni (Consumer Products) – Developed ideas for items featuring beloved Disney characters, including a popular lunch box depicting a host of Disney characters on board a school bus (which is now a prized collector’s item) and was responsible for the development and licensing of the now-collectible Pez Mickey and Donald candy dispensers.
Tim Allen (Film and Television) – Starred in the hit series “Home Improvement” (based on his stand-up comedy act), the Walt Disney Pictures’ The Santa Clause movies, and as the voice of Buzz Lightyear in the Toy Story franchise.
Disney Legends Class of 2000
Becky Fallberg (Animation) – Began her Disney career in 1942 as a telephone operator and advanced through the animation ranks, working on every Disney animated feature from 1943’s “Saludos Amigos” until 1975, when she was named manager of the Ink and Paint department (where she remained until her 1986 retirement).
Dodie Roberts (Animation) – Supervised the Studio paint lab that made sure colors were consistent throughout an animated motion picture, including “Fantasia,” “Cinderella,” and “Sleeping Beauty.”
FUN FACT: ROBERTS AND TWO OTHER LAB EMPLOYEES CREATED A SECRET PROPRIETARY COLOR USED FOR SHADOWS IN DISNEY ANIMATION, EACH ADDING A SINGLE COLOR TO THE MIX WITHOUT KNOWING WHAT THE OTHERS WERE PUTTING IN.
Grace Bailey (Animation) – Began working in the Walt Disney Studios Ink and Paint department in 1932 and worked her way up from painting supervisor to inking supervisor to head of the entire Ink and Paint department, who, after the release of the Studio’s first Technicolor animated short – “Flowers and Trees” – was charged with creating the Studio’s inventory of colors (pictured center).
Retta Scott (Animation) – The Studio’s first woman animator was assigned to animate the hunting dogs chasing Faline in “Bambi” and the weasels in the “Wind in the Willows” segment of “The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad.” She also illustrated the Big Golden Book of Cinderella (the cover was released as a color serigraph with gold enhancements).
Ruthie Tompson (Animation) – Supervisor of the Scene Planning department who helped establish camera mechanics used to photograph animated scenes and background art onto film, and as a result of her skill at guiding camera movement for animated films, was invited to join the International Photographers Union, Local 659 of the IATSE (one of the first three women to be admitted into the Hollywood camera union).
Cliff Edwards (Voice) – Voiced Jiminy Cricket in “Pinocchio” – including singing the Oscar-winning “When You Wish Upon a Star” – and voiced one of the crows in “Dumbo,” in which he introduced “When I See an Elephant Fly.”
Dick Jones (Voice) – At ten, he voiced Pinocchio in the 1939 movie and, donning a puppet costume, acted out scenes for a live-action film study for animators.
Joyce Carlson (Animation and Imagineering) – Worked as an inker on “The Three Caballeros,” “Cinderella,” “Peter Pan,” and “Sleeping Beauty,” and helped create it’s a small world for Disneyland as well as new versions of the attraction for Walt Disney World and Tokyo Disneyland.
Ron Dominguez (Parks & Resorts) – A “native Disneylander” whose family owned and lived on 10 acres of the property Walt purchased for his theme park, he took a summer job as a ticket taker at the new theme park. Eventually, he became park manager, director of operations, vice president of Disneyland, and executive vice president, Walt Disney Attractions, West Coast.
Harriet Burns (Imagineering) – Designed and built the famous “Mouse Clubhouse” for “The Mickey Mouse Club, and as the first woman ever hired by Imagineering in a creative capacity, helped design, prototype, and build Disneyland’s Sleeping Beauty Castle, New Orleans Square, Haunted Mansion, Storybook Land, and designed the birds in the Enchanted Tiki Room.
Disney Legends Class of 2001
Tyrus Wong (Animation) – His landscape paintings with deer as early concepts during pre-production for “Bambi” set the color schemes and appearance of the forest in the movie.
Bob Broughton (Film) – Camera effects artist who used a multi-plane camera to photograph artwork painted on glass up to six layers deep for “Pinocchio,” operated an advanced camera and crane to create transparent flying ghosts for “Fantasia,” and helped Dick Van Dyke dance with animated penguins in “Mary Poppins” by using color traveling matte composite cinematography.
Fred Joerger (Imagineering) – Crafted three-dimensional miniature models of movie sets and theme park attractions before they were brought to full-scale life, including “Mary Poppins,” “Darby O’Gill and the Little People,” and “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” (for which he created intricate models of the submarine) as well as Sleeping Beauty Castle and the rockwork on Jungle Cruise and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World.
Marty Sklar (Imagineering) – As a student editor for UCLA’s Daily Bruin, he created an 1890-themed newspaper, The Disneyland News, which sold on Main Street during the park’s debut year. He later joined Imagineering, where he guided the creative development of Epcot and delivered breakthrough entertainment for Disneyland Paris, Tokyo Disney Resort, and Hong Kong Disneyland.
Fun Fact: Sklar is the only Disney Employee to have attended the grand openings of all Disney parks.
Alan Menken (Music) – Composed the scores for “The Little Mermaid,” “Aladdin,” “Pocahontas,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” “Hercules,” “Enchanted,” “Tangled,” plus, the live-action musical “Newsies” and Disney’s Broadway stage productions.
Frank Churchill (Music) – Composed “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?” for “Three Little Pigs;” “Whistle While You Work,” “Heigh-Ho,” and “Someday My Prince Will Come” for “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs;” and “Baby Mine” for “Dumbo.”
George Bruns (Music) – Composed “The Ballad of Davy Crockett” for “Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier” and the theme song for the “Zorro” television series, as well as music for “Sleeping Beauty,” “The Absent-Minded Professor,” “One Hundred and One Dalmatians,” “The Jungle Book,” “Robin Hood,” “The Sword in the Stone,” and “The Love Bug.”
Howard Ashman (Music) – Wrote lyrics for beloved Disney songs, including “Under the Sea,” “Friend Like Me,” “Be Our Guest,” and “Human Again,” which was featured in the Beauty and the Beast Broadway production, but never completed for the 1991 animated movie (it was later animated and added in 2002).
