Frank Wells
Frank G. Wells (born March 4, 1932 in San Diego , California , † April 3, 1994 in Lamoille , Nevada ) was an American manager . From 1984 until his death, he was President and Chief Operating Officer of the Walt Disney Company .
life and career
Wells was born in 1932 to a US Navy officer and spent his childhood on various military bases on the east and west coasts of the United States. He later attended Pomona College and then studied at Oxford University . After two years of military service, he studied at Stanford University's Law School .
Wells initially worked for Warner Brothers , where he was Vice President from 1969, President from 1973 and Vice Chairman from 1977. In 1982 he left the company. Disney shareholders Roy Disney and Stanley Gold hired Wells in their attempt to oust President Ron Miller to make him the second man at Disney after Michael Eisner .
At the beginning of the 1980s, Dick Bass , an entrepreneur who was friends with Wells, developed the idea of climbing the highest peaks on each of the seven continents, the Seven Summits . Together with Wells, he wanted to put this into practice. He came close to that goal, but did not achieve it. To complete the Seven Summits, he would have had to climb Mount Everest . This failed because of the bad weather, which forced him and his companions to give up a day before reaching the summit. The Matterhorn- Bobsleigh attraction at Disneyland in Anaheim honors Wells with the inscription "Wells Expedition" in reference to his love for mountaineering with ski lodges scattered in the landscape.
Wells died along with two other people in a helicopter crash when he was returning from a ski trip in the Ruby Mountains , Nevada . He left behind his wife Luanne and their two sons. Michael Ovitz was his successor at Disney .
The film The Lion King , released the summer after Wells' death, is dedicated to him. The Frank G. Wells , named after him, opened on the grounds of The Walt Disney Studios in 1998 .
Works
- Dick Bass, Frank Wells, Rick Ridgeway: Seven Summits . Warner Books, 1986, ISBN 978-0-446-51312-8 .
Web links
- Frank Wells in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Frank Wells at Disney Legends
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Frank Wells, Disney's President, Is Killed in a Copter Crash at 62 at nytimes.com, accessed March 17, 2016
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Wells, Frank |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Wells, Frank G. |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American manager, president and chief operating officer of the Walt Disney Company |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 4, 1932 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | San Diego , California |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 3, 1994 |
| Place of death | Lamoille , Nevada |