Walter
Elias Disney (1901 - 1966)Walt Disney was an American artist and film producer.
His best known films are the cartoons for which he created characters such as Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Pluto.
Disney was born in the city of Chicago.
In 1923 he made the world's first successful cartoon film, Oswald the Rabbit, but it was Mickey Mouse, who first appeared in 1928, that made cartoons really popular. The first Mickey Mouse movie was made in black and white; Disney's first colour cartoon was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937).
Several successful films followed, many of which are still regularly shown, including Bambi, Dumbo and Pinocchio.
In the 1940s Disney began making colour nature films (which won several Academy Awards, or 'Oscars') and feature films for children such as Treasure Island, and Mary Poppins, in which cartoons and live actors are combined