Leigh Harline (Music) – Wrote tunes for more than 50 animated shorts, scored Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs – including “Someday My Prince Will Come” – and composed “When You Wish Upon a Star,” which remains the signature song for The Walt Disney Company (pictured far right).
Ned Washinton (Music) –Wrote the lyrics for “When You Wish Upon a Star,” “Baby Mine,” and “I’m a Happy-Go-Lucky Fellow,” featured in the “Mickey and the Beanstalk” sequence of “Fun and Fancy Free.”
Disney Legends Class of 2002
In honor of the opening of the Walt Disney Studios Park at Disneyland Paris, all 2002 inductees were of European origin.
David Tomlinson (Film) – Known for his performances as George Banks in Mary Poppins, the evil Thorndyke in “The Love Bug,” and Emelius Brown in “Bedknobs and Broomsticks.”
Hugh Attwooll (Film) – Produced Disney motion pictures shot on location in England and Europe, including “Greyfriars Bobby,” “In Search of the Castaways,” “The Moon-Spinners,” “Candleshoe,” “The Littlest Horse Thieves,” and “Watcher in the Woods.”
Ken Annakin (Film) – Directed “The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men,” “The Sword and the Rose,” “Third Man on the Mountain,” and the live-action classic “Swiss Family Robinson” that was shot on location on the Caribbean island of Tobago over 22 weeks.
Richard Todd (Film and Television) – Appeared in Disney’s high-adventure films “The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men,” “The Sword and the Rose,” and “Rob Roy, the Highland Rogue,” all three produced in England with blocked funds Disney had been unable to get out of the country after World War II (pictured right).
Robert Newton (Film and Television) – Starred as the wicked Long John Silver in Disney’s first live-action film “Treasure Island,” the one and only role he ever played for Disney, but that proved to be the most popular of his career (pictured right).
Robert Stevenson (Film) – Director who could make anything seem possible in Disney live-action motion pictures, from leprechauns in “Darby O’Gill and the Little People” to levitating nannies in “Mary Poppins” to flying Volkswagens in “The Love Bug.”
Sir John Mills (Film) – Played the patriarch of the resourceful shipwrecked family in “Swiss Family Robinson” (pictured center).
Fun Fact: Mills starred with his daughter Hayley Mills in “Tiger Bay,” the film in which Walt Disney first spotted his future “Pollyanna” star.
Maurice Chevalier (Film) – Appeared as Professor Jacques Paganel in “In Search of the Castaways” and Father Sylvain in “Monkeys, Go Home!” and in 1970, came out of retirement to sing the title song of “The Aristocats.”
Phil Collins (Music) –Wrote (and performed) songs for the Disney animated feature “Tarzan,” including “You’ll Be In My Heart,” (which won an Oscar), “Two Worlds,” “Son of Man,” and “Strangers Like Me;” wrote the soundtrack for “Brother Bear,” and voiced a character in “The Jungle Book 2.”
Fun Fact: Collins recorded the “Tarzan” soundtrack in German, Italian, French, and two dialects of Spanish (Latin American and Castilian), an unprecedented feat by a musical artist for a motion picture.
Sir Tim Rice (Music) – Acclaimed lyricist who wrote songs for the animated movies and Broadway productions of “Beauty and the beast,” “Aladdin” and “The Lion King” and the Disney theatrical production of “Aida.”
Disney Legends Class of 2003
Alfred Taliaferro (Publishing) – Artist who drew the Silly Symphony Sunday comic strip series featuring Donald Duck and later a daily Donald Duck strip. He also introduced Huey, Dewey, and Louie in the comics, and soon after, the trio broke onto the big screen in “Donald’s Nephews.”
Neil Beckett (Consumer Products) – Disney’s sole representative to New Zealand, his efforts spread to Australia when Disney licensees began to share pre-production costs, leading him to develop dual promotions, including miniature Disney comic books with the sale of gasoline.
Buddy Hackett (Film and Television) – Appeared as the wacky Tennessee Steinmetz in “The Love Bug” and voiced Scuttle (the seagull who’s always showing off his false knowledge about humans) in “The Little Mermaid” and “The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea.”
Richard Fleischer (Film) – Directed “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,” considered to be one of Disney’s most ambitious live-action films, and the son of animation pioneer (and Walt’s rival) Max Fleischer, who created Betty Boop, Popeye, and Superman (pictured right).
Edna Disney (Family) – Married to Walt’s older brother Roy O. Disney, who assisted with office work at the brothers’ fledgling studio, and along with Walt’s wife, Lillian, helped ink and paint animation cels (pictured center).
Harrison Price (Film) – Helped Walt pick the optimum locations for Disneyland and Walt Disney World and conducted site selection and feasibility studies for Tokyo Disneyland (pictured right).
Orlando Ferrante (Imagineering) – Coordinated the relocation of it’s a small world, Carousel of Progress, and Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln from the New York World’s Fair to Disneyland and later established the Project Installation Coordinating Office to oversee the creation and installation of attractions, including Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean.
Tutti Camarata (Music) – Co-founded Disneyland Records (known today as Walt Disney Records) by putting story, music, and dialogue from classic Disney animated films on vinyl LPs and supervised recordings featuring Mouseketeer Annette Funicello, for whom he developed the distinctive “Annette” sound.
Floyd Gottfredson (Animation) – Mickey Mouse’s “guardian artist” penciled Mickey’s daily comic strip from 1930 until he retired from the Studio in 1975.
Ilene Woods (Voice) – Voiced the title character in “Cinderella” after being selected from a field of nearly 400 hopefuls.
Lillian Disney (Family) – Wife of Company founder Walt Disney who worked behind the scenes in many ways to support the Company’s growth, but her most celebrated contribution is the naming of a certain animated mouse (who Walt originally planned to name Mortimer).
Disney Legends Class of 2004
Mel Shaw (Animation) – Contributed to “Fantasia,” “Bambi,” and “The Wind in the Willows,” which later became a segment in “The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad,” and later offered his skill and knowledge to animators on “The Rescuers,” “The Fox and the Hound,” “The Great Mouse Detective,” “Beauty and the Beast,” and “The Lion King.”
Fun Fact: Shaw designed and created the original Howdy Doody marionette puppet.
