Bill Walsh

Scénariste, Producteur, Acteur

30 septembre 1913 — 27 janvier 1975 (61 ans)
Bill Walsh was born in New York to immigrant parents (father from Canada, mother from Ireland). In his teen years he lived with relatives in Cincinnati, OH, and later attended the University of Cincinnati. In 1933 he joined the stock touring company of husband / wife team Barbara Stanwyck and Frank Fay as a writer, but the couple divorced the next year and Walsh found himself stuck in Hollywood with no job and no prospects. He wound up working as an agent for a publicity agency, one of his clients being ventriloquist Edgar Bergen.

Walsh joined Walt Disney Studios in 1943, working for both the Publicity and Story departments. One of his jobs was to write jokes for the syndicated Mickey Mouse comic strip (he continued doing that on a voluntary basis for more than 20 years, long after he left those departments). Walsh brought his former client Edgar Bergen to Disney to narrate some cartoons and TV shows. Walt Disney, who at first saw television as basically a tool to promote his films, was impressed with Walsh's publicity savvy and chose him to head the studio's television division. His first few projects were resounding successes, and when Disney made a deal with ABC Television to invest in its Disneyland amusement park in exchange for Disney developing a TV series, Walsh was named the series' producer. The show turned out to be The Mickey Mouse Club (1955). Walsh developed the show basically by himself, with little input from Disney, who was more concerned with developing Disneyland. He hired both the child performers and adult hosts on the show, came up with the basic format--rotating "theme" days, animated opening and closing sequences and recurring live-action series, among other innovations--and even helped to develop the famous Mousketeer "ears" each performer wore.

After several seasons on "The Mickey Mouse Club", Walsh wanted to get out of television production and left the show to produce live-action films. He produced quite a few of Disney's comedies and adventure films, the most famous being Mary Poppins (1964), which was one of the studio's biggest successes and pleased critics as much as it did fans. Most of the films he produced, however, were derided by critics as dull and low-quality and helped to cement Disney's reputation for turning out unimaginative, repetitive, assembly-line pap. The films made money for the studio, though, and Walsh and Walt Disney remained close until Disney's death in 1966.

Bill Walsh died of a heart attack in 1975.

Connue pour

  • Mary Poppins
    Mary Poppins1964
  • Flubber
    Flubber1997
  • L'Apprentie sorcière
    L'Apprentie sorcière1971
  • Monte là-d'ssus
    Monte là-d'ssus1961
  • Le Nouvel Amour de Coccinelle
    Le Nouvel Amour de Coccinelle1974
  • Un amour de Coccinelle
    Un amour de Coccinelle1968
  • L'Espion aux pattes de velours
    L'Espion aux pattes de velours1965
  • Le Fantôme de Barbe Noire
    Le Fantôme de Barbe Noire1968
  • Quelle vie de chien !
    Quelle vie de chien !1959
  • Raymond
    Raymond2006
  • Après lui, le déluge
    Après lui, le déluge1963
  • Davy Crockett, roi des trappeurs
    Davy Crockett, roi des trappeurs1955
  • Davy Crockett et les pirates de la rivière
    Davy Crockett et les pirates de la rivière1956
  • Objectif Lotus
    Objectif Lotus1975
  • Nanou, fils de la jungle
    Nanou, fils de la jungle1973
  • Le Nouvel Espion aux pattes de velours
    Le Nouvel Espion aux pattes de velours1997
  • King Kong contre Godzilla
    King Kong contre Godzilla1962
  • Les Mésaventures de Merlin Jones
    Les Mésaventures de Merlin Jones1964
  • Le Club Mickey
    Le Club Mickey3 saisons
  • Bon Voyage !
    Bon Voyage !1962

Filmographie

2006
The Shaggy Dog · as Original Film Writer
1997
1997
Flubber · as Screenplay
1997
1975
1974
Herbie Rides Again · as Screenplay
1971
1971
Bedknobs and Broomsticks · as Screenplay
1971
Scandalous John · as Screenplay
1968
The Love Bug · as Screenplay
1968
Blackbeard's Ghost · as Screenplay
1966
Lt. Robin Crusoe, U.S.N. · as Screenplay
1965
That Darn Cat! · as Screenplay
1964
Mary Poppins · as Screenplay
1962
1962
1961
1960
1959
The Shaggy Dog · as Screenplay
1955
1954
1950