Disney Stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
In a previous article, we discussed that magical location on the corner of Hollywood & Vine. Here, celebrities cement their status as icons in the entertainment industry, and I’m not speaking figuratively. Hollywood stars stick their hands into blocks, commemorating the fact that they’re the elite. You’re not anybody in entertainment until you have a star on the Hollywood Walk & Fame. Let’s talk about the Disney stars who have earned the industry’s highest honor.
Tim Allen & Tom Hanks
You love them as the voices of Woody and Buzz from Toy Story, but both men are certainly stars in their own right, with Allen hosting one of the most popular sitcoms of the 20th century and Hanks winning Academy Awards for acting in consecutive years. Hanks has bragging rights, as he earned his star all the way back in 1992. Allen wouldn’t receive his until 2004.
Julie Andrews
The star of Mary Poppins is an even better person than you realize. She passed on a chance to appear in Mary Poppins Returns for an unselfish reason. She worried that her presence would remind people that Emily Blunt wasn’t the original actress and thereby compare the two. A living legend, Andrews took her spot on the Hollywood Walk of Fame all the way back in 1979.
Johnny Depp & Orlando Bloom
No, I didn’t forget the third party here. Two of the three stars of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise have places on the Walk of Fame. Keira Knightley is noticeably absent thus far, which seems like a massive oversight to this Bend It Like Beckham/Begin Again fan.
Johnny Depp actually took his spot before he put on the Jack Sparrow outfit for the first time. He’s been in since 1999. Bloom would get his 15 years later in 2014. Knightley is eight years younger than Bloom, which may explain the situation.
Walt Disney and Roy O. Disney
Okay, you knew that Uncle Walt would have a spot on the Walk of Fame. What you may not know is that he got two! Yes, all the way back in 1960, the nominating team gave him stars for both his television and movie contributions.
Older brother, Roy, wouldn’t get his recognition until 1998, which strikes me as ridiculously slow. The elder Disney helmed the company after his brother’s death and kept the dream of Walt Disney World alive. He deserves more credit in the annals of The Walt Disney Company and in the entertainment industry as a whole.
Michael Eisner
Please do not boo, hiss, and throw things at the messenger. Yes, Eisner’s tenure as CEO of Disney took a precipitous turn toward the end. Before then, however, his guidance and knowledge of the stock market led to unprecedented growth for the company.
Roy Disney’s granddaughter, Abigail, recently stated in an interview that Eisner had increased the value of her stock by as much as a factor of 50! In April of 2008, he was honored for his work as a studio boss. This happened barely three years after he was forced out at Disney.
Harrison Ford & Mark Hamill
Okay, this one might shock you. I mentioned above that Knightley probably doesn’t have a Star yet due to her age. The Star Wars situation is a bit trickier to explain. Harrison Ford, undeniably a huge celebrity and one of the most prolific box office performers ever, received his honor in 2003.
In 2018, Mark Hamill followed suit. Yes, I mean the same Hamill who outside of Star Wars is best known for…voiceover work. Well, he was on The Big Bang Theory, too. You see where I’m going with this.
When Carrie Fisher died in 2016, everyone suddenly realized the oversight that she wasn’t lauded yet. Fans created a makeshift spot instead. Due to the odd rules in place for the deceased, she’s still not eligible for a couple of years, either. The voters need to do a better job of recognizing women in film and television. Period.
Angela Lansbury
Before she wrote about murder, Ms. Lansbury dazzled Disney fans in Bedknobs and Broomsticks. She portrayed Miss Eglantine Price, a witch-in-training who fights Nazis during World War II. Yes, those of you who didn’t know the plot of the film need to watch it immediately. The story is way out there!
While this flick holds the honor of being the final work of Roy Disney’s life, more Disney fans know her as the voice of Mrs. Potts in Beauty & the Beast. Fittingly, Lansbury stepped in for Julie Andrews in Mary Poppins Returns, as the two women are arguably the most iconic living Disney thespians.
Lansbury joins Walt Disney as a two-time recipient for her work in film and television. In fact, the two of them received their dual selections only a few months apart in 1960.
Kurt Russell
Simply the greatest bit of Walt Disney trivia is that his last words were, “Kurt Russell.” Nobody knows why, especially not Kurt Russell. At the time, the actor who would become Snake Plissken was just a teenager with dreams of becoming a major league ballplayer. He famously caused Uncle Walt headaches by caring more about an all-star team baseball playoff game than filming a movie.
Given the odd connection between the two men, Russell’s worked in Disney cinema as much as anybody ever. He started with Follow Me, Boys! in 1966 and has continued through Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 in 2017, the year when he received his Hollywood Star. Russell even has a tie-in with our next duo…
The Sherman Brothers
When anyone thinks of Disney theme park music, they’re thinking of the Sherman Brothers, whether they know it or not. These brothers wrote the all-time earworm ditty, It’s a Small World, along with several other recognizable theme park songs, some of which are still in use today.
The Shermans provided the soundtrack to several Disney movies as well. One of their songs was…Follow Me, Boys! For that matter, they also contributed to Russell’s second Disney movie, The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band.
I mention this because an up-and-coming actress named Goldie Hawn made her cinematic debut in it. Hawn and Russell became friends during filming and would later fall in love on Valentine’s Day, 1983. They’ve been together ever since. Whether they owe it all to the Shermans is up for debate, but the unlikely connection definitely proves that it’s a small world.
Circling back to the Shermans, they got their (shared) star in 1976.
Dick Van Dyke
I’m actually a bit annoyed about our last Disney star. Dick Van Dyke only has one star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. While he’s unquestionably deserving for his work in television, the fact that the co-star of Mary Poppins doesn’t have a star for his movie roles is infuriating. We’re talking about a man who was still dancing his way through Mary Poppins Returns when he was 92 years old!
To a larger point, how is the star of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and co-star of Bye Bye Birdie not honored?! So, Dick Van Dyke is in for his television celebrity rather than his iconic work in Disney cinema. That’s insane, right?
Finally, here’s a tidbit that will blow your mind. An inanimate object from a Disney theme park has a Special Recognition Category star on the Walk of Fame. Yes, Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland received the honor in 2005!
