The Death of Walt Disney

It was on December 15th 1966 that one of the greatest icons of the 20th Century passed away. As I sit here in front of my keyboard, I can’t think of any other person that has a bigger influence on my life than Walt Disney. It is hard to describe, in these days of HD television what it was like, after sitting in front of the grainy screen of a rented black and white television set, to sit and watch a Walt Disney Technicolor film, animated or live-action, at your local cinema. It was always an experience in entertainment of the very highest quality.

Not only did his films inspire me to study art but also to read the classic novels behind his motion pictures and research their history. His legacy lives on and entertains countless billions around the globe every day.

The last two films Walt Disney was actively involved in were The Happiest Millionaire and The Jungle Book, both released in 1967. On November 30, 1966, Disney collapsed at his home in Palm Springs, but was revived by paramedics, and was taken back to the hospital, where he died on December 15, 1966 at 9:30 a.m., ten days after his 65th birthday. Walt had previously been diagnosed with lung cancer after many years of smoking unfiltered cigarettes. Walt’s cough always warned employees that he was near! Doctors at St. Joseph’s Hospital Burbank discovered a huge cancerous tumor on his left lung. But after extensive surgery he was given the grave news that he might only have six weeks to live.

Disney songwriter Robert B Sherman recalls the last time he saw Walt Disney:

“He was up in the third floor of the animation building after a run-through of The Happiest Millionaire. He usually held court in the hallway afterward for the people involved with the picture. And he started talking to them, telling them what he liked and what they should change, and then, when they were through, he turned to us and with a big smile, he said, 'Keep up the good work, boys.' And he walked to his office. It was the last we ever saw of him.”

Below is a transcript from a letter to all the employees of the Disney Studios from Walt’s younger brother Roy on that sad day on December 15th 1966:

“The death of Walt Disney is a loss to all the people of the world. In everything he did, Walt had an intuitive way of reaching out and touching the hearts and minds of young and old alike. His entertainment was an international language. For more than forty years people have looked to Walt Disney for the finest quality in family entertainment.

There is no way to replace Walt Disney. He was an extraordinary man. Perhaps there will never be another like him. I know that we who worked at his side for all these years will always cherish the years and the minutes we spent in helping Walt Disney entertain the people of the world. The world will always be a better place because Walt Disney was its master showman.

As President and Chairman of the Board of Walt Disney Productions, I want to assure the public, our stockholders and each of our more than four thousand employees that we will continue to operate Walt Disney’s company in the way that he had established and guided it. Walt Disney spent his entire life and almost every waking hour in the creative planning of motion pictures, Disneyland, television shows and all the other diversified activities that have carried his name through the years. Around him Walt Disney gathered the kind of creative people who understood his way of communicating with the public through entertainment. Walt’s ways were always unique and he built a unique organization. A team of creative people that he was justifiably proud of.

I think Walt would have wanted me to repeat his words to describe the organisation he built over the years. Last October when he accepted the ‘Showman of the World’ award in New York, Walt said,” The Disney organisation now has more than four thousand employees. Many have been with us for over thirty years. They take great pride in the organisation they helped to build. Only through the talent, labour and dedication of this staff could any Disney project get off the ground. We all think alike in the ultimate pattern.”

Much of Walt Disney’s energies had been directed to preparing for this day. It was Walt’s wish that when the time came he would have built an organisation with the creative talents to carry on as he had established and directed it through the years. Today this organisation has been built and we will carry out this wish.

Walt Disney’s preparation for the future has a solid, creative foundation. All of the plans for the future that Walt had begun- new motion pictures, the expansion of Disneyland, television production and our Florida and Mineral King Projects-will continue to move ahead. That is the way Walt wanted it to be.”

Walt Disney’s funeral was held at the Little Church of the Flowers at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, CA at 5:00 PM on December 16. No announcements of his funeral were made after it had taken place and only close relatives were in attendance. Walt didn’t like funerals and rarely attended one. During his life, he made it clear that he wished not to have a funeral. His daughter Diane once quoted her father as saying:


"When I’m dead I don’t want a funeral. I want people to remember me alive."

Joan Rice and Ken McKenzie

Above is one in a series of pictures of Joan Rice with her second husband Ken McKenzie in 1983. They were sent to me by her former close friend Maria Steyn and are strictly under copyright. Maria has been invaluable in my quest to find out about the life of the actress who most critics now agree played the best Maid Marian of all time.

