March 4, 1932 – Former Walt Disney Company President and Disney Legend Frank Wells is Born
“Talk about genius, a genius of an executive…a person who was willing to sublimate his ego and keep it behind the scenes because he knew there was a greater good. There was a greater good not only to the corporation and the stockholders, but to the creative enterprise that Disney was in.” – Don Hahn
On March 4, 1932, Frank G. Wells was born in Coronado, California. Wells and Roy E. Disney were classmates at Pomona College in the early 1950s, and in 1953, Wells became a Rhodes Scholar, earning his BA at Oxford University. In 1969, Wells became Vice President of Warner Brothers, and became its president in 1973 before being named chairman in 1977. In 1982, he left Warner Brothers, and was asked by Disney to join the Walt Disney Company as President and Chief Operating Officer in partnership with Michael Eisner’s offices of Chairman and CEO. As Disney put it, “I thought, you know, Frank’s more of a businessman, and Michael is a little nuts, and the two together kind of in some way made me think of Walt and my dad. So we began saying, ‘How would you two like to take this job?’” Wells was considered the peacemaker between the three strong personalities of Roy E. Disney, Michael Eisner, and Jeffrey Katzenberg. Eisner said of Wells, “Interesting thing about Frank: he carried in his wallet a piece of paper that said, ‘Humility is the ultimate virtue.’” Wells is noted as being instrumental in bringing a new golden age of Disney animation.
Wells was also known as an adventurer, and a goal of climbing the Seven Summits, although he was unable to climb Mt. Everest due to bad weather. Wells’ love of climbing is honored in Disneyland’s Matterhorn Bobsleds, with equipment labeled as part of the “Wells Expedition.” On Easter Sunday, 1994, tragedy struck the studio when it was announced that Wells had perished in a helicopter crash in Nevada’s Ruby Mountains after returning from a ski trip. The building that houses the Disney Archives was renamed in Wells’ memory, and The Lion King was dedicated to him. Wells was named a Disney Legend in 1994.
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