Ralph Kent (Attractions and Imagineering) – Developed marketing materials for the Jungle Cruise and Enchanted Tiki Room, and in 1965, designed the first limited-edition Mickey Mouse watch for adults, which Walt presented to 25 of his top executives.
Karen Dotrice (Film and Television) – As a child actor, appeared as Mary MacDhui in “The Three Lives of Thomasina,” as Jane Banks in “Mary Poppins,” and as Elizabeth in “The Gnome-Mobile,” and as an adult, appeared in “Mary Poppins Returns” as the woman who asks for directions on Cherry Tree Lane.
Matthew Garber (Film) – Appeared with co-star (and childhood friend) Karen Dotrice in three Disney live-action motion pictures: “The Three Lives of Thomasina,” “Mary Poppins,” and “The Gnome-Mobile.”
Tim Conway (Film) – Appeared in “The World’s Greatest Athlete,” “The Shaggy DA,” “Gus,” “Air Bud: Golden Receiver,” and with Don Knotts in “The Apple Dumpling Gang” and “The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again.”
Bill Anderson (Animation, Film, and Television) – Produced “Third Man on the Mountain,” “Swiss Family Robinson,” “The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes,” “The $1,000,000 Duck,” “The Apple Dumpling Gang,” “The Shaggy DA,” “The Treasure of Matecumbe,” plus 58 episodes of “Zorro” (pictured center).
Alice Davis (Imagineering) – Designed costumes for the animated figures for it’s a small world, Pirates of the Caribbean (based on pirates’ attire sketched by her husband, Imagineer Marc Davis), Carousel of Progress, and the Flight to the Moon.
Bob Gurr (Imagineering) – Developed more than 100 designs for attraction vehicles ranging from Autopia cars and Matterhorn Bobsleds to the Disneyland and Walt Disney World Monorails and the antique cars and double-decker buses of Main Street, USA.
FUN FACT: Bob Gurr wrote a series of articles for MiceChat. You can read them all here: Design Those Were The Times.
Rolly Crump (Imagineering) – Key designer for some of Disneyland’s groundbreaking attractions, including Haunted Mansion, Enchanted Tiki Room, and it’s a small world, for which he designed the Tower of the Four Winds marquee and the iconic animated clock at its entrance, which sends puppet children on parade with each quarter-hour gong (pictured left).
Irwin Kostal (Music) – Conductor and orchestrator for “Mary Poppins,” “Bedknobs and Broomsticks,” and “Pete’s Dragon” – and received Oscar nominations in the category of Best Music, Original Song Score, and Adaptation for all three.
Leonard H. Goldenson (Television) – Founder and former chairman of the board of the American Broadcasting Company, Inc. (ABC), who struck a deal with Walt under which the Studio provided ABC with a weekly series called “Disneyland” and access to its animated film library in exchange for financing. He also transformed sports with Monday Night Football and international, live coverage of the Olympics.
Disney Legends Class of 2005
In honor of Disneyland’s 50th anniversary, all 2005 recipients were related to Parks and Resorts and/or Imagineering
Randy Bright (Imagineering) – Executive produced films for Epcot, Tokyo Disneyland, and other Disney theme park projects (including as writer and show producer for The American Adventure in World Showcase).
William Sullivan (Parks & Resorts) – Member of the operations team for the Winter Olympics in 1960 (where Disney was in charge of Pageantry); operations management for Disney film premieres, including “Mary Poppins” at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre and “The Happiest Millionaire” at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre; and later vice president of Magic Kingdom in Florida.
Robert Jani (Parks & Resorts) – Produced Disney spectaculars, including “The Main Street Electrical Parade,” and served as master plan consultant for Disneyland Paris and the Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park at Walt Disney World.
Chuck Boyajian (Parks & Resorts) – Disneyland’s first manager of Custodial Operations who also brought his expertise to the establishment of custodial functions for the opening of Walt Disney World and Tokyo Disneyland.
Charles Boyer (Parks & Resorts) – Has the unique distinction of being Disneyland’s first full-time artist, who produced nearly 50 collectible lithographs and artwork for magazine covers, brochures, flyers, and even Company-commissioned oil portraits for retiring employees.
Chuck Abbot (Parks & Resorts) – One of Disneyland’s foremost Attractions Hosts – named “Foreman of the Year” in 1969 – who was the foreman for the openings of Pirates of the Caribbean (1967), Space Mountain (1977), and the reimagined Matterhorn (1978), and also foreman of the Submarine Voyage, Jungle Cruise, and Mine Train Through Nature’s Wonderland.
Cicely Rigdon (Parks & Resorts) – Disneyland Guest Relations Supervisor (“Keeper of the Keys” for Walt’s apartment above the Main Street Fire Station) and represented Disneyland around the world as leader and developer of the Disneyland Ambassador Program.
Hideo “Indian” Aramaki (Parks & Resorts) – Chef of the Disneyland Tahitian Terrace and later promoted to executive chef supervising all food establishments in Disneyland.
Fun Fact: Aramaki played semi-pro baseball with the Cleveland Indians, which earned him the nickname “Indian.” Walt liked the nickname and ordered a new name tag, making him one of the only Disneyland employees allowed to wear a tag with a nickname.
Hideo Amemiya (Parks & Resorts) – Director of resort operations at Walt Disney World and held executive positions at Disney resorts in Japan and California, including senior vice president of Disneyland Resort hotels in charge of operations at Paradise Pier, the Disneyland Hotel, and the Grand Californian.
Jack Olsen (Parks & Resorts) – Served as Manager of Product and Project Design and Development, Director of the Merchandising Division, and VP of Merchandising, responsible for stocking the shelves at Disneyland and the Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom with T-shirts, plush toys, ceramics, books, toys, and key chains.
Jack Wagner (Parks & Resorts) – Made announcements at the Disney Parks and in touring ice and arena shows and voice-overs for television programs, commercials, and audio-visual presentations for over two decades.
James Cora (Parks & Resorts) – Assisted in the opening of Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World (implementing the “Disney Way of Leadership” program) and eventually promoted to President of Disneyland International (responsible for the development and creative direction for Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea), and Chairman of Disneyland International.
Mary Anne Mang (Parks & Resorts) – First woman manager of the Convention & Tour Sales department; served as Public Relations manager, hosting royalty and celebrities who visited Disneyland; and consolidated employee public service efforts into the company-wide VoluntEARS program.
