The man who orchestrated the arrival of Eisner, went to great pains to undo him starting in 2003. Following the Disney Board�s refusal to extend his term on the Board, Roy published a scathing letter, directed to Eisner, that criticized Eisner and accused him of Machiavellian management. Citing the death of Frank Wells as the start of Eisner�s decline, Disney wrote �the company has lost its focus, its creative energy, and its heritage.� In a pointed list of Eisner�s failings, Disney hit a particularly sensitive note that resonated with many cast-members and fans when he wrote �perception by all of our stakeholders � consumers, investors, employees, distributors and suppliers � that the Company is rapacious, soul-less, and always looking for the �quick buck� rather than long-term value which is leading to a loss of public trust.�

Roy Disney became the public champion of those stakeholders when he and business partner Stanley Gold founded �Save Disney dot Com� in 2003. It was the catalyst for yanking Eisner off his pedestal, and lead the way for a staggering vote of no-confidence that 43 percent of shareholders expressed at the 2004 annual stockholders meeting. Eisner stepped down less than a year later, a full year before his contract officially expired.

Looking back on this tumultuous time, Clements recalls �Roy felt very strongly, in terms of the values of the company. He fought hard for those values, and even if they may have gotten him in some trouble he stuck to what he believed, and he worked tirelessly to get the company�s values back to the way he saw them.�

The younger Disney risked a great deal to set things right, and what ever he suffered in public criticism, he earned in undying loyalty from countless fans and cast members. Although he came to a sort of truce with the company, agreeing to close down savedisney.com and accepting an Emeritus board position, there remained the cruel irony that the ousted Eisner was the second largest shareholder of the company, with a reported 1.7 percent of all shares, ahead of Roy who held just under one percent.

In spite of enjoying some hard-earned time off, spending time with his other passion, sailing, it is likely that the second battle for the soul of the Disney company took its toll on Roy�s personal life. His 52-year marriage to wife Patty Daily ended in divorce in 2007. He was married again in 2008, to CSTV producer Leslie DeMeuse, who survives him along with his four adult children from his marriage to Daily.

In the end, it is Roy Disney the fellow cast member who will be most missed on Flower Street. Even when he was occupying his infamous round office inside the Sorcerer�s hat of the Burbank animation headquarters, he seemed less like an executive and more like a much-loved, tenured professor of philosophy. His casual, gamin style and easy-going nature called to mind a time when film-makers were partners and social peers, not cautious artistic adversaries playing a careful game of politics. His presence at every Screen Cartoonists Guild Christmas party was taken for granted, and he entered the room and mingled with the animators, background painters, story artists and other union professionals as if he were popping by for a drink after work, and shooting the breeze with old friends. His appearance at the December 2004 party was met with a standing ovation, and he spent several hours that night walking around, humbly accepting thanks from every man and woman in the room, sitting and talking for a long time to friends and strangers alike, encouraging everyone to keep the dream alive, and adding hope to what was otherwise a particularly difficult season for so many people in the animation industry.

Without Roy E. Disney�s passion, spirit, no-holes-barred bravery and unwavering integrity, the Walt Disney Company would quite likely have been swallowed up like Pinocchio in the belly of the Hollywood whale. The Walt Disney Company fought off both wicked and winsome suitors and even absorbed their greatest competition � digital animation partner Pixar � outlasting all the nay-sayers, fortune hunters and ego-maniacal moguls who either intentionally or unintentionally tried to fell it.

-- Posted December 16, 2009