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Disney Legends

Disney Legends

Encyclopedia

Established in 1987, the Disney Legends program recognizes men and women who have made an extraordinary and integral contribution to The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company , often simply known as Disney, is the largest media and entertainment conglomerate in the world, known for its family-friendly products...

. The honor is awarded annually during a special ceremony.

Recipients are chosen by a selection committee appointed and chaired by Disney Legend Roy E. Disney
Roy E. Disney
Roy Edward Disney, KCSG is a longtime senior executive for The Walt Disney Company, which his father Roy Oliver Disney and his uncle Walt founded. He is still a shareholder , and currently serves as a consultant for the company and Director Emeritus for the Board of Directors...

, Walt Disney
Walt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon and philanthropist. Disney is famous for his influence in the field of entertainment during the twentieth century. As the co-founder Walter Elias...

's nephew and Director Emeritus of The Walt Disney Company. The committee consists of long-time Disney executives, historians and other authorities.

Disney's corporate headquarters in Burbank, California
Burbank, California
Burbank is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The estimated population in 2007 was 107,921.Burbank is located in two distinct areas, with its downtown, civic center and key neighborhoods nestled on the slopes and foothills that rise to the Verdugo Mountains, and other areas...

 features a plaza honoring the recipients outside Team Disney - The Michael D. Eisner Building
Team Disney
There are at least four buildings in the United States which carry the Team Disney title. Each serves as the administrative headquarters for key businesses of The Walt Disney Company....

. Each honoree is represented by a bronze plaque; the plaque features the recipient's handprints and signature if they were living when named a Disney Legend.

Artist Andrea Favilli created the Disney Legends award, which is handcrafted from bronze each year. The award depicts the arm of Mickey Mouse
Mickey Mouse
Mickey Mouse is a comic animal cartoon character who has become an icon for The Walt Disney Company. Mickey Mouse was created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks and voiced by Walt Disney. The Walt Disney Company celebrates his birth as November 18, 1928 upon the release of Steamboat Willie...

 holding a star-tipped wand.

Disney describes the award as follows:
When Disney opened up their hall of fame
Hall of Fame
A hall of fame is a type of museum established for any a field of endeavor to honor individuals of noteworthy achievement in that field.In some cases, these halls of fame consist of actual halls or museums which enshrine the honorees with sculptures, plaques, and displays of memorabilia...

, all the then major Hollywood studios considered opening up their own halls of fame, but (as of 2008) Disney remains the only major Hollywood studio to have one.

Recipients



1987 | 1988 | 1989 | 1990

1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000

2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 |
2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009

1989


  • Les Clark
    Les Clark
    Les Clark was the first of Disney's Nine Old Men. Joining Disney in 1927, he was the only one to work on the origins of Mickey Mouse with Ub Iwerks.- The Disney Studio :...

    , Animation
  • Marc Davis
    Marc Davis
    Marc Fraser Davis was a prominent American artist and animator for Walt Disney Studios. He was one of Disney's Nine Old Men, the famed core animators of Disney animated films....

    , Animation & Imagineering
    Walt Disney Imagineering
    Walt Disney Imagineering was formed by entertainment mogul Walt Disney on December 16, 1952 as WED Enterprises to develop plans for a theme park and to manage Disney's personal assets. It was an independent, private company, owned by Walt Disney himself, but on February 3, 1965, was merged into...

  • Ub Iwerks
    Ub Iwerks
    Ub Iwerks, A.S.C. was a two-time Academy Award winning American animator, cartoonist and special effects technician, who was famous for his work for Walt Disney...

    , Animation & Imagineering
  • Ollie Johnston
    Ollie Johnston
    Oliver Martin Johnston, Jr. was an American motion picture animator. He was one of Disney's Nine Old Men, and the last to pass away. He was recognized by The Walt Disney Company with its Disney Legend Award in 1989...

    , Animation
  • Milt Kahl
    Milt Kahl
    Milton Erwin Kahl was an animator for the Disney studio, and one of Disney's Nine Old Men....

    , Animation
  • Ward Kimball
    Ward Kimball
    Ward Walrath Kimball was an animator for the Walt Disney Studios. He was one of Walt Disney's team of animators known as Disney's Nine Old Men.-Career:...

    , Animation & Imagineering
  • Eric Larson
    Eric Larson
    Eric Larson was an animator for the Walt Disney Studios starting in 1933 and was one of the "Disney's Nine Old Men."...

    , Animation
  • John Lounsbery
    John Lounsbery
    John Lounsbery was an American animator who worked for The Walt Disney Company. He is best known as one of Disney's Nine Old Men....

    , Animation
  • Wolfgang Reitherman
    Wolfgang Reitherman
    Wolfgang Reitherman , also known and sometimes credited as Woolie Reitherman, was a famed Disney animator and one of Disney's Nine Old Men....

    , Animation
  • Frank Thomas
    Frank Thomas (animator)
    Franklin M. "Frank" Thomas was an American animator. He was one of Walt Disney's team of animators known as the Nine Old Men....

    , Animation

    • All except Iwerks were Disney's "Nine Old Men."
      Disney's Nine Old Men
      Disney's Nine Old Men were the core animators at Walt Disney Productions who created some of Disney's most famous works, from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs onward to The Rescuers. Walt Disney jokingly called this group of animators his "Nine Old Men," referring to Franklin D...


1990


  • Roger Broggie, Imagineering
  • Joe Fowler
    Joe Fowler
    Admiral Joe Fowler was a Naval Admiral who had an important part in the building of Walt Disney World. Admiral Fowler had run the San Francisco naval shipyard during WW II, when Walt was looking for a naval expert to help with the building of the Mark Twain Steamship in 1954 for the then...

