Roy Disney Dies At 79

[Victory2004]

Dec 16 2009 5:27 PM EST
Roy Disney Dies At 79

Walt Disney's nephew was a key figure in animation over the past several decades.

By Larry Carroll


Roy Disney, nephew of the most famous name in animation history and a key figure in the Walt Disney Company's existence over the past several decades, died Wednesday (December 16) in Newport Beach, California, according to Variety. He was 79 years old.
Born in 1930, Roy Edward Disney was the son of Roy Oliver Disney, who co-founded the so-called "Mouse House" alongside his brother Walt. In 1954, he began working for the Walt Disney Company as an assistant director, producing "True-Life Adventure" films. After more than a decade as a company writer/director/producer, Disney was elected to the Board of Directors in 1967.
It was Disney's moves throughout the final three decades of his life, however, that helped engineer the company's renaissance. Resigning in 1977 due to disagreements with the direction of the Walt Disney Company, Roy later returned to head up the animation department and would partner with Disney chairman Michael Eisner on a rebranding effort that stressed a return to the company's classic animation roots. During this period, the company made such instant classics as "The Lion King," "The Little Mermaid" and "Beauty and the Beast." The last member of the Disney family to be actively involved in the company, Roy Disney was estimated by Forbes magazine to be worth $1.2 billion in 2006.
A 56-year veteran of the company, Disney had been battling stomach cancer for about a year.
"Roy's commitment to the art of animation was unparalleled and will always remain his personal legacy and one of his greatest contributions to Disney's past, present and future," company president and chief executive Robert Iger said in a statement.
A powerful behind-the-scenes figure in Hollywood for multiple decades, Disney was nominated for his first Oscar in 2004 for executive-producing the long-delayed, dazzling Salvador Dalí/ Walt Disney-collaborated animated short "Destino."

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Roy Disney
Photo: Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1628404/20091216/story.jhtml

 

[MJstarlight]

This is so sad!!! RIP Roy

Published: December 17, 2009
LOS ANGELES — Roy E. Disney, who helped revitalize the famed animation division of the company founded by his uncle, Walt Disney, and who at times publicly feuded with top Disney executives, died on Wednesday in Newport Beach, Calif. He was 79.

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Tony Ranze/Agence France-Presse
Roy E. Disney, shown in 1996, was considered a tough and outspoken critic of top executives at the Walt Disney Company.


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His death, at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian, was caused by stomach cancer, a spokeswoman for the Walt Disney Company said. Mr. Disney, who had homes in Newport Beach and the Toluca Lake district of Los Angeles, was the last member of the Disney family to work at the entertainment conglomerate built by his uncle and his father, Roy O. Disney.
As a boy the younger Roy would play in the halls of his uncle’s studio, where animators often used him as a test audience as they toiled on movies like “Pinocchio.” As an adult he helped bring the animation studio back from the brink, overseeing a creative renaissance that led to “The Little Mermaid,” “Beauty and the Beast” and “The Lion King.”
But the soft-spoken Mr. Disney was primarily known for a willingness to question the company’s top managers, aggressively and publicly, when he felt they were mishandling the family empire. Some people in the company referred to him as its real-life Jiminy Cricket: a living conscience who was at times intensely disliked by management for speaking out.
In 1984, when the company weathered two takeover attempts, Mr. Disney helped force the resignation of Ronald W. Miller — the husband of Walt Disney’s daughter, Diane — as chief executive. In 2004, a time when Pixar was pummeling Disney at the box office, Mr. Disney helped lead an investor uprising that culminated with the departure of Michael D. Eisner as chief executive and chairman.
Along the way, Mr. Disney organized Shamrock Holdings, a family investment enterprise that became known for instigating hostile takeovers, including an ultimately failed one of Polaroid in the late 1980s.
“Roy was a man who was steadfastly loyal to his principles,” said Stanley Gold, Shamrock’s president. “He was a gracious, humble gentleman who could make the tough decisions life sometimes requires.”
Roy E. Disney was born in Los Angeles on Jan. 10, 1930, and had a childhood that most people can only dream about. While playing at the studio, his uncle would occasionally take a break to read storybooks to him. Mr. Disney once remarked: “The animators used to test stuff out on me. They’d say, ‘Come on in and watch this and see if you think it’s funny.’ ”
Mr. Disney began his entertainment career in 1952 as an assistant film editor on “Dragnet,” the landmark television show. He joined Disney in 1953 and worked on nature documentaries like “The Living Desert” and “The Vanishing Prairie,” which both won Oscars. He also wrote for “Zorro.”
Although he retained a board seat, he left the company in 1977 after disagreements with Mr. Miller and became an independent producer.
Returning to the company in 1984, Mr. Disney set about revitalizing the floundering animation division. He obtained financing, for instance, for a computerized postproduction facility, helping to make possible the revolving ballroom scene in “Beauty and the Beast.”
Walt Disney had planned a sequel to “Fantasia,” the groundbreaking 1942 film that used animation to interpret classical music, but he died in 1966 before he could complete it. His nephew, Roy, took over the project and made it his passion, spending nine years on its execution. “Fantasia 2000” sold about $91 million in tickets worldwide, a disappointing total given its cost and time commitment.
Mr. Disney also pursued sailing. He set time records for offshore yacht racing on the Pacific Ocean, including the Los Angeles-to-Honolulu Transpac Race, which he won in his boat, the Pyewacket, in 1999 in just over seven days. A vacation home — a castle, actually — in Ireland was a favorite retreat.
Mr. Disney resigned for the second time in 2003 citing “serious differences of opinion about the direction and style of management” and started agitating for Mr. Eisner’s ouster. In 2005, after Mr. Eisner had announced his departure, Mr. Disney became director emeritus and a consultant, titles he held until his death.
Survivors include his wife, Leslie DeMeuse Disney. He is also survived by his former wife of 52 years, Patricia Dailey Disney, and four of their children: Tim, Roy Patrick, Abigail and Susan Disney Lord; and by 16 grandchildren.
Mr. Disney was a big fan of referring to the past to define the future. He told a biographer: “The goal is to look over our shoulder and see Snow White and Pinocchio and Dumbo standing there saying, ‘Be this good.’ We shouldn’t be intimidated by them; they’re an arrow pointing someplace.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/17/arts/television/17disney.html

