The Walt Disney Company last week named its 2026 class of Disney Legends. The Disney Legend program is the Disney’s highest honor for individuals who have worked for or with the company.
The animators and Imagineers who work for Disney once did so in obscurity relative to the actors and artists who worked for other studios and institutions. The late Imagineer Marty Sklar once said of working at Disney, “There’s only one name on that door, and it’s not yours.”
“Walt Disney” was the company’s star, even years after his death. The Disney Legends program provided a way for the company to honor publicly the individuals who made Disney’s magic. Among the first classes of inductees where Ub Iwerks, who co-created Mickey Mouse, the “Nine Old Men” who led Disney’s animation studio and the original Imagineers who designed and built Disneyland.
Over the years, the composition of Disney Legends classes has changed along with the company. Disney now promotes many more star-driven, live-action shows than it did last century. As a result, Disney Legends classes include many people the public already knows well, including Anne Hathaway, Dwayne Johnson, Lin-Manuel Miranda and The Jonas Brothers this year. This year’s class also includes Bob Iger, honoring the former Disney CEO for his years of leadership.
In the spirit of the program’s original intention, the class also honors retired Imagineer Kim Irvine. No one knows the history of Disneyland better than Irvine, and no one has done more within the company to defend, preserve and promote Disneyland’s legacy than she has. Irvine also is a rare second-generation Legend, following with her mother Leota Toombs.
I would love to see Disney honor more than one person from Imagineering or the parks in each Legends class. Former WDI President Bob Weis surely has earned this honor for his creative leadership of projects including Shanghai Disneyland and Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Current Imagineer Lanny Smoot also should be line for the award, following his recent induction to the National Inventors Hall of Fame, an honor previously given to Walt Disney himself.
On the parks side, I would love to see the company honor more cast members who have worked their way up from hourly jobs to positions of high leadership in the company, such as George Kalogridis, who started bussing tables at a Disney World hotel on his way to serving as President of the Disneyland and Walt Disney World Resorts.
But the biggest omission from the current Disney Legends roster has to be former CEO Michael Eisner. Eisner is one of three Disney CEOs who was shown the door rather than leaving the job via retirement. But unlike the short-serving Ron Miller (Walt’s son-in-law) and Bob Chapek, Eisner’s leadership was transformative, carrying Disney from Hollywood afterthought to industry behemoth.
Perhaps Eisner has declined the honor. I could understand that, given how he parted with the company. But taking hits and criticism is part of a CEO’s job. I know that I and thousands of other Disney fans would love one day to fill the Honda Center and stand to give Eisner the ovation he deserves for his leadership at Disney.