    , Attractions
  • John Hench
    John Hench
    John Hench was an employee of The Walt Disney Company for more than sixty five years, an exceptionally long tenure which saw the rise of nearly every Disney animated feature and theme park....

    , Animation & Imagineering
  • Richard Irvine
    Richard Irvine
    Richard Irvine was an American art director.He was nominated for an Academy Award in the category Best Art Direction for the film Sundown. He worked on 31 films between 1939 and 1953....

    , Imagineering
  • Herb Ryman
    Herbert Ryman
    Herbert "Herbie" Dickens Ryman was a Disney imagineer, and fine art painter. His sister, Lucille Carroll helped fund the Ryman-Carroll Foundation....

    , Imagineering
  • Richard Sherman
    Sherman Brothers
    The Sherman Brothers are an Academy Award-winning American songwriting duo that specialize in musical films, made up of Robert B. Sherman and Richard M. Sherman ....

    , Music
  • Robert Sherman
    Sherman Brothers
    The Sherman Brothers are an Academy Award-winning American songwriting duo that specialize in musical films, made up of Robert B. Sherman and Richard M. Sherman ....

    , Music


1991


  • Ken Anderson
    Ken Anderson (animator)
    Ken Anderson was an art director, writer, and animator at Disney for 44 years.Anderson studied architecture at the University of Washington, graduating with a B.Arch. in 1934. He was particularly influenced by faculty member Lionel Pries.With the delineation skills he learned in architecture...

    , Animation & Imagineering
  • Julie Andrews
    Julie Andrews
    Dame Julie Elizabeth Andrews, DBE is a British film and stage actress, singer, and author. She is the recipient of Golden Globe, Emmy, Grammy, BAFTA, People's Choice Award, Theatre World Award, Screen Actors Guild and Academy Award honours...

    , Film
  • Carl Barks
    Carl Barks
    Carl Barks was a famous Disney Studio illustrator and comic book creator, who invented Duckburg and many of its inhabitants, such as Scrooge McDuck , Gladstone Gander , the Beagle Boys , Gyro Gearloose , Flintheart Glomgold , John D. Rockerduck and Magica De Spell...

    , Animation & Publishing
  • Mary Blair
    Mary Blair
    Mary Blair , born Mary Robinson, was an American artist best remembered today for work done for The Walt Disney Company. Blair produced striking concept art for such films as Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Song of the South and Cinderella...

    , Animation & Imagineering
  • Claude Coats, Animation & Imagineering
  • Don DaGradi
    Don DaGradi
    Don DaGradi was a Disney writer who started out as a layout artist on 1940s cartoons including "Der Fuehrer's Face" in 1943. He eventually moved into animated features with the film Lady and the Tramp in 1955. He also worked as a color and styling or sequence consultant on many other motion...

    , Animation & Film
  • Sterling Holloway
    Sterling Holloway
    Sterling Price Holloway, Jr. was largely a character actor, appearing in 150 films and television shows, and a long-standing voice actor for the Walt Disney Studios, including Winnie the Pooh.-Early life:...

    , Animation—Voice
  • Fess Parker
    Fess Parker
    Fess Elisha Parker, Jr. is an American film and television actor best known for his 1950s portrayals of Davy Crockett for Walt Disney and of Daniel Boone in the late 1960s. He is also known as a wine maker and resort owner-operator....

    , Film & Television
  • Bill Walsh
    Bill Walsh (producer)
    Bill Walsh was a film producer and screenwriter who primarily worked on live-action films for Walt Disney Productions...

    , Film & Television


1992


  • Jimmie Dodd
    Jimmie Dodd
    James Wesley Dodd was best known as the MC of the popular 1950s Disney TV show, The Mickey Mouse Club, as well as the writer of its well-known theme song, The Mickey Mouse Club March. A slowed-down version of this march, with different lyrics, became the very beautiful "Alma Mater" that closed the...

    , Television
  • Bill Evans, Imagineering
  • Annette Funicello
    Annette Funicello
    Annette Joanne Funicello is an American singer and actress. She was Walt Disney's most popular main cast member of The Mickey Mouse Club, and went on to appear in a series of beach party films.-Early life and early stardom:...

    , Film & Television
  • Joe Grant
    Joe Grant
    Joe Grant was a Disney artist and writer.Born in New York City, New York, he worked for The Walt Disney Company as a character designer and story artist beginning in 1933 on the Mickey Mouse short, "Mickey's Gala Premiere". He was a Disney legend. He created the Queen in Snow White and the Seven...

    , Animation
  • Jack Hannah
    Jack Hannah
    Jack Hannah was an animator, writer and director of animated shorts.He began his career at the Walt Disney Studios as an animator in the short Modern Inventions...

    , Animation
  • Winston Hibler
    Winston Hibler
    Winston Hibler was an American screenwriter, film producer and director.He was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and died in Burbank, California.-Selected filmography:...

    , Film
  • Ken O'Connor, Animation & Imagineering
  • Roy Williams
    Roy Williams (artist)
    Roy Williams was an artist and entertainer for The Walt Disney Studios, perhaps best known as "Big Roy," the adult mouseketeer for four seasons on the Mickey Mouse Club television series....

    , Animation & Television


1993


  • Pinto Colvig
    Pinto Colvig
    Vance DeBar "Pinto" Colvig was a vaudeville actor, radio actor, newspaper cartoonist, prolific movie voice actor, and circus performer whose schtick was playing clarinet off-key while mugging.-Personal life:...

    , Animation—Voice
  • Buddy Ebsen
    Buddy Ebsen
    Buddy Ebsen was an American character actor and dancer. A performer for seven decades, he had starring roles as Jed Clampett in the 1960s television series, The Beverly Hillbillies and as the title character in the 1970s detective series Barnaby Jones.-Early years:He was born Christian Rudolph...

