Walt Disney

1901 – 1966

Walter Elias Disney was an American animator and entrepreneur who co-founded the Walt Disney Company and produced Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Fantasia, and Mickey Mouse. He led the violent suppression of the 1941 Disney animators' strike, blacklisting and firing union organisers including Art Babbitt and Bill Tytla, and in October 1947 testified as a friendly witness before the House Un-American Activities Committee, naming individual animators he believed were communist organisers and contributing to the broader Hollywood blacklist. His studio's films of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s contained recurring antisemitic and anti-Black caricatures, most prominently the crows in Dumbo (1941), the centaurs in Fantasia, and the entire production Song of the South (1946), which the company has since withheld from public re-release.

Last checked: May 10, 2026, 1:06 PM