Joan’s film career was sadly quite short after a meteoric rise to fame and she passed away in 1997. Information on her life has been hard to find, but gradually over the last few years I have managed to piece together pieces of the puzzle.

It was in Maidenhead in 1978 that Joan and Maria Steyn became friends after Maria had arranged to rent an apartment through Joan’s real estate and property bureau. In 1984 Joan married Ken McKenzie a Salesman from Stornaway on the Isle of Lewis and afterwards they both moved to Cookham near Maidenhead. Ken was in advertising sales and had previously been a journalist with The Daily Sketch.

The photograph above was taken by Maria of Joan Rice and Ken McKenzie during one of her regular visits in May 1983 and she describes the scene as:

“ .....on Cookham High Street kerb, just having passed through the portico from "Quinneys", standing next to The Kings Arms for dinner, opposite The Bel & Dragon.”

Maria would dearly love to know what happened to Ken McKenzie or any other members of the family of Joan Rice, so if you would like to get in touch with her please contact her at: maria.steyn@orange.nl.

Or: disneysrobin@googlemail.com




To read more about the life of Joan Rice please click on the label below.

Richard Todd v Richard Todd!

I noticed this on YouTube recently, which is a bit of fun.

Richard Todd: D Day Special

Below is a link to the News of the World’s very moving D Day Special video of Richard Todd’s  trip back to Pegasus Bridge and Normandy. Unfortunately I am not allowed to post the YouTube clip on my blog, but I do recommend you take a look at one of the great man’s poignant last recordings.

It's at :http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4f_39cuihvg

Richard Todd and Catherine Bogle

It was while spending eighteen months in the north at Dundee Repertory Theatre that Richard Todd met a lovely young girl in the company called Catherine Bogle. Richard had been to see Robert Lennard the Associated British Casting Director, and was advised to get all the stage experience he could-and Robert Lennard promised to send for him when a suitable part turned up. Richard’s thoughts immediately turned to the Dundee Repertory Theatre. Surely that was the best place to pick up the threads of his career. He took Lennard’s advice and went back to Dundee. He loved Scotland and the Scots loved Richard.

During that time he played a number of roles, including, oddly enough, ‘The Yank’ in the stage version of The Hasty Heart and David in Claudia. With every performance his work improved, but Richard was fired with a burning desire to do something more than repertory work. He wanted to be a success for more reasons than one.

Catherine Bogle was an excellent actress in her own right and she played opposite him in Claudia. Richard fell in love with her. But he did not want one of those theatrical marriages where the wife is touring all over the country in one company, while the husband is touring in yet another, and travelling in the opposite direction.

A life such as this was not for Richard-he wanted a home. He wanted to get himself established as an artist so that he had something substantial to offer the girl he loved, before he asked her to marry him.

In Dundee, Richard began to think the right part would never come along, when Robert Lennard telegraphed him to come to London for a screen test. Richard arrived in London, took the test, and was immediately accepted for the part.

The eagle eyes of the casting director for Associated British Pictures saw a prospective star in Richard, his undoubted acting ability, plus his good looks, convinced Lennard that young Todd would go a long way. After the successful test he offered him a contract-a good one-Richard gladly accepted.

Associated British Pictures felt that in their latest twenty-eight-year-old contract player, they had a suitable artist for the role of Herbert in their new film, For Them That Tresspass. The part was that of a young tough, bed in the drab surroundings of poverty who finds himself convicted of a murder he did not commit. Although he eventually leaves prison a free man, there is a bitter hate and revenge in his heart against the real criminal and those who sent him to prison.

Richard was tested for the part and got it-this was indeed his big chance. The first day on the set was a gruelling ordeal for the young actor. He knew that his whole career depended on how well he played the part and naturally, he was nervous.

However it was soon obvious to everyone on the set that Richard knew his job. He brought real acting ability and strength of personality to the screen and in his capable hands the character of Herbert came to life. He was a success.

At that time Richard was living at one of London’s Airborne Clubs. It was jolly there and at night he would sit talking to some of his ex-army pals, chatting about old times, or discussing his ambitions for the future.

Richard puffed away at his favourite pipe and told his colleagues that if he was ever lucky enough to make good at this acting business, it was his ambition to own a stud farm. Another dream was some day to build a small repertory theatre in London where new plays and promising young actors and actresses could delight the London theatre-goers.