Mary Jones (Parks & Resorts) – Headed Disneyland Community Relations, administered Community Service Awards and the Community Action Team, and coordinated visits by heads of state, royalty, and other important foreign dignitaries.
Milt Albright (Parks & Resorts) – Designed a miniature car for Autopia to impress Walt while working in the Studio Payroll Department and was hired as manager of accounting for Disneyland. Later became manager of marketing special projects and manager of guest communications.
Tom Nabbe (Parks & Resorts) – While working as a “newsie” hawking The Disneyland News to Main Street guests, Walt tapped him for the starring role on Tom Sawyer Island (pictured center).
Fun Fact: one of Nabbe’s job requirements was maintaining a “C” average in school, so he had to bring his report cards to Walt for inspection.
Vesey Walker (Parks & Resorts) – Hired for a two-week run as Bandmaster of the Disneyland Band for Disneyland’s 1955 opening and remained for 15 years.
Art Linkletter (Parks & Resorts) – Hired as host for the live broadcast of Disneyland’s 1955 opening day, but when Walt could only afford to pay him union scale, the saavy radio and television personality negotiated exclusive rights to the camera and film concessions at Disneyland for the next ten years.
Steve Martin (Parks & Resorts) – Worked at Disneyland from age 10 to 18 selling guidebooks at the gate, souvenir spinning lassos in Frontierland, and eventually spent three years at the old Merlin’s Magic Shop in Fantasyland. He later starred in the Father of the Bride movies and co-starred with Donald Duck in the park’s 50th-anniversary film, “Disneyland: The First 50 Magical Years.”
Disney Legends Class of 2006
Al Dempster (Animation) – Background artist for “Fantasia,” “Dumbo,” “Song of the South,” “Peter Pan,” “Lady and the Tramp,” “Sleeping Beauty,” “The Jungle Book,” “The Aristocats,” “Bedknobs and Broomsticks,” and all the Winnie the Pooh featurettes, plus illustrator for Disney Golden Books, including the “Alice in Wonderland” cover (considered “the Mona Lisa of Disney storybook illustration”).
Joe Ranft (Animation) – Drew storyboards for “Oliver & Company,” “Who Framed Roger Rabbit,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “The Lion King,” and “Fantasia 2000,” and, at Pixar, served as story supervisor on “Toy Story” and “Toy Story 2,” and voiced Heimlich in “A Bug’s Life,” and Wheezy the asthmatic penguin in “Toy Story 2.”
Sir Elton John (Music) – Composed the soundtrack for “The Lion King,” including the Academy Award-nominated “Circle of Life” and “Hakuna Matata” and Oscar winner “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” and the music for the Tony-winning “The Lion King” on Broadway.
Jimmy Johnson (Music) – Headed business affairs for the Walt Disney Music Company with a focus on Disney stories, characters, and properties and later played a key role in the evolution of Walt Disney music and record activities, including the establishment of the Buena Vista and Disneyland record labels and the Wonderland Music Company.
Peter Jennings (Television) – As one of America’s most distinguished journalists, he helped put ABC News on the map in 1972 with his coverage of the Summer Olympics in Munich and was named anchor and senior editor of “World News Tonight” in 1983.
Paul Frees (Film, Parks & Resorts, Television) – Provided the voice of Donald Duck’s nutty Uncle, Professor Ludwig Von Drake, many of the various Pirates of the Caribbean, and the Ghost Host in the Haunted Mansion.
Tommy Kirk (Television) – Appeared as Joe Hardy in the popular “The Hardy Boys” serial on the “Mickey Mouse Club,” as Arliss Coates in “Old Yeller,” and in “The Shaggy Dog,” “Swiss Family Robinson,” “The Absent-Minded Professor,” and “Babes in Toyland.”
David Stollery (Film and Television) – Appeared as Marty Markham in “The Adventures of Spin and Marty” serial for the “Mickey Mouse Club” (as well as two “Spin and Marty” sequel serials) and in the Disney feature films “Ten Who Dared” and “Westward Ho the Wagons!”
Tim Considine (Television) – Appeared as Spin Evans in “The Adventures of Spin and Marty” (and two “Spin and Marty” sequel serials), s Frank Hardy in two “Hardy Boys” serials, and in “The Shaggy Dog.” Read more about Time Considine on MiceChat HERE
Fun Fact: Considine starred in the classic TV comedy “My Three Sons” with Disney Legend Fred MacMurray and former Mouseketeer Don Grady.
Ginny Tyler (Film and Television) – As the original Disneyland Records “Disneyland Storyteller,” narrated vinyl recordings of “Bambi,” “Babes in Toyland,” and “More Mother Goose,” voiced two female squirrels in “The Sword in the Stone,” and sang for several of the barnyard animals in the “Jolly Holiday” sequence of “Mary Poppins.”
Kevin Corcoran (Television) – Appeared as “Moochie” in the “Adventure in Dairyland,” and “The Further Adventures of Spin and Marty” serials for “Mickey Mouse Club,” and was top-billed in “Moochie of the Little League,” “Moochie of Pop Warner Football,” and “Johnny Shiloh.”
Don Edgren (Imagineering) – Professional engineer who led the Imagineering engineering team for New Orleans Square and Pirates of the Caribbean at Disneyland, the first Space Mountain at Walt Disney World, and coordinated all engineering design activities for Tokyo Disneyland (pictured right).
Disney Legends Class of 2007
Roone Arledge (Television) – Created ABC’s “Wide World of Sports” (where he introduced slow motion and instant replay) and introduced “NFL Monday Night Football,” which elevated ABC Sports to the leader of network sports programming.
Ron Logan (Parks & Resorts) – Responsible for creating, casting, and producing all live entertainment products for Disneyland, Walt Disney World, Tokyo Disneyland, Disneyland Paris, The Disney Institute, Disney Business Productions, Disney Cruise Line, Disney Entertainment Productions, and Walt Disney Entertainment Worldwide.
Randy Newman (Music) – Wrote scores for “Toy Story,” “A Bug’s Life,” “Toy Story 2,” “Monsters, Inc.,” “Cars,” “The Princess and the Frog,” “Toy Story 3,” and “Monsters University,” winning Oscars for “If I Didn’t Have You” from Monsters, Inc., and “We Belong Together” from “Toy Story 3.”