    , Film & Television
  • Peter Ellenshaw
    Peter Ellenshaw
    William "Peter" Ellenshaw was an Anglo-American award-winning matte designer and special effects creator who worked on many Disney features.His first major project was the 1936 film Things to Come...

    , Film
  • Blaine Gibson, Animation & Imagineering
  • Harper Goff
    Harper Goff
    Harper Goff , born Ralph Harper Goff, was an American artist, musician, and actor. For many years, he was associated with the Walt Disney Company, in the process of which he contributed to various major films, as well as to the planning of the Disney theme parks. During World War II, he was also an...

    , Film & Imagineering
  • Irving Ludwig, Film
  • Jimmy MacDonald
    Jimmy MacDonald (sound effects artist)
    John James "Jimmy" MacDonald was a Scottish voice actor and the original head of the Disney sound effects department, and the voice of Mickey Mouse from 1947 to 1977....

    , Animation—Voice
  • Clarence Nash
    Clarence Nash
    Clarence Charles "Ducky" Nash was an American voice actor, best known for providing the voice of Donald Duck for Walt Disney Studios...

    , Animation—Voice
  • Donn Tatum
    Donn Tatum
    Donn Tatum was the first non-Disney family member to be president of Walt Disney Productions. Tatum held senior executive positions with Disney for 25 years and was its chairman from 1971 until 1980. He then served as a director until 1992, when he was named Director Emeritus...

    , Administration
  • Card Walker
    Card Walker
    Esmond Cardon Walker , commonly known as E. Cardon Walker or Card Walker, was a top executive at Walt Disney Productions in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. He was born in Rexburg, Idaho.-Early life and career:...

    , Administration


1994


  • Adriana Caselotti
    Adriana Caselotti
    Adriana Caselotti was an American actress and singer. She is the voice of Snow White in Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.-Early life:...

    , Animation—Voice
  • Bill Cottrell, Animation & Imagineering
  • Marvin Davis, Film & Imagineering
  • Van France, Attractions
  • David Hand, Animation
  • Jack Lindquist
    Jack Lindquist
    Jack Lindquist served as the president of the Disneyland amusement park in Anaheim, California from 1990 until he retired in 1993...

    , Attractions
  • Bill Martin, Imagineering
  • Paul J. Smith
    Paul Smith (composer)
    Paul J. Smith was an American music composer. He spent much of his life working at Disney as composer for many of its films' scores, animated and live-action alike, movie and television alike...

    , Music
  • Frank Wells
    Frank Wells
    Frank Wells was an American entertainment businessman.Previously, Wells had worked for Warner Brothers as its Vice President of West Coast in 1969, then in 1973 as President, and in 1977 as Vice Chairman until he left the company in 1982. Disney shareholders Roy E...

    , Administration


1995


  • Wally Boag
    Wally Boag
    Wallace Vincent Boag is an American performer known for his starring role in Disney's long running stage show the Golden Horseshoe Revue.-Biography:...

    , Attractions
  • Fulton Burley
    Fulton Burley
    Fulton Burley was an Irish-Canadian performer, most widely known for his work in Disneyland. Born in Tipperary, Ireland, and raised in Ontario, Canada, Fulton came to the United States in 1943 after a telephone audition landed him the singing lead in Billy Rose's Diamond Horseshoe Revue on Broadway...

    , Attractions
  • Dean Jones
    Dean Jones (actor)
    Dean Carroll Jones is an American actor. Jones is best known for his leading roles in several Walt Disney movies between 1965 and 1977.- Early years :...

    , Film
  • Angela Lansbury
    Angela Lansbury
    Angela Brigid Lansbury, CBE is an English actress and singer whose career has spanned seven decades. Her first film appearance was in Gaslight , for which she received an Academy Award nomination as a malevolent maid, and she expanded her repertoire to Broadway and television in the 1950s...

    , Film
  • Edward Meck, Attractions
  • Fred Moore, Animation
  • Thurl Ravenscroft
    Thurl Ravenscroft
    Thurl Arthur Ravenscroft was an American voice actor and singer known for his deep, booming voice. For 53 years, he was best-known as the voice of Tony the Tiger in more than 500 television commercials for Kellogg's Frosted Flakes.Ravenscroft was the vocalist of the song "You're a Mean One, Mr...

    , Animation—Voice
  • Wathel Rogers, Imagineering
  • Betty Taylor, Attractions


1996


  • Bob Allen
    Bob Allen (disambiguation)
    Bob Allen may refer to:*Bob Allen , Representative of District 32 in the state of Florida*Bob Allen , American baseball player and manager*Bob Allen , National League pitcher...

    , Attractions
  • Rex Allen
    Rex Allen
    Rex Elvie Allen was an American film actor, singer and songwriter who is particularly known as the narrator in many Walt Disney nature and Western productions. For contributions to the recording industry, Rex Allen was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.-Family and early life:Allen...

    , Film & Television
  • X Atencio
    X Atencio
    Francis Xavier Atencio , also known as X Atencio, is a former animator and Imagineer for The Walt Disney Company....

    , Animation & Imagineering
  • Betty Lou Gerson
    Betty Lou Gerson
    Elizabeth Louise Gerson was an American actress, predominantly in radio, but also in film and television, and as a voice actress.-Early life:...

    , Animation—Voice
  • Bill Justice
    Bill Justice
    William Justice was an animator and engineer for the Walt Disney Company.Justice joined Walt Disney Studios as an animator in 1937 and worked on such features as 1940's Fantasia, 1944's The Three Caballeros, 1951's Alice in Wonderland, and 1953's Peter Pan...

