# Disney family

The Disney family is an American family that gained prominence when brothers Roy and Walt began creating films through the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, today known as mass media and entertainment conglomerate The Walt Disney Company. The Disney family's influence on American culture grew with successful feature films such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937 and the opening of the Disneyland Amusement park in 1955. Other Disney family members have been involved in the management and administration of the Disney company, filmmaking, and philanthropy.

## Background

The family name, originally d'Isigny ("from Isigny"), is of Norman French derivation, coming from the town of Isigny-sur-Mer. The Disneys, among others who took names from the Normans, settled in England and gave their name to Norton Disney in Lincolnshire. Some of the family moved to Ireland around the 11th century.

## Elias Disney

Elias Charles Disney (1859–1941) was born in the rural village of Bluevale, Province of Canada (now Ontario, Canada), to Irish Protestant immigrants Kepple Elias Disney (1832–1891) and Mary Richardson (1838–1909). Both parents had emigrated from Ireland to Canada as children, accompanying their parents.
Disney married Flora Call (1868–1938) on January 1, 1888, in Kismet, Lake County, Florida. The couple had five children:
* Herbert Arthur Disney, mail carrier (December 8, 1888 – January 29, 1961, aged 72)
* Raymond Arnold Disney, insurance salesman (December 30, 1890 – May 24, 1989, aged 98)
* Roy Oliver Disney (June 24, 1893 – December 20, 1971, aged 78)
* Walter Elias Disney (December 5, 1901 – December 15, 1966, aged 65)
* Ruth Flora (née Disney) Beecher, stenographer, WDHM benefactor, and musician (December 6, 1903 – April 7, 1995, aged 91)

## Roy Disney family

Roy Oliver Disney (June 24, 1893 – December 20, 1971) was an American businessman and co-founder of The Walt Disney Company. Roy was married to Edna Francis from April 1925 until his death. Roy's nephew Charles Elias Disney chose to name his son Charles Roy Disney in Roy's honor.
Their son, Roy Edward Disney (January 10, 1930 – December 16, 2009), was a longtime senior executive for the Walt Disney Company and the last member of the Disney family to be actively involved in the company. Disney was often compared to his uncle and father. He had two sons (one, Tim Disney, a documentary film producer), and two daughters; his daughter Abigail Disney is a documentary filmmaker.

## Walt Disney family

Walter Elias Disney (December 5, 1901 – December 15, 1966) was an American entrepreneur, animator, writer, voice actor and film producer who cofounded Disney Brothers Studio with his brother Roy. He received 59 Academy Award nominations, including 22 awards: both totals are records.
He married Lillian Bounds in 1925. They had two daughters, bearing Diane (December 18, 1933 – November 19, 2013) and after, reportedly, suffering several miscarriages, adopting Sharon (in December 1936, born six weeks previously – February 16, 1993).
Diane married Ronald William Miller, who became president of Walt Disney Productions in 1980 and CEO in 1983, before being ousted by Roy E. Disney.
Sharon, who became an actress, had three children from two marriages, to Robert Brown and later, to William Lund, and died, of complications of breast cancer, February 16, 1993.

## Legacy

In 2001, the Walt Disney Hometown Museum, housing a collection of memorabilia from the Disney family, many of which were donated by the family of Ruth Flora Disney Beecher, Walt's sister, opened, in the restored Santa Fe Railway Depot in Marceline, Missouri.
In 2009, the Walt Disney Family Museum, designed by Disney's daughter Diane and her son (Walt's grandson) Walter E. D. Miller, opened in the Presidio of San Francisco. The museum was established to promote and inspire creativity and innovation and celebrate and study the life of Walt Disney.