Roy E. Disney, Walt's Nephew Dies at Age 79

Yesterday, Roy Edward Disney died of stomach cancer. Although he lived in the shadow of his famous uncle and father Roy O. Disney, he never wavered in his commitment to protect their legacy of creating arguably the most powerful entertainment empire of all time. As chairman of Disney animation, Roy E. Disney helped guide the studio to a new golden age of animation with an unprecedented string of artistic and box-office smashes that included The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Lion King. He was executive producer of Fantasia/2000, the sequel to the 1940 Disney classic, and the 2004 Oscar-nominated Destino, based on a 1945 collaboration between Walt Disney and Spanish painter Salvador Dali.

In the years after Walt's death in 1966 and his father Roy's death in 1971, Roy E. became disillusioned the Walt Disney Co., which he likened to "a real estate company that happened to be in the movie business." The company had let its feature animation film business, once the cornerstone of the company, go into a freefall. The company, Roy would later say, had lost its "creative drive."

As we write in The Disney Way..."After Roy's (Walt’s brother) death, the financial and creative growth of the company came to a standstill. During the 18 years between Walt's death in 1966 and Michael Eisner's entry as CEO in 1984, a simple question would be asked among the ranks before any decision was made: ‘What would Walt do?’

In 1984, Roy (Walt’s nephew) convinced the board to hire Michael Eisner as CEO and Frank Wells as president and COO. Eisner and Wells were consummate decision makers and quickly began to transform the sleepy little movie studio into a global entertainment enterprise now worth over $50 billion.”

Upon taking over as chief executive, Eisner asked Roy what he wanted to do. Disney responded that he wanted to revive the company's sagging animation division where morale was at an all-time low.

Fortunately, Eisner granted Disney his wish. It was Roy who persuaded Eisner and Wells to invest about $10 million in a digital ink and paint system developed by Pixar. As you can read in Innovate the Pixar Way, the early Disney-Pixar relationship laid the foundation for the soon-to-be-made fortunes of both organizations in the world of computer-generated animation. Although Michael Eisner is credited with much of the Disney turnaround in the 1980s-1990s, Roy was one of the first to realize that Michael Eisner had morphed into what we term a "hero to zero" in The Disney Way. In Chapter 12 of The Disney Way, we describe the events that we believe led to Eisner's demise. For a complete history of the “fight of the century” that prompted Roy to remove himself from the company’s board of directors, you can also read James Stewart’s Disney Wars.

In Pixar’s Blog of August 19, 2008, it is written….
“I need not remind anyone familiar that the latter part of Eisner's employment was marked by extremely bad decisions that deeply threatened the company. The suit-produced movies. The sequels-mill atmosphere. Eisner endangered Disney and its shareholders by letting his great personal dislike (to say the least) of then Pixar CEO Steve Jobs cloud his business sense, putting the relationship with Pixar into serious jeopardy. Had Disney shareholders not revolted, Disney/Pixar would almost definitely have been history, leaving Disney in a very tough situation. Fortunately they did, being led by Roy E. Disney, –who coincidentally now chairs the Disney Legends committee– and, natch, the rest is history.”

Clearly, Roy Disney was passionate about protecting "the happiest place on earth." When Bob Iger stepped in as president in late 2005, he invited Roy to return to the board of directors in an emeritus role and as a consultant.

Chief creative officer for Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios, John Lasseter commented, "I really credit Roy Disney completely with the renaissance of Disney animation, beginning with Little Mermaid and all the way through that great amazing series of classic Disney films."

A year ago, we were on the Disney Magic sailing the eastern Caribbean and Roy happened to be onboard promoting his film, Morning Light - the story of a real-life crew training who competed in the 44th Transpacific Yacht Race aboard a TP52 class yacht, Morning Light, owned by Roy. After we watched the film’s debut in ship’s magnificent Walt Disney Theatre, we had a chance to hear Roy speak during the Q & A session and also had the opportunity to meet him afterwards. We found him to be gracious and unassuming… following his own passions, yes, but still remaining a true force in the entertainment empire built by his famous uncle and father. Roy’s passing marks the end of an era. But the values that Walt, brother Roy and nephew Roy so passionately upheld will hopefully guide The Walt Disney Company for years to come.

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