Bill Walsh

Personal Info

Known For Writer

Gender Male

Birthday 1913-09-30

Deathday 1975-01-27 (61 years old)

Place of Birth New York City, New York, USA

Also Known As William Walsh

Bill Walsh

Biography

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.

Known For

Writer

2006
The Shaggy Dog

as Original Film Writer

1997
The Love Bug

as Writer

1997
Flubber

as Screenplay

1974
Herbie Rides Again

as Screenplay

1971
1971
Scandalous John

as Screenplay

1968
Blackbeard's Ghost

as Screenplay

1968
The Love Bug

as Screenplay

1965
That Darn Cat!

as Screenplay

1964
Mary Poppins

as Screenplay

1963
Son of Flubber

as Writer

1961
1959
The Shaggy Dog

as Screenplay

1955
1954

Producer

1974
Herbie Rides Again

as Producer

1971
1971
Scandalous John

as Producer

1968
Blackbeard's Ghost

as Producer

1968
The Love Bug

as Producer

1966
1965
That Darn Cat!

as Co-Producer

1964
Mary Poppins

as Co-Producer

1963
Son of Flubber

as Co-Producer

1961
The Absent-Minded Professor

as Associate Producer

1959
The Shaggy Dog

as Associate Producer

1959
Disneyland '59

as Associate Producer

1956
1956
1956
The Hardy Boys

as Producer

1954
1952
1950

Actor

2006
The Shaggy Dog Kids

as Self (archive footage)

Creator

1955