    , Animation & Imagineering
  • Bob Matheison, Attractions
  • Sam McKim, Imagineering
  • Bob Moore, Animation & Film
  • Bill Peet
    Bill Peet
    Bill Peet was an American children's book illustrator and a story writer for Disney Studios. He joined Disney in 1937 and worked on The Jungle Book, Song of the South, Cinderella, One Hundred and One Dalmatians, The Sword in the Stone, Goliath II, Sleeping Beauty, Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland,...

    , Animation—Story
  • Joe Potter, Attractions


1997


  • Lucien Adés, Music
  • Angel Angelopoulos, Publishing
  • Antonio Bertini, Character Merchandise
  • Armand Bigle, Character Merchandise
  • Gaudenzio Capelli, Publishing
  • Roberto de Leonardis, Film
  • Cyril Edgar, Film
  • Wally Feignoux, Film
  • Didier Fouret, Publishing
  • Mario Gentilini, Publishing
  • Cyril James, Film & Merchandise
  • Horst Koblischek, Character Merchandise
  • Gunnar Mansson
    Gunnar Månsson
    Gunnar "Gustaf" Månsson was a Swedish sailor who competed in the 1912 Summer Olympics.He was a crew member of the Swedish boat R. S. Y. C., which finished fifth in the 8 metre class competition.-External links:*...

    , Character Merchandise
  • Arnoldo Mondadori
    Arnoldo Mondadori
    Arnoldo Mondadori was a noted Italian publisher.Mondadori was born at Poggio Rusco, Mantua and died in Milan.His publishing house is today the largest in Italy.-External links:*...

    , Publishing
  • Armand Palivoda, Film
  • Poul Brahe Pederson, Publishing
  • André Vanneste, Character Merchandise
  • Paul Winkler, Character Merchandise


1998


  • James Algar
    James Algar
    James Algar was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer.He was born in Modesto, California and died in Carmel, California.-Selected filmography:* The Gnome-Mobile...

    , Animation & Film
  • Buddy Baker
    Buddy Baker (composer)
    Norman "Buddy" Baker was an American composer who scored many of Walt Disney's films, such as The Apple Dumpling Gang, The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again, The Shaggy D.A., The Million Dollar Duck and The Fox and the Hound .Baker was born and raised in Springfield, Missouri, and got his degree in...

    , Music
  • Kathryn Beaumont
    Kathryn Beaumont
    Kathryn Beaumont is an English voice actress/school teacher. She is best known for playing the voice of both Alice, in Disney's Alice in Wonderland and Wendy in Disney's Peter Pan...

    , Animation—Voice
  • Virginia Davis
    Virginia Davis
    Virginia Davis was an American movie child actor. She was born in Kansas City, Missouri.-Early career:...

    , Animation
  • Roy E. Disney
    Roy E. Disney
    Roy Edward Disney, KCSG is a longtime senior executive for The Walt Disney Company, which his father Roy Oliver Disney and his uncle Walt founded. He is still a shareholder , and currently serves as a consultant for the company and Director Emeritus for the Board of Directors...

    , Film, Animation & Administration
  • Don Escen, Administration
  • Wilfred Jackson
    Wilfred Jackson
    Wilfred Jackson was an American animator, arranger, composer and director best known for his work on the Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphonies series of cartoons from The Walt Disney Company....

    , Animation
  • Glynis Johns
    Glynis Johns
    Glynis Johns is a British stage and film actress, dancer, pianist and singer . With a career spanning seven decades, Johns is often cited as the "complete actress", who happens to be a trained pianist and singer...

    , Film
  • Kay Kamen, Character Merchandise
  • Paul Kenworthy, Film
  • Larry Lansburgh, Film & Television
  • Hayley Mills
    Hayley Mills
    Hayley Mills is an English actress. The daughter of John Mills and Mary Hayley Bell, and sister of actress Juliet Mills, Mills began her acting career as a child and was hailed as a promising newcomer, winning the BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer for Tiger Bay , the Academy Juvenile Award...

    , Film
  • Al Milotte and Elma Milotte, Film
  • Norman "Stormy" Palmer, Film
  • Lloyd Richardson, Film
  • Kurt Russell
    Kurt Russell
    Kurt Vogel Russell is an American actor. He started acting as a child in Hollywood films during the 1960s, and has continued appearing in a wide variety of films since, including Follow Me, Boys!, The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, The Barefoot Executive, The Thing, Big Trouble in Little China,...

    , Film
  • Ben Sharpsteen
    Ben Sharpsteen
    Ben Sharpsteen was an American film director and producer for Disney. He directed 31 films between 1920 and 1980....

    , Animation & Film
  • Masatomo Takahashi, Administration
  • Vladimir (Bill) Tytla, Animation
  • Dick Van Dyke
    Dick Van Dyke
    Richard Wayne “Dick” Van Dyke is an American actor, comedian, writer, and producer with a career spanning six decades...

    , Film
  • Matsuo Yokoyama
    Matsuo Yokoyama
    Matsuo Yokoyama was president of Walt Disney Enterprises of Japan from 1989 to 1994. As a merchandise representative in the early 1960s he was responsible for establishing the enforcement of Disney's intellectual property rights in Japan....

    , Character Merchandise


1999


  • Tim Allen
    Tim Allen
    Tim Allen is an American comedian, actor, voice-over artist, and entertainer, known for his role in the sitcom Home Improvement. His role in Galaxy Quest continues to be among his most popular...

    , Television, Film & Animation-Voice
  • Mary Costa
    Mary Costa
    Mary Costa is an American singer, best known for playing the voice of Princess Aurora in the 1959 Disney film Sleeping Beauty....

    , Animation—Voice
  • Norm Ferguson
    Norm Ferguson
    Norman Gerard Ferguson was a center andright wing in the National Hockey League with the Oakland / California Seals. Ferguson holds the Seals single-season record for goals; he scored 34 during the 1968-1969 season. This was a new record for a rookie...