Carl Bongirno (Imagineering) – VP of finance and treasurer of Walt Disney World in Florida, responsible for all financial matters and all service activities: wardrobe, warehousing, transportation, laundry, and even the Disney telephone company.
Bob Schiffer (Film) – Make-up artist who contributed to Disney live-action feature films, including “Bedknobs and Broomsticks,” “The Apple Dumpling Gang,” “The Shaggy DA,” “Return From Witch Mountain,” “The Watcher in the Woods,” “Tron,” “Something Wicked this Way Comes,” and “Splash.”
Dave Smith (Administration) – Walt Disney Archives founder and former chief archivist, author of the official Disney encyclopedia “Disney A to Z,” and co-author of four volumes of “The Ultimate Disney Trivia Book” and “Disney: The First 100 Years.”
Marge Champion (Animation) – live-action reference model for “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” so animators could make the princess as human as possible. She later modeled for the Blue Fairy in “Pinocchio” and Hyacinth Hippo in the “Dance of the Hours” segment of “Fantasia” (a ballet parody she helped choreograph).
Floyd Norman (Animation) – Worked as an in-betweener and animator on “Sleeping Beauty,” “The Sword in the Stone,” and “The Jungle Book,” and years later worked on “Toy Story 2” and “Monsters, Inc.” for Pixar and “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” and “Mulan” for Disney.
Dick Huemer (Animation) – Directed the animated shorts “The Whalers” and “Goofy and Wilbur,” and served as story director on “Dumbo,” “Saludos Amigos,” “Make Mine Music,” “Alice in Wonderland,” and “Fantasia,” for which he’s credited with introducing Walt to Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, and Stravinsky.
Art Babbitt (Animation) – Called “The Greatest Animator Ever” who animated the Queen in “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” Geppetto in “Pinocchio,” the Chinese Dance in “Fantasia,” and Mr. Stork in “Dumbo,” and was responsible for developing the minor character Dippy Dawg into Goofy.
Lucille Martin (Administration) – Walt’s assistant from 1965 until his death, when she transferred to the office of Company President (and later CEO) Ron Miller and later Michael Eisner, who eventually served as the liaison between Company management and The Walt Disney Company Board of Directors as vice president and special assistant to The Board.
Tom Murphy (Administration) – Built Capital Cities/ABC, Inc. from a single television and radio station into a multibillion-dollar international media conglomerate.
Disney Legends Class of 2008
Russi Taylor (Voice) – Voiced Minnie Mouse in the films “Runaway Brain” and “Mickey, Donald, and Goofy: The Three Musketeers,” and the TV series “Mickey’s Mouse Works,” “House of Mouse,” and “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.” Her other voice performances included Martin Prince and the twins, Sherri and Terri, on more than 100 episodes of “The Simpsons” and “The Simpsons Movie.”
Wayne Allwine (Voice) – Voiced Mickey Mouse in the films “Mickey’s Christmas Carol,” “The Prince and the Pauper,” and “Mickey, Donald, and Goofy: The Three Musketeers,” and the TV series “Mickey’s Mouse Works,” “House of Mouse,” and “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.”
Fun Fact: Allwine (the voice of Mickey) was married to Taylor (the voice of Minnie).
Frank Gifford (Television) – After an NFL career that included eight Pro Bowls and five NFL Championship Games (the forerunner of the Super Bowl), Gifford joined “ABC’s Monday Night Football,” served as reporter and commentator for ABC’s Olympics coverage, and hosted “ABC’s Wide World of Sports.”
Toshio Kagami (Parks & Resorts) – As Representative Director, Chairman, and CEO of the Oriental Land Company, who worked with Disney to open Tokyo Disneyland in 1983 and Tokyo DisneySea in 2001.
Oliver Wallace (Music) – Musical director for the Academy Award-winning score for “Dumbo,” as well as for “Cinderella,” “Alice in Wonderland,” “Peter Pan,” and “Lady and the Tramp,” who contributed music to several notable songs, including “When I See an Elephant Fly,” and “Pink Elephants on Parade” (pictured right).
Neil Gallagher (Imagineering) – Worked in the Disney Studio machine shop on projects for Disneyland, including building flower boats with singing orchids, tiki drummers, and rotating birdcages for the Enchanted Tiki Room, and later served as VP of Walt Disney World engineering, construction, and Central Shops.
Dorothea Redmond (Imagineering) – Designed New Orleans Square interiors, including the Royal Suite atop New Orleans Square that previously housed The Disney Gallery and Disneyland “Dream Suite,” and now the exclusive 21 Royal, and the murals in the passage through Walt Disney World’s Cinderella Castle that were created with a million pieces of multicolored Italian glass, real silver, and 14-karat gold.
Bob Booth (Imagineering) – Set up an innovative new multi-craft research, development, and manufacturing subsidiary for Walt Disney Productions called MAPO (Manufacturing and Production Organization) that manufactured ride systems and vehicles and heavy animated props for Disney Parks around the world.
Burny Mattinson (Animation) – Assistant animator on “Sleeping Beauty” and “One Hundred and One Dalmatians,” key animator on “Winnie the Pooh and Tigger, Too,” and, when his idea inspired by a Disneyland Records Christmas album was approved, he directed and produced “Mickey’s Christmas Carol” (and later directed and produced “The Great Mouse Detective”).
Walt Peregoy (Animation) – Served as a designer and animator on “Peter Pan” and “Lady and the Tramp,” lead background painter on “Sleeping Beauty,” worked on “One Hundred and One Dalmatians,” “Mary Poppins,” and “The Jungle Book,” and contributed to the design of Epcot’s architectural facades, sculptures, and murals for The Land and Journey Into Imagination pavilions.
Barbara Walters (Television) – The first woman co-host of the Today show, the first female network news co-anchor, the host and producer of top-rated TV specials, the host and chief correspondent of “20/20,” and the creator and co-host of “The View.”
Disney Legends Class of 2009
Tony Anselmo (Voice) – Animator on Disney features since 1980, and voice of Donald Duck since 1985 for television series including “DuckTales” and “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse,” and movies including “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” and “The Prince and the Pauper” for which he was the first person to both animate and voice, Donald.
