Disney Legend, Roy E Disney passes away

Roy E Disney (1930-2009); image source dreamonsillydreamer.com

The LA Times has told us that Disney legend, Roy E. Disney has succumbed to lung cancer on Wednesday at the age of 79.  He was the nephew of Walt Disney and the son of Walt’s brother, Roy O. Disney, who was Walt’s business partner and who opened the Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom just days before he died.  Roy followed Walt’s footsteps and stepped into Disney Feature Animation in the mid-1980’s to bring Disney back to its golden age of animation.  Roy was very significant in that when Eisner became CEO of Disney in 1984, he noticed that Disney was becoming more of a “real-estatish” company that just happened to make movies and Roy became the president of feature animation for Disney.  As president for Disney feature animation, he lead Disney back to the correct path and by 2003 questioned Eisner about how this company was run, leading to Eisner’s resignation.