    , Animation
  • Bill Garity, Film
  • Yale Gracey
    Yale Gracey
    Yale Gracey was a Disney Imagineer, writer, and layout artist for many Disney animated shorts, including classics such as The Three Caballeros and Fantasia. He designed many of the special effects for the Disney ride Haunted Mansion and the fire effect used in the Pirates of the Caribbean...

    , Animation & Imagineering
  • Al Konetzni, Character Merchandise
  • Hamilton Luske, Animation
  • Dick Nunis, Attractions
  • Charlie Ridgway, Attractions


2000


  • Grace Bailey, Animation
  • Harriet Burns
    Harriet Burns
    Harriet Burns was an American artist and designer. Burns was the first woman hired in the Walt Disney Imagineering department within the Walt Disney Company.- Early life :...

    , Imagineering
  • Joyce Carlson
    Joyce Carlson
    Joyce Carlson was an American artist and designer credited with creating the idyllic universe of singing children at "It's a Small World" rides at Walt Disney theme parks around the world. Carlson also worked as an ink artist in the Walt Disney Animation Studios, on such films as Cinderella, Peter...

    , Animation & Imagineering
  • Ron Dominguez
    Ron Dominguez
    Ron Dominguez is the former vice-president of Walt Disney Attractions.He and his family actually lived on the land in Anaheim where Disneyland was to be built. Disney purchased his family's land and a neighboring family's land and moved the two family's houses in between Main Street, U.S.A...

    , Parks & Resorts
  • Cliff Edwards
    Cliff Edwards
    Cliff Edwards , also known as "Ukelele Ike", was an American singer and musician who enjoyed considerable popularity in the 1920s and early 1930s, specializing in jazzy renditions of pop standards and novelty tunes. He had a number one hit with "Singin' in the Rain" in 1929...

    , Animation—Voice
  • Becky Fallberg, Animation
  • Dick Jones
    Dick Jones
    Dickie Jones is an American actor who achieved some success as a child and as a young adult, especially in B-Westerns and television. He is best known as the voice of Pinocchio in the 1940 Walt Disney film.-Early life:...

    , Animation—Voice
  • Dodie Roberts, Animation
  • Retta Scott
    Retta Scott
    Retta Scott was an American artist. She is notable as the first woman to receive screen credit as an animator at the Walt Disney Animation Studios.-Early life:...

    , Animation
  • Ruthie Tompson, Animation


2001


  • Howard Ashman
    Howard Ashman
    Howard Ashman was an American playwright and movie music lyricist. Ashman first studied at Boston University and Goddard College and then went on to achieve his master's degree from Indiana University in 1974...

    , Music
  • Bob Broughton, Film
  • George Bruns
    George Bruns
    George Bruns was a composer of music for film and television who worked on many Disney films. He was nominated for four Academy Awards for his work.-Career:...

    , Music
  • Frank Churchill
    Frank Churchill
    Frank Churchill was a U.S. composer of popular music for films. He wrote most of the music for Disney's 1937 movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, including "Whistle While You Work" and "Some Day My Prince Will Come"...

    , Music
  • Leigh Harline
    Leigh Harline
    Leigh Adrian Harline was a film composer.-Career:Born in Salt Lake City, Utah, he worked for various radio stations before joining the Walt Disney studios in 1932 as arranger and scorer...

    , Music
  • Fred Joerger, Imagineering
  • Alan Menken
    Alan Menken
    Alan Menken is an American musical theatre and film composer and pianist. Menken has collaborated with lyricists including Howard Ashman, Tim Rice and Stephen Schwartz...

    , Music
  • Martin Sklar
    Marty Sklar
    Martin A. "Marty" Sklar was The Walt Disney Company's International Ambassador for Walt Disney Imagineering, the subsidiary of the company which designs and constructs the Disney theme parks and resorts across the world...

    , Imagineering
  • Ned Washington
    Ned Washington
    Ned Washington was an American lyricist.-Biography:Washington was nominated for eleven Academy Awards from 1940 to 1962...

    , Music
  • Tyrus Wong, Animation


2002

In honor of the opening of the Walt Disney Studios Park
Walt Disney Studios Park
Walt Disney Studios Park is the second theme park of Disneyland Resort Paris, but also owned and operated by Euro Disney S.C.A., at the heart of the Disney resort complex in Marne-la-Vallée....

 at the Disneyland Resort Paris
Disneyland Resort Paris
Disneyland Paris is a holiday and recreation resort in Marne-la-Vallée, a new town in the eastern suburbs of Paris, France. The complex is located from the centre of Paris and lies for the most part on the territory of the commune of Chessy....

, all 2002 inductees are of Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...

an origin. The ceremony was held in the Animation building at the new park on opening day.

  • Ken Annakin
    Ken Annakin
    Kenneth Cooper Annakin, OBE was an English film director.-Biography:His career in feature films followed early experience making documentaries, he made his fiction film debut in 1947 with the Rank Organisation...

    , Film
  • Hugh Attwooll, Film
  • Maurice Chevalier
    Maurice Chevalier
    Maurice Auguste Chevalier was a French actor, singer, and popular entertainer. Chevalier's signature songs included "Louise", "Mimi", and "Valentine". His trademark was a boater hat, which he always wore on stage with his tuxedo.-Early life:He was born in Paris to a house painter father and mother...

    , Film
  • Phil Collins
    Phil Collins
    Philip David Charles "Phil" Collins LVO is an Academy Award-winning English singer-songwriter, drummer, keyboardist and actor best known as a drummer and vocalist for English progressive rock group Genesis and as a solo artist....

    , Music
  • Sir John Mills
    John Mills
    Sir John Mills, CBE was an English actor, who made more than 120 films in a career spanning seven decades.-Life and career:...