Leota Toombs Thomas (Imagineering) – Began her Disney career in the Ink and Paint and Animation departments but later transferred to Imagineering, contributing to Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion – and appears in the mansion as Madame Leota, the disembodied head that speaks from inside a crystal ball.
Fun Fact: Thomas’ daughter, Imagineer Kim Irvine, portrays Madame Leota in Haunted Mansion Holiday, the attraction’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas-”themed overlay.
Don Iwerks (Film) – Son of animator, special effects wizard, and Disney Legend Ub Iwerks, developed cameras, projectors, and other systems for Disneyland and Walt Disney Walt, including the 360-degree CircleVision camera, the “Captain EO” 3-D film, and in-theater effects, and the projection system for Star Tours.
Bill Farmer (Voice) –The voice of two of Disney’s most enduring and endearing characters – Goofy and Pluto – including in Goofy’s first animated feature film, “A Goofy Movie,” the television series “Goof Troop,” “Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas,” and “Disney’s DTV Doggone Valentine” television special, which was the first time he voiced Goofy and barked for Pluto in the same project.
Harry Archinal (Administration) – Considered to have invented the international film distribution business, he started working for Disney in the foreign department of the Buena Vista Distribution Company and eventually became president of Buena Vista International.
Rue McClanahan (Television) – Best known for her role as Blanche Devereaux in the Touchstone Television series “The Golden Girls” (for which she won the Emmy Award for Best Actress in a Comedy Series in 1987) and the spin-off series “The Golden Palace.”
Estelle Getty (Television) – Portrayed the wisecracking Sophia Petrillo in “The Golden Girls” (for which she received the 1988 Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series) and “The Golden Palace” (pictured center).
Bea Arthur (Television) – After a guest spot on “All in the Family” as Edith Bunker’s cousin led to a starring role on the spin-off series “Maude,” she starred as Dorothy Zbornak on “Golden Girls,” which earned her an Emmy in 1988 (pictured center).
Betty White (Television) – One of the most beloved American actresses of all time, due, in part, to her charming performance as Rose Nylund on “The Golden Girls” (for which she was nominated seven times for an Emmy, winning in 1985) and her scene-stealing role as Grandma Annie in “The Proposal.” She also voiced Round in Disney’s “Whispers: An Elephant Tale” (pictured left).
Robin Williams (Film and Voice) – After gaining superstardom on ABC’s “Mork & Mindy,” appeared in motion pictures including “Good Morning, Vietnam” and “Flubber,” and gave an unforgettable voice performance as the Genie in “Aladdin” and “Aladdin and the King of Thieves.”
Disney Legends Class of 2011
Paige O’Hara (Voice) – The singing and speaking voice of the animated heroine Belle in “Beauty and the Beast” and the sequels “Beauty and the Beast:The Enchanted Christmas” and “Belle’s Magical World.”
Linda Larkin (Voice) – The speaking voice of Princess Jasmine in “Aladdin,” “The Return of Jafar,” “Aladdin and the King of Thieves,” the 1994-1996 Aladdin TV series, and in games, including Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II.
Lea Salonga (Voice) – Holds the distinction of having played two Disney leading ladies as the singing voices of Princess Jasmine in “Aladdin” and Fa Mulan in “Mulan” and “Mulan II.”
Jodi Benson (Voice) – Singing and speaking voice of Ariel in “The Little Mermaid” (as well as CDs, toys, video games, talking dolls, a television series, and movie sequels), Barbie in “Toy Story 2” and “Toy Story 3,” and Helen of Troy in the “Hercules” television series.
Anika Noni Rose (Voice) – Singing and speaking voice of Tiana in “The Princess and the Frog,” making the song “Almost There” an instant Disney classic. She is also involved in the new “Princess and the Frog-“themed attraction coming to Disneyland and Walt Disney World.
Find out more about Tiana’s Bayou Adventure.
Regis Philbin (Television) – Talk show host, game show host, singer, author, and actor best known for “Live with Regis and Kathie Lee” (later “Live with Regis and Kelly”) and “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” on which he popularized the catchphrase “Is that your final answer?”
Guy Williams (Television) – Starred as the title character in the Disney television series “Zorro” – and even made occasional guest appearances in character in Frontierland at Disneyland.
Jack Wrather (Parks & Resorts) – Struck a deal with Walt to build a luxury family hotel adjacent to Disneyland – and the 104-room Disneyland Hotel opened six and a half months later (pictured right).
Bonita Granville Wrather (Parks & Resorts) – Along with her husband Jack, officiated over the groundbreaking and dedication of The Disneyland Hotel’s world-famous Dancing Waters show. The hotel’s third tower – the Bonita Tower – and Granville’s Steak House were both named in her honor.
Jim Henson (Film and Television) – Creator of the Muppets (the unique combination of marionette and foam-rubber hand puppet); “Sesame Street;” “The Muppet Show” (that introduced Miss Piggy); the feature films “The Muppet Movie,” “The Great Muppet Caper,” and “The Muppets Take Manhattan;” and collaborated with Imagineering on the Muppet*Vision 3D attraction.
Barton “Bo” Boyd (Consumer Products) – Went from stocking shelves on Main Street, USA, to operating hundreds of Disney retail outlets across the world as head of Disney Consumer Products, overseeing Licensed Merchandise, Walt Disney Records, the Disney Catalog, Disney Interactive for computer games, and establishing the first Disney Store outside the theme parks.
Ray Watson (Administration) – Served on the Board of Directors for Walt Disney Productions during the expansion of Walt Disney World and the opening of Epcot, and after the opening of Tokyo Disneyland, was elected to the position of chairman of the board.
Disney Legends Class of 2013
Glen Keane (Animation) – Animated Penny for “The Rescuers,” Elliott for “Pete’s Dragon,” Ariel for “The Little Mermaid,” The Beast for “Beauty and the Beast,” the title character for “Aladdin,” and served as Executive Producer, Animation Supervisor, and Directing Animator of Rapunzel for “Tangled.”
Ed Wynn (Film) – Voiced the Mad Hatter for “Alice in Wonderland” and appeared as the Toymaker in “Babes in Toyland” and as the lighter-than-air Uncle Albert in “Mary Poppins”who “loved to laugh.”