 

[MJJ:G.O.A.T]

Roy Edward Disney, more than a famous name

Walt's nephew was a more-than-capable champion of animation.

By Charles Solomon
December 17, 2009

Roy Edward Disney, who died Wednesday at the age of 79, was loved and respected within the animation industry as a link to the art form's glorious past, a defender of its exciting, chaotic present and a hope for its often-uncertain future. As the son of Walt's brother, Roy Oliver Disney, he was animation royalty: He even looked like his uncle and spoke in a similar voice, roughened by smoking.

In person, he was genial and soft-spoken, with a warm chuckle that enlivened his favorite stories, as in the 1985 interview when he told me, "I like to say my first exposure to animation came when my mother inked and painted cels of Mickey Mouse while she was pregnant with me."

After the Disney Co. fought off Saul Steinberg's takeover bid in June 1984, Roy led the move to replace Walt's son-in-law, Ron Miller, with a new management team from live action: Michael Eisner, Frank Wells and Jeffrey Katzenberg. When the new leaders launched an ambitious program of live-action production, rumors spread that the animation department might be eliminated -- fueled by the decision to move the artists off the lot and convert the historic animation building into offices. Those fears were allayed when Roy took charge of the department and set up new headquarters in Glendale.

Roy recalled in 1989, "The morning of the board meeting, when it was all over and Michael and Frank had been elected to the company, Michael looked at me and said, 'Now that this is all over with, what do you want to do?' After about 15 seconds, I said, 'Why don't you give me animation?'

"Of all the bits and pieces of this place, it was probably the hardest thing to understand -- particularly for people who were used to conceiving, shooting and releasing a film in nine months," he continued. "I figured, I grew up around it, I must know something about it, by osmosis, if nothing else. I was appalled to learn how little I did really know; I think all of us were appalled to learn how little we really knew."

Roy learned fast, and his leadership helped to spark the Disney renaissance of the late 1980s and early '90s, the era of "The Little Mermaid," "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" "Beauty and the Beast," "Aladdin" and "The Lion King." Roy was a warm, approachable man whom the animators could talk to and caricature, knowing their comments would be received with respect and affection.

But Roy was more than a boss: He was also a link to Walt, whose spirit hovered over his studio long after his death in 1966. When Roy had the chickenpox as a boy, Walt came to visit and spent the better part of an hour sitting on his bed, telling him the story of "Pinocchio," which the studio had just begun.

Roy said in a 1989 interview that when he saw the finished film, "It was nowhere near as good as when Walt told it. I've seen it recently, and realize what a splendid piece of work it is. But there's still that funny little aftertaste of Walt's performance, and the knowledge that it could have been that much better."

For animators and animation lovers, that was the Golden Age, and talking to Roy about Walt was like getting stories about Achilles from a veteran of the Trojan War.

When the Disney animated features scored unprecedented box office and financial successes, culminating in "The Lion King" in 1994, Roy was constantly being asked what his father and uncle would think of the studio's new preeminence.

He replied, "Walt would probably say, 'You haven't come far enough fast enough.' I always feel Walt isn't looking over our shoulders, he represents a level of excellence that makes you work harder to live up to it. His films are always the damned carrot in front of the donkey."

In 1998, when his father received a star on Hollywood Boulevard, Roy offered what became his definitive response, "Second-guessing either one of those guys is a futile exercise. Guys were fired for second-guessing Walt for many years; I wouldn't want to try it with Dad, either -- I may see him again."

If Roy should see his father and Walt again in an animated afterlife, I suspect they'll thank him for preserving their legacy.

And millions of animation fans will agree.

calendar@latimes.com

Charles Solomon's 10th book about animation, "Tale as Old as Time: The Art and Making of 'Beauty and the Beast,' " will be published next summer by Disney Editions.


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Roy Edward Disney, seen in his Burbank office in 1985, was the billionaire nephew of entertainment icon Walt Disney. Roy E. Disney so closely resembled his uncle's physical appearance that when he made outings to Disney theme parks or was out promoting the company's animated films, people in public would ask him if he was Walt Disney's brother.

Disney toiled for years in the shadow of his famous uncle and his father, Roy O. Disney, who eventually became chairman of the Walt Disney Co. Roy E. Disney would prove his detractors, who called him the "idiot nephew," wrong. He emerged as a forceful advocate for the art form that defined his family's company: animation.

 

[MJstarlight]

 

[blue_eyed_belle]

aww! R.I.P Roy x

 

[The One.]

Rest in peace, Roy! :heart:

 

[whosbad]

Sad news!!! R.I.P. Roy!!!!!

 

[Nar]

aww...may he rest in peace

 

[Rockin.]

Awww Thank you for your work Roy. May he rest in peace. x

'his death occured 43 years and one day after Walt Disney died, also from cancer. In addition, he died exactly 12 years after his aunt'