    , Film
  • Robert Newton
    Robert Newton
    Robert Newton was a noted English stage and film actor. Along with Errol Flynn, Newton was one of the most popular actors among the male juvenile audience of the 1940s and early 1950s, especially British boys...

    , Film & Television
  • Sir Tim Rice
    Tim Rice
    Sir Timothy Miles Bindon Rice is an English Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, Tony Award and Grammy Award-winning lyricist, author, radio personality and television gameshow panellist....

    , Music
  • Robert Stevenson
    Robert Stevenson (director)
    Robert Stevenson was an English film writer and director. He was educated at Cambridge University where he became the president of both the Liberal Club and the Cambridge Union Society....

    , Film
  • Richard Todd
    Richard Todd
    Richard Todd OBE is an Irish-born British stage and film actor and former soldier.-Early life:He was born Richard Andrew Palethorpe-Todd in Dublin, Ireland. Todd's father, Andrew William Palethorpe Todd, was an Irish physician and also notably an International Irish Rugby player who gained three...

    , Film & Television
  • David Tomlinson
    David Tomlinson
    David Cecil MacAlister Tomlinson was an English film actor. He is primarily remembered for his roles as authority figure George Banks in Mary Poppins, fraudulent magician Professor Emelius Brown in Bedknobs and Broomsticks and as hapless antagonist Peter Thorndyke in The Love Bug.-Early life:Born...

    , Film


2003

Following a dispute between Roy E. Disney
Roy E. Disney
Roy Edward Disney, KCSG is a longtime senior executive for The Walt Disney Company, which his father Roy Oliver Disney and his uncle Walt founded. He is still a shareholder , and currently serves as a consultant for the company and Director Emeritus for the Board of Directors...

 and the company (resulting in Disney departing, Robert Iger
Robert Iger
Robert "Bob" Iger is the president and chief executive officer of The Walt Disney Company. He was named president of the company in 2000, and later succeeded Michael Eisner as chief executive in 2005...

, the company's then-president and COO co-presented with Michael Eisner.

  • Neil Beckett, Merchandise
  • Tutti Camarata
    Tutti Camarata
    Salvador "Tutti" Camarata was a composer, arranger and trumpeter. Born in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, he studied music at Juilliard School in New York - a student of Bernard Wagenaar, Joseph Littau, Cesare Sodero, and Jan Meyerwitz...

    , Music
  • Edna Francis Disney
    Disney family
    The family of Elias Disney :* Elias Disney was born on February 6, 1859 in Huron County, Ontario, Canada and died on September 13, 1941...

     
  • Lillian Disney
    Lillian Disney
    Lillian Marie Bounds Disney was the widow of Walt Disney. She was married to him from 1925 until his death in 1966. She was married to John L. Truyens from 1969 until his death in 1981.-Early years:...

     
  • Orlando Ferrante, Imagineering
  • Richard Fleischer
    Richard Fleischer
    Richard O. Fleischer was an American film director.-Early life:Fleischer was born in Brooklyn, the son of Essie and animator/producer Max Fleischer...

    , Film
  • Floyd Gottfredson
    Floyd Gottfredson
    Arthur Floyd Gottfredson was an American cartoonist best known for his defining work on the Mickey Mouse comic strip. He has probably had the same impact on the Mickey Mouse comics as Carl Barks had on the Donald Duck comics...

    , Animation
  • Buddy Hackett
    Buddy Hackett
    Leonard Hacker was an American comedian and actor. In his later life, he and his wife set up the Singita Animal Sanctuary in the San Fernando Valley, California.-Early life:...

    , Film & Television
  • Harrison Price, Research Economist
  • Alfred Taliaferro
    Al Taliaferro
    Charles Alfred Taliaferro , known simply as Al Taliaferro, was a Disney comics artist who used to produce Disney comic strips for King Features Syndicate...

    , Cartoonist
  • Ilene Woods
    Ilene Woods
    Ilene Woods is an American singer, actress and disney legend.-Early life:Her mother worked on the behind the scenes of films, taking Ilene with her. Ilene started acting at two years old. When she was 14, she was given her own radio show on the new station called The Blue Network on ABC Radio...

    , Music—Voice


2004


  • Bill Anderson, Film, Television & Administration
  • Tim Conway
    Tim Conway
    Thomas Daniel "Tim" Conway is an American comedian and actor, primarily known for his roles in sitcoms, films and television...

    , Film
  • Rolly Crump, Imagineering
  • Alice Davis
    Alice Estes Davis
    Alice Estes Davis is an American costume designer. She is most famous for her work with Walt Disney, who employed her to develop costumes for films, television, and theme parks. She was married to Marc Davis, a Disney animator and Imagineer. Alice was named a Disney Legend in 2004.-Early Life and...

    , Imagineering
  • Karen Dotrice
    Karen Dotrice
    Karen Dotrice is a British actress known primarily for her role as Jane Banks in Walt Disney's feature film adaptation of the Mary Poppins book series. Dotrice was born in Guernsey to two accomplished stage actors...

    , Film & Television
  • Matthew Garber
    Matthew Garber
    Matthew Adam Garber was a British actor best known for his role as Michael Banks in Walt Disney's Mary Poppins...

    , Film
  • Leonard H. Goldenson, Television
  • Bob Gurr
    Bob Gurr
    Robert "Bob" Henry Gurr is an American amusement ride designer and Imagineer. His most famous work was for Walt Disney's Disneyland Park, and its subsequent sister parks...

    , Imagineering
  • Ralph Kent, Imagineering & Attractions
  • Irwin Kostal
    Irwin Kostal
    Irwin Kostal was an Academy Award-winning American musical arranger of films and an orchestrator of Broadway musicals....

