Merrill De Maris (1898-1948) was born in New Jersey and started work with Disney in 1933. De Maris divided his time between scripting the Silly Symphonies and Mickey Mouse comic strips and working as an animation story man. In the late 1930s, De Maris began a five-year run as the main Mickey scripter for plotter/penciler Floyd Gottfredson, creating such classics as "The Bar-None Ranch" (1938) and "Mickey Mouse Outwits the Phantom Blot" (1939). In later years, De Maris left Disney to become a professional gardener. Walt Disney (1901-1966) was an animator, film producer, and co-founder of The Walt Disney Company. His early works, such as Laugh-O-Grams and Alice in Cartoonland, were well-received, but Disney rose to fame with the creation of Steamboat Willie, the first film to feature Mickey Mouse. An innovator of animation, Disney holds the record of 22 Academy Awards and 59 nominations. His works continue to influence creators around the world today. Hired as a short-term replacement on the fledgling Mickey Mouse daily strip in 1930, Floyd Gottfredson (1905-1986) went on to draw the feature for the next 45 years. He created the most famous Mickey tales ever told in print. He is a Disney Legend and was inducted into the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 2006. William Cozier "Bill Walsh" (1913-1975) was a scriptwriter, best known for producing live-action Disney films such as Mary Poppins.