Roy E. Disney dies. Now what?
This is a sad morning in the world of Disney fans, as many people wake to the news that Roy E. Disney passed away yesterday after a long struggle against stomach cancer. He was 79 years old.
There are two articles this morning that I think do a nice job with telling Roy’s story. First, the Los Angeles Times has a great biographical piece by Dawn C. Chmielewski and James Bates. And also, the New York Times has a nice tribute by Brooks Barnes…
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.
Twice, Roy saved his beloved Disney Company from disaster, as well as helping to usher in the incredible years of animation excellence the article speaks about above. He was certainly the voice of reason on many fronts at Disney, and often the ray of hope for longtime Disney fans.
The question one must inevitably ask now is “who will be the next savior?” Without a Disney, without someone with a family connection to the principles the company was founded on, who will bring the company out of the darkness during the next potential disaster? Roy will certainly be missed. But it may be years before we really know how much.