    , Music
  • Mel Shaw, Animation


2005

In honor of Disneyland's 50th anniversary in 2005, all recipients are related to either Walt Disney Parks and Resorts
Walt Disney Parks and Resorts
Walt Disney Parks and Resorts is the segment of The Walt Disney Company that conceives, builds, and manages the company's theme parks and holiday resorts, as well as a variety of additional family-oriented leisure enterprises...

 and/or Walt Disney Imagineering
Walt Disney Imagineering
Walt Disney Imagineering was formed by entertainment mogul Walt Disney on December 16, 1952 as WED Enterprises to develop plans for a theme park and to manage Disney's personal assets. It was an independent, private company, owned by Walt Disney himself, but on February 3, 1965, was merged into...

, and nearly all have had some connection with Disneyland. Roy E. Disney again co-presented the awards, after a two-year hiatus and a return to the company.

  • Chuck Abbott, Parks & Resorts
  • Milt Albright, Parks & Resorts
  • Hideo Amemiya, Parks & Resorts
  • Hideo Aramaki, Parks & Resorts
  • Charles Boyer, Parks & Resorts
  • Randy Bright, Imagineer
  • James Cora, Parks & Resorts
  • Robert Jani, Parks & Resorts
  • Mary Jones, Parks & Resorts
  • Art Linkletter
    Art Linkletter
    Arthur Gordon "Art" Linkletter is a Canadian-American radio and television personality and the former host of two of the longest-running shows in United States broadcast history: House Party, which ran on CBS radio and television for 25 years, and People Are Funny, on NBC radio-TV for 19 years...

    , Parks & Resorts
  • Mary Anne Mang, Parks & Resorts
  • Steve Martin
    Steve Martin
    Stephen Glenn "Steve" Martin is an American actor, comedian, writer, playwright, producer, musician, and composer. He was raised in Southern California in a Baptist family, where his early influences were working at Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm and working magic and comedy acts at these and...

    , Parks & Resorts
  • Tom Nabbe, Parks & Resorts
  • Jack Olsen, Parks & Resorts
  • Cicely Rigdon, Parks & Resorts
  • William Sullivan, Parks & Resorts
  • Jack Wagner
    Jack Wagner (announcer)
    Jack Francis Wagner was the official park announcer for Disneyland until 1993. He is famous for the various announcements over the park PA, for parades, special events, etc. He also did a lot of voice work for the attractions themselves, including instructions, emergency precautions, and safety...

    , Parks & Resorts
  • Vesey Walker, Parks & Resorts


2006


  • Tim Considine
    Tim Considine
    Timothy Daniel "Tim" Considine is a former American child actor and young adult actor who was popular in the late 1950s and early 1960s...

    , Television & Film
  • Kevin Corcoran
    Kevin Corcoran
    Kevin Anthony "Moochie" Corcoran is an American director, producer, and former child actor. He appeared in numerous Disney projects between 1957 and 1963, frequently as an irrepressible character with the nickname Moochie...

    , Television & Film
  • Al Dempster, Animation
  • Don Edgren, Imagineering
  • Paul Frees
    Paul Frees
    Paul Frees was an American voice actor and character actor.-Biography:Born Solomon Hersh Frees in Chicago, he began his acting career in 1942, and remained active for over forty years...

    , Television, Film & Parks
  • Peter Jennings
    Peter Jennings
    Peter Charles Archibald Ewart Jennings, CM was a Canadian-American journalist and news anchor. He was the sole anchor of ABC's World News Tonight from 1983 until his death in 2005 of complications from lung cancer...

    , Television
  • Sir Elton John
    Elton John
    Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE is an English singer-songwriter, composer and pianist.In his four-decade career, John has sold more than 200 million records, making him one of the most successful artists of all time. His single, Candle in the Wind 1997, has sold over 37 million copies, becoming the...

    , Music
  • Jimmy Johnson, Music
  • Tommy Kirk
    Tommy Kirk
    Thomas Lee "Tommy" Kirk is a former American actor, and later a businessman.-Disney years:...

    , Television & Film
  • Joe Ranft
    Joe Ranft
    Joseph Henry "Joe" Ranft was an American magician, animator, storyboard artist, and voice actor who worked for Pixar and Disney...

    , Animation
  • David Stollery
    David Stollery
    David John Stollery, III , is a former American child actor and, as an adult, a noted industrial designer. He appeared in numerous Disney movies and television programs in the 1950s...

    , Television & Film
  • Ginny Tyler
    Ginny Tyler
    Ginny Tyler is a Native American voice actress who appeared in dozens of cartoons and animated films mostly throughout the 1960s and 1970s. In 2006, she was inducted into the Disney Legends program.- Life and Work :...

    , Television & Film


2007


  • Roone Arledge
    Roone Arledge
    Roone Arledge was an American sports broadcasting pioneer who was chairman of ABC News from 1977 until several years before his death, and a key part of the company's rise to competition with the two other main television networks, NBC and CBS, in the '60s, '70s, and '80s.-Roots:Arledge was born...

    , Television
  • Art Babbitt
    Art Babbitt
    Arthur Harold Babitsky , better known as Art Babbitt, was an American animator, best known for his work at The Walt Disney Company....

    , Animation
  • Carl Bongirno, Imagineering
  • Marge Champion
    Marge Champion
    Marge Champion is an American dancer choreographer, and pedagogue. In addition, she also worked in film and appeared in a number of television variety shows.-Early years:...

    , Animation
  • Dick Huemer
    Dick Huemer
    Dick Huemer was an animator in the Animation Golden Age. While as an artist-illustrator living in The Bronx, New York, he first began his career in animation at the Raoul Barré cartoon studio in 1916, he joined the Fleischer Studio in 1923 where he developed the Koko clown character...

