Top 10 Disney Ghosts

It’s Halloween and what better way to celebrate than sitting down with our favorite top 10 Disney Ghosts? These are ghosts (both fictional and “real”) that have appeared in movies and the theme parks:

10. Blackbeard’s Ghost

Directed by Robert Stevenson (who also directed Mary Poppins and The Love Bug), the 1968 film follows Peter Ustinov’s jolly Blackbeard — who finds himself in modern times thanks to an ancient curse. It’s a fun, but forgotten, Disney classic and vintage Disney family fare.

9. Undead Captain Jack Sparrow &  Captain Barbossa & Crew

Barbossa said it best, “You best start believin’ in ghost stories, Ms. Turner — you’re in one!” Technically, while they’re not ghosts, when cursed, they become “ghosts” of their former selves… Still, Captain Jack Sparrow, Barbossa and his crew of undead make for a pretty good ghost story.

8. Zero in The Nightmare Before Christmas 

No need for vet checkups when you’re a ghost dog. This paranormal pup is the best friend of Halloweentown’s hero, Jack Skellington – but don’t worry Zero’s “spook” is much worse than his bite.

7. Goofy as Jacob Marley’s Ghost in Mickey’s Christmas Carol

While there are three main ghosts that appear to Scrooge McDuck, it’s Goofy’s performance as Jacob Marley’s ghost that really scares us. The character was also turned into an action figure that was sold in Disney Parks.

6. Master Gracey, Madame Leota in Haunted Mansion

One is heartbroken for a lost love and the other is a chatty, overly friendly disembodied head. They both haunt the Haunted Mansion attraction and movie of the same name.

5. Headless Horseman in The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad 

Easily the stuff of nightmares for anyone under the age of seven, the Headless Horseman strikes terror into the hearts of children — and still some adults.

4. “Lonesome Ghosts”

Released through RKO Radio Pictures on December 24th, 1937 (three days after Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs), “Lonesome Ghosts” is a classic cartoon that features Mickey, Donald and Goofy — and plays like Ghostbusters — but the real stars are the spooky ghosts. An edited, silent version of the cartoon was released in 1973 for the Fisher-Price Movie Viewer.

3. Former Cast Members 

There are countless urban legends about ghosts that haunt locations around Disney parks: There’s the bellhop that supposedly haunts the Tower of Terror at Walt Disney World, the ghost of a boy that appears in the Rivers of America trying to swim to Tom Sawyer Island or the ghost rider on Space Mountain — but former Disneyland Cast Members swear there’s a ghost inside the Tomorrowland Expo Center at Disneyland.

Deborah Stone was a ride operator at Disneyland for the America Sings attraction (A.K.A. Carousel of Progress) in 1974, the 18-year old was killed when she became trapped between the attraction’s rotating stage. Cast members have since experienced weird moments like doors closing on their own in backstage areas when no one else is around, or hearing a gentle female voice warn them to “be careful.”

Arguably the first featured Disney villain to be a ghost, the dreaded pirate hunter Captain Armando Salazar from the upcoming film Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales is all kinds of scary. What’s scarier than ghosts? Spiteful, rage-filled, vengeful ghosts.

1. The Hitchhiking Ghosts from Haunted Mansion

Possibly the most famous ghosts of all time, the hitchhiking ghosts are the standard for creepy and spooky theme park ghosts. Marc Davis was responsible for the creation of these spectral oddities and they still have the power to jolt you out of your seat.