Tony Baxter (Imagineering) – Helped define the modern Disney park landscape, including Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Epcot’s Imagination pavilion (featuring the characters of Figment and Dreamfinder), Star Tours, Indiana Jones Adventures, Splash Mountain, and the re-imagination of the Disneyland submarines as Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage.
John Goodman (Film and Television) – Voiced Pacha for “The Emperor’s New Groove” and “Kronk’s New Groove,” Baloo in “The Jungle Book 2,” Big Daddy in “The Princess and the Frog,” and James P. “Sulley” Sullivan in “Monsters, Inc.,” “Monsters University,” and Disney California Adventure’s Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue! attraction.
Billy Crystal (Film and Television) – Voiced the green, cyclopean monster Mike Wazowski in “Monsters, Inc.,” “Monsters University,” the short film “Mike’s New Car,” as a cameo in Cars, and for Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue.
Fun Fact: Crystal passed on the role of Buzz Lightyear in “Toy Story.”
Dick Clark (Television) – Known as “America’s oldest teenager,” hosted ABC’s American Bandstand from 1958 to 1989 and the annual “Dick Clark’s New Years Rockin’ Eve” from 1973 until 2011.
Collin Campbell (Imagineering) – Designed the Mouseketeer Treasure Mine and Dry Gulch sets for “Mickey Mouse Club” and helped develop Pirates of the Caribbean (including designing its trademark flat-bottomed boats) and the fabled Club 33. He also designed the unique entrance and queue for Florida’s Pirates of the Caribbean attraction.
Steve Jobs (Animation) – Apple Computer Company Founder, who invested $10 million in the Graphics Group that had spun off of Lucasfilm Ltd.’s computer graphics division, which became Pixar, Inc., and later served as executive producer of Pixar’s first film, “Toy Story.”
Disney Legends Class of 2015
Eyvind Earle (Animation) – Artist Eyvind Earle is renowned for his work on “Sleeping Beauty,” for which he was responsible for the overall production design, including styling, background, and color – and Sleeping Beauty Castle (La Chateau de la Belle au Bois Dormant) and its surroundings for Disneyland Paris were created based on his film designs.
George Bodenheimer (Television) –Executive Chairman of ESPN who enhanced ESPN’s position as The Worldwide Leader in Sports and oversaw all multimedia sports assets of The Walt Disney Company, including ABC Sports.
Danny Elfman (Film and Music) – Composed scores “Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas” (also providing the singing voice of Jack Skellington), “Meet the Robinsons,” and the live-action “Alice in Wonderland,” “Alice Through the Looking Glass,” and “Oz The Great and Powerful” as well as “The Simpsons” theme, and the music for the Mystic Manor attraction at Hong Kong Disneyland.
Susan Lucci (Television) – Appeared as Erica Kane on ABC’s fabled soap opera “All My Children” for four decades, earning her 21 Daytime Emmy nominations (and one win).
George Lucas (Parks & Resorts) – Creator of the blockbuster Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises that inspired Disney attractions, including Star Tours, Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Indiana Jones et le Temple du Péril in Disneyland Paris, Indiana Jones Adventure attractions at Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea, and most recently Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland and Walt Disney World.
Julie Reihn Casaletto (Parks & Resorts) – The first Disneyland Ambassador tasked with traveling the world to speak for Walt when he couldn’t be there in person.
Carson Van Osten (Consumer Products) – Comic book illustrator who wrote and drew the “Disney Comic Strip Artist’s Kit,” and later became a VP for Disney Consumer Products, providing guidelines for art production and establishing the first licensing style guides, and contributed logo concepts for Mickey’s 50th and 60th birthdays and the Disneyland Hotel clock tower “Mickey” at Disneyland Paris.
Andreas Deja (Animation) – Known for animating villains, including Gaston in “Beauty and the Beast,” Jafar in “Aladdin,” and Scar in “The Lion King,” but also animated heroes, including Hercules, Lilo, King Triton, Mama Odie, and Tigger too.
Johnny Depp (Film) – Appeared as Captain Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean films and Pirates of the Caribbean attractions in Florida and California and as the Mad Hatter in “Alice in Wonderland” and “Alice Through The Looking Glass.”
Disney Legends Class of 2017
Oprah Winfrey (Film and Television) – Producer, actress, network CEO, philanthropist, and one of the best-known media personalities of all time starred in Disney’s Touchstone Pictures’ “Beloved,” as Mrs. Which in The Walt Disney Studios’ “A Wrinkle in Time,” and voiced Eudora in “The Princess and the Frog.”
Julie Taymor (Theatrical) – Tony-, Emmy-, and Grammy-winning and Oscar-nominated director of the Broadway adaptation of the animated classic “The Lion King,” who also received awards for her puppet, costume, and mask designs.
Garry Marshall (Film and Television) – Successful director with 18 films to his credit, including “Pretty Woman” and The Princess Diaries movies, appeared in “Race to Witch Mountain” and “Hocus Pocus,” and voiced Buck Cluck in “Chicken Little.”
Stan Lee (Film and Publishing) – One of the most prolific and legendary comic creators of all time who created Marvel’s all-star roster of heroes and villains.
Fun Fact: Lee’s known for cameos in Marvel Studios film and television projects, but he also pops up as a wedding guest in “The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement.”
Jack Kirby (Publishing) – Created characters known worldwide in comics featuring the Fantastic Four, the Avengers, the X-Men, the Incredible Hulk, and Thor.
Wayne Jackson (Imagineering) – As the first employee of Walt Disney Imagineering’s manufacturing and production arm, helped install Pirates of the Caribbean and Haunted Mansion at Disneyland, and later served as installation supervisor for Florida’s Magic Kingdom; director of show and ride production, manufacturing, and installation for Tokyo Disneyland; and director of show/ride manufacturing, fabrication, and installation for Disneyland Paris.
Whoopi Goldberg (Film and Television) – Award-winning actress, producer, and talk-show host, who appeared as Deloris in “Sister Act” and “Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit,” on “The Wonderful World of Disney” as Queen Constantina in “Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella,” and voiced the hyena Shenzi in “The Lion King.”