    , Animation
  • Ron Logan
    Ron Logan
    Ron Logan is the former executive vice president of Walt Disney Entertainment and a university professor in Orlando, Florida, United States.-Life and career:...

    , Parks and Resorts
  • Lucille Martin, Administration
  • Tom Murphy, Administration
  • Randy Newman
    Randy Newman
    Randall Stuart “Randy” Newman is an American singer/songwriter, arranger, composer, and pianist who is notable for his mordant pop songs and for his many film scores....

    , Music
  • Floyd Norman
    Floyd Norman
    Floyd E. Norman is an American animator who worked on the Walt Disney animated features Sleeping Beauty, The Sword in the Stone and The Jungle Book along with various animated short projects at Disney in the late 50's and early 60's...

    , Animation
  • Bob Schiffer, Film Production
  • Dave Smith
    Dave Smith (archivist)
    Dave Smith is the founder and head of the Walt Disney Archives located in the Frank G. Wells Building at Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California....

    , Archives


2008


  • Wayne Allwine
    Wayne Allwine
    Wayne Allwine was an American voice actor, a sound effects editor and foley artist for Walt Disney Studios and the third voice of Mickey Mouse, a role he assumed from Jimmy MacDonald. Allwine was born in Glendale, California.Allwine's first appearance as Mickey was voicing the animated lead-ins...

    , Animation (voice)
  • Bob Booth, Attractions
  • Neal Gallagher, Attractions
  • Frank Gifford
    Frank Gifford
    Francis Newton "Frank" Gifford is a former American football player and American sportscaster.-Early life:Gifford was born in Santa Monica, California, the son of Lola Mae and Weldon Gifford, an oil driller...

    , Television
  • Burny Mattinson
    Burny Mattinson
    Burny Mattinson is a Disney animator and storyboard artist. He has worked at Disney since 1953. He has directed both the Great Mouse Detective and Mickey's Christmas Carol which he won an award for. His father was the band leader/drummer for Horrace Heights and appeared as the cymbal player in the...

    , Animation
  • Walter Peregoy
    Walter Peregoy
    Walter Peregoy is an American artist who was a color stylist and background artist in animated cartoons. Among the studios he worked at were Walt Disney Productions 1951-1964, 1974-1983, Format Films and Hanna-Barbera . He has received little publicity over his career, but has been acclaimed for...

    , Animation
  • Dorothea Redmond, Designer
  • Russi Taylor
    Russi Taylor
    Russi Taylor is an American voice actress. She is the current voice actress for Disney's Minnie Mouse character. She has held this role since 1986, longer than any other voice actress. This includes performances in the Disney's House of Mouse and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse television series and the...

    , Animation (voice)
  • Barbara Walters
    Barbara Walters
    Barbara Jill Walters is an American journalist, writer, and media personality who has hosted morning television shows , the evening news magazine , and co-anchor of ABC Evening News and correspondent on World News .Walters was first known as a popular TV morning news anchor for over 10 years on...

    , Television
  • Oliver Wallace
    Oliver Wallace
    Oliver George Wallace was a British-American composer and conductor. He was especially known for his film music compositions, which were written for many animation, documentary, and feature films from Walt Disney Studios.-Biography:Wallace was born on August 6, 1887 in London...

    , Music

2009


  • Tony Anselmo
    Tony Anselmo
    Tony Anselmo is an animator, cartoon voice actor and, since 1985, the voice of Donald Duck. Anselmo was trained by the original voice of Donald, Clarence Nash. Anselmo has also shared voice-over duties for Donald's nephews, Huey, Dewey, and Louie since 1999. He voiced the nephews on Mickey Mouse...

    , Animation (voice)
  • Harry Archinal, Film
  • Beatrice Arthur
    Beatrice Arthur
    Beatrice "Bea" Arthur was an American actress, comedian and singer whose career spanned seven decades. Arthur achieved fame as the character Maude Findlay on the 1970s sitcoms All in the Family and Maude, and as Dorothy Zbornak on the 1980s sitcom The Golden Girls, winning Emmy Awards for both roles...

    , Film & Television
  • Bill Farmer
    Bill Farmer
    Bill Farmer is an American voice actor and comedian, best known for being the current voice provider for Goofy. He is also known for playing Pluto.-Early life:...

    , Animation (voice)
  • Estelle Getty
    Estelle Getty
    Estelle Scher-Gettleman , better known by her stage name Estelle Getty, was an American actress, who appeared in film, theatre and television. She is best known for her role as Sophia Petrillo on The Golden Girls from 1985 to 1992, on The Golden Palace from 1992 to 1993 and on Empty Nest from 1993...

    , Film & Television
  • Don Iwerks
    Don Iwerks
    Don Iwerks is a former Disney executive and co-founder of Iwerks Entertainment, along with Stan Kinsey. He is son of Ub Iwerks....

    , Film
  • Rue McClanahan
    Rue McClanahan
    Rue McClanahan is an American actress, known for her roles as Vivian Cavender Harmon on Maude, Fran Crowley on Mama's Family and Blanche Devereaux on The Golden Girls...

    , Film & Television
  • Leota Toombs Thomas
    Leota Toombs
    Leota Ann Thomas was an employee of WED Enterprises , the division of The Walt Disney Company that designs and builds Disney's theme parks, attractions, and resort hotels....

    , Attractions
  • Betty White
    Betty White
    Betty Marion White is an American actress, comedian and former television host with a career spanning over sixty-five years...

    , Film & Television
  • Robin Williams
    Robin Williams
    Robin McLaurin Williams is an American actor and comedian.Rising to fame with his role as the alien Mork in the TV series Mork and Mindy, and later stand up comedy work, Williams has performed in many feature films since 1980. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance...

    , Film, Animation (voice)

= awarded posthumously

External links