Richard was full of high hopes and dreams, but at that time he had a long way to go. He had only mounted the first step of the ladder. Still, like all young men he found it exciting to plan ahead and to dream. Some day he might be a star-but those evenings, as he sat talking to his army friends, he little imagined how soon his dream of stardom would be realised.

Associated British executives were so impressed with Richard’s performance in For Them That Trespass that when an actor was sought for the key role of ‘Lachie’ in The Hasty Heart, they immediately and unanimously put forward their young protégée’s name for the test. He was under contract to Associated British Pictures for seven years; his salary was a good one, but not enormous. They expected big things of Richard and it was agreed that his salary would increase each year, but not even top men in the motion picture business expected their young contract artist to jump to stardom in his second film!

Vincent Sherman, the American director had come to England to direct the test for The Hasty Heart. He brought with him Patricia Neal and Ronald Reagan who were to star in the film. The part of ‘Lachie’ a dour and embittered young Scottish convalescent soldier, was not easy to cast, but when Richard’s test was screened, Vincent Sherman slapped his knee and cried “That’s my boy!” So young Todd got the part. The test was flown to Warner Brothers’ Burbank Studios and back came the reply: “Sign Todd. He’s terrific.”

The part of the shy, surly, soured and friendless young Scot, who is doomed to die in a Burma military hospital, was so beautifully played by Richard Todd that it sent him rocketing to stardom. He was a sensation on both sides of the Atlantic. For the American public, The Hasty Heart had two Hollywood stars, but it was Richard who made the audiences sit up. The blazing sincerity of his acting claimed their sympathy even when he was in his bitterest mood.

He acted with his eyes, even when the rest of him was stonily still. His performance shook the top executives at Warner Brothers when the first rough cut of the film reached America. They could see that a great new British star had blazed into the celluloid sky, and it was clear from that one film that he was ready and able to hold his own with high-salaried, top-ranking stars from Hollywood.

As for Richard, he knew before the film was finished that he was doing a good job. He thought, when the picture was released, that it would be successful, but it never occurred to him that HE would be a sensation. When The Hasty Heart was finished, he had one day’s rest, and then started to play opposite Valerie Hobson in The Cord, at Riverside Studios.

Before the film was finished, director Alfred Hitchcock, who had see rushes of his previous films, offered him the leading part in Stage Fright.

Richard was extremely thrilled to be working for that great director and Stage Fright gave him the opportunity of sharing honours with such international stars as Jane Wyman, Marlene Dietrich and Michael Wilding. The film was to be made at Elstree Studios and the part of ‘Jonathan’ greatly appealed to Richard.

Considering that he had been less than fifteen months in the motion picture business, to be cast opposite such stars was really remarkable. He felt that now his success was fairly assured he could ask the girl he loved to marry him.

On August 13th 1949 Richard took time off from filming to marry his twenty-two-year-old Kitty, the girl he met and loved and who loved him, when he was just another repertory actor working for less than ten pounds a week with the Dundee Repertory Company.


The Todds took a four-roomed flat in Park Street, Mayfair, London.


Click on the Label Richard Todd for more pictures and information.

Richard Todd

Thank you to Neil and Robin for their comments on yesterday’s news of the passing of film legend Richard Todd aged 90.

Yesterday my blog had an incredible 594 visitors, but it is a shame that it was on such a very sad occasion.

To read more about the life of Richard Todd please click on the 'Richard Todd' Label below.

Richard Todd (1919-2009)

It is with a heavy heart that I have to announce the death of Richard Todd aged 90. He died peacefully in his sleep on Thursday night (3rd December 2009) at his home in Grantham in eastern England.

“He had been suffering from Cancer,” his spokeswoman said, “an illness he bore with his habitual courage and dignity. His family were with him throughout.”

It is those two words, Courage and Dignity, which sum up for me this iconic film legend. He represented, as Michael Winner has said, “the best example of classic British film acting. He was a very fine actor but his style of acting went out of fashion, which was a pity because his contribution to British movies was enormous."

"Richard was also a very, very nice person. He was a good friend and wonderful to work with, utterly professional, very quiet, just got on with it. He was just a splendid person and a very, very good actor."

Born Richard Andrew Palethorpe-Todd in Dublin, Todd at first hoped to become a playwright but discovered a love for acting after helping found the Dundee Repertory Company in Scotland in 1939.