Mark Hamill (Film) – Appeared as Jedi Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars franchise and “The Mandalorian,” as himself – and as Luke – on “The Muppet Show” in 1980, and as a voice actor in the Marvel animation shows “Spiderman,” “The Incredible Hulk,” and ”Fantastic Four.”
Carrie Fisher (Film) – Actress, author, playwright, and screenwriter best known for her iconic performance as Princess Leia (and later General Leia Organa) in the Star Wars sag a, and as a Hollywood script doctor made uncredited contributions to many successful films, including “Sister Act.”
Manuel Gonzales (Publishing) – Created the Sunday Mickey Mouse comic strip for newspapers nationwide for 40 years, sharing off-screen adventures of Mickey and his pals Goofy and Pluto and also drawing nine-week promotional comic strips to introduce films including “Cinderella,” “Alice in Wonderland,” “Peter Pan,” and “Lady and the Tramp.”
Clyde Geronimi (Animation) – Sequence director for memorable Disney segments, including the terrifying nighttime flight from the Headless Horseman in “The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, the romantic spaghetti dinner behind Tony’s Restaurant in “Lady and the Tramp,” and the remarkably mad tea party in “Alice in Wonderland,” and supervising director for the 1959 masterpiece “Sleeping Beauty.”
Disney Legends Class of 2019
James Earl Jones (Voice) – One of the most recognizable voices in Hollywood who performed the voice of Darth Vader in the Star Wars saga and Mufasa in “The Lion King,” “The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride,” “The Lion Guard: Return of the Roar,” and in The Walt Disney Studios’ photo-realistic reimagining of “The Lion King.”
Christina Aguilera (Music and Television) – Music superstar who appeared on Disney Channel’s popular update of the Mickey Mouse Club from 1993-95 and later performed a pop version of “Reflection” for the “Mulan” soundtrack, which she re-recorded for the 2020 live-action version of “Mulan.”
Jon Favreau (Film) – Directed several major box-office hits for Disney, including “Iron Man,” “Iron Man 2,” and the live-action reimagining of “The Jungle Book” and “The Lion King,” executive produced Marvel’s “The Avengers,” “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” “Avengers: Infinity War,” and “Avengers: Endgame,” and writes and executive produces “The Mandalorian” and “The Book of Boba Fett.”
Wing T. Chao (Imagineering) – Served as Executive VP of Walt Disney Imagineering, where he oversaw master planning, architecture, and design for Disney properties in California, Florida, Hawaii, Tokyo, Paris, Hong Kong, and Shanghai and led the design of Disney’s cruise ships.
Ming-Na Wen (Television and Voice) – Provided the speaking voice for the title character in Disney’s animated classic “Mulan” and portrayed Agent Melinda May/The Cavalry on “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.,” and Fennec Shand in “The Mandalorian, “The Bad Batch,” and “The Book of Boba Fett.”
Fun Fact: Wen made a cameo appearance in the live-action remake of “Mulan.”
Diane Sawyer (Television) – A trailblazer for women and journalism as a leader in morning television, prime time magazines, and the ABC flagship broadcast World News, who’s conducted some of the most-watched interviews in prime time, including the first and only interview with Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley.
Barnette Ricci (Parks & Resorts) – Choreographed and directed stage shows, spectaculars, and parades, including the iconic Main Street Electrical Parade, the popular Golden Horseshoe Revue at Disneyland and Diamond Horseshoe Revue at Walt Disney World, and Fantasmic!
Robin Roberts (Television) –The first female African American sports journalist for ESPN who hosted “SportsCenter” and “In the Game with Robin Roberts” and is currently a co-anchor on “Good Morning America.”
Hans Zimmer (Music) – Composed scores for “The Lion King,” “Iron Man,” the Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise, and the 2019 reimagining of “The Lion King.”
Fun Fact: Zimmer first gained fame as a member of the pop music group The Buggles, whose music video for “Video Killed the Radio Star” launched the genre on MTV.
Robert Downey Jr. (Film) – Once a member of Hollywood’s “Brat Pack,” made film history with his Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) debut performance as Tony Stark, the “man behind the mask” in “Iron Man,” as well as two Iron Man sequels, “The Incredible Hulk,” The Avengers,” “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” “Captain America: Civil War,” “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” “Avengers: Infinity War,” and “Avengers: Endgame.”
Kenny Ortega (Film and Television) – Directed “Newsies,” “Hocus Pocus,” and the High School Musical movies; and executive produced, directed, and choreographed “Descendants,” “Descendants 2,” and “Descendants 3.”
Bette Midler (Film) – Appeared in Touchstone Pictures’ “Down and Out in Beverly Hills,” “Ruthless People,” ”Outrageous Fortune,” and Big Business,” and “Beaches, for which she sang “Wind Beneath My Wings” and played witchy Winifred Sanderson the Halloween classic, “Hocus Pocus” and the upcoming sequel “Hocus Pocus 2.”
Click HERE for more extensive bios of the Disney Legends.
Who Are Disney’s Future Legends?
There are lots of people who deserve to be recognized for helping shape the Disney Company we know today. Here are some notables we think we’ll see on that D23 Expo stage one day:
- Former Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Iger
- Imagineers Joe Rohde, Bob Weiss, and Kim Irvine.
- Actors Harrison Ford (Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises), Tom Hanks (Toy Story movies), and John Ratzenberger (the only actor to voice a character in every Pixar film)
- Filmmakers Kevin Feige (President of Marvel and producer of the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise), Jennifer Lee (Chief Creative Officer of Walt Disney Animation Studios and award-winning writer and director of “Frozen” and “Frozen II”), Mike Peraza (Artistic Director “The Little Mermaid”), and Dave Filoni (“The Mandalorian” and “The Book of Boba Fett”)
- Composers and songwriters John Williams (Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises), Lin Manuel Miranda (“Moana” and “Encanto”), and Robert Lopez and Kristin Anderson-Lopez (“Frozen,” “Frozen II,” and “Coco”)
Who would you like to see added to the list of Disney Legends?
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Let’s Hear From You!
How many of these Legends had you heard of? Who is your favorite Disney Legend? Who’s the most surprising person who hasn’t yet been named a Disney Legend? And who would you choose if you were on the selection committee? Let us know in the comments below.
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