Bill Walsh

Manusforfatter, Produsent, Skuespiller

30. september 1913 — 27. januar 1975 (61 år)
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.

Kjent for

  • Mary Poppins
    Mary Poppins1964
  • Flubber
    Flubber1997
  • Bedknobs and Broomsticks
    Bedknobs and Broomsticks1971
  • The Absent Minded Professor
    The Absent Minded Professor1961
  • Herbie Rides Again
    Herbie Rides Again1974
  • The Love Bug
    The Love Bug1968
  • That Darn Cat!
    That Darn Cat!1965
  • Blackbeard's Ghost
    Blackbeard's Ghost1968
  • The Shaggy Dog
    The Shaggy Dog1959
  • The Shaggy Dog
    The Shaggy Dog2006
  • Son of Flubber
    Son of Flubber1963
  • Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier
    Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier1955
  • Davy Crockett and the River Pirates
    Davy Crockett and the River Pirates1956
  • The World's Greatest Athlete
    The World's Greatest Athlete1973
  • That Darn Cat
    That Darn Cat1997
  • King Kong vs. Godzilla
    King Kong vs. Godzilla1962
  • One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing
    One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing1975
  • The Misadventures of Merlin Jones
    The Misadventures of Merlin Jones1964
  • The Mickey Mouse Club
    The Mickey Mouse Club3 sesonger
  • Bon Voyage!
    Bon Voyage!1962

Filmografi

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