He volunteered for the British Army and graduated to the position of Captain in the 6th Airborne Division and took part in the famous D-Day landings of 1944 and was one of the first paratroopers to meet the glider force commanded by Maj. John Howard at Pegasus Bridge; he later played Howard in The Longest Day.

After being discharged in 1946, he returned to Dundee. His role as male lead in Claudia led to romance and then marriage to his leading lady, Catherine Grant-Bogle. A Scottish accent mastered while preparing for his role in The Hasty Heart proved a useful skill in his later film career.

He won praise for his performance in the film of The Hasty Heart, which included Ronald Reagan and Patricia Neal in the cast. The New York World-Telegram hailed Todd as "a vivid and vigorous actor" and the New York Herald Tribune said his performance "combined lofty stature with deep feeling, attracting enormous sympathy without an ounce of sentiment." Todd and Reagan later became close friends.

Todd was nominated for an Academy Award for the 1949 film A Hasty Heart and starred as U.S. Senate chaplain Peter Marshall in A Man Called Peter (1954). Marshall's widow Catherine said Todd "was just about the only film actor whose Scottish syllables would have met (her husband's) standards."

He also teamed up with legendary director Alfred Hitchcock to star in the thriller Stage Fright and went on to play Robin Hood and Rob Roy for Walt Disney’s live-action film productions in England. His portrayal as the outlaw Robin Hood will certainly never be forgotten on this web site.

Then came one of his best-known roles, playing Royal Air Force pilot Guy Gibson, in the classic war film The Dam Busters and later the epic The Longest Day in 1962, in which he relived the D-Day landings.

In Britain, James Bond author Ian Fleming picked Todd as his first choice to play 007 - but the actor turned down the role because of other commitments and it went to Sir Sean Connery instead.

The veteran star continued to act in the 1980s with roles in British TV shows including Casualty, crime series Silent Witness and sci-fi classic Doctor Who.

He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1993. Although many of us on this site believe a Knighthood would have been more appropriate.

Todd had a son and a daughter from his first marriage, and two sons from his marriage to Virginia Mailer. Both marriages ended in divorce.

His son Seamus from the second marriage, killed himself in 1997, and his eldest son also killed himself in 2005 following the breakdown of his marriage.

Todd said dealing with those tragedies was like his experience of war.

So how do I finish this short obituary to someone I have admired all my life. I suppose the only way is to use a line from Disney’s Story of Robin Hood which sums up for me the character of the great man.

His like you are not like to see,

In all the world again.

To read more about Richard Todd please click on the Label below.

Patrick Barr as King Richard I

Patrick Barr (1908-1985) as King Richard I in Walt Disney's Story of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men (1952). To read more about Patrick Barr please click on the label below.

The Robin Hood Bank Manager

In these days of fat-cat bankers and recession it was some-what amusing to read this story in the newspapers. I am sure our Lincoln Green hero would have laughed merrily to hear of his modern day German re-incarnation.

Mrs. Schmidt, 62, allegedly stole more than £1 million from her bank in Bonn because she "couldn't bear to see my less-fortunate customers go hungry," said her lawyer, Thomas Ohm.

"She did it out of compassion for people and now she is as poor as a church mouse herself," he said.

Mrs Schmidt worked for decades at a savings bank in the Rhineland city, rising from counter clerk to manageress. The fraud indictment against her says she began robbing from the rich to give to the poor in 2003.

Prosecutors say she interviewed all the people who she gave money to, checking that they were "needy cases", and insisted that they pay back the cash when they were on their feet.

In one year she handed out nearly £7 million - but only £6.5 million was paid back. All the cash for the poor was taken from the accounts of wealthy people.

By the time some of her customers noted that their deposits were not adding up the bank was short of £1.1 million.

Her house was seized and the court in Bonn was told the employee took no money for herself but was accused of allowing overdrafts for customers who would not normally qualify for them. She then used the money from richer customers to temporarily disguise the loans during the bank's monthly audit of overdrafts.

Mrs Schmidt has begun reimbursing the bank for the losses, reportedly from a small retirement pension. She could have faced a four-year prison sentence, but the German court decided on leniency. They noted that the employee did not take any money for herself, had confessed immediately, had lost her job and had started to pay the money back. It therefore gave her a 22-month suspended prison sentence.

I wonder if she is any good with a bow and arrow?