The Three Times Disney Forced Out Its CEO
Recent events at The Walt Disney Company may feel historical, and, in a way, they are.
Still, you may be shocked to learn that Disney has done something like this twice before…and both instances involved an actual Disney family member!
Let’s compare the three times that Disney forced out its CEO!
The Football Player Who Didn’t Have a Head for Business
Here’s a recurring thought at dinner tables throughout this holiday season.


Photo: Disney Parks Blog
“Why did he/she have to bring my idiot son-in-law with them?”
Many fathers feel that nobody is good enough for their child, and they resent the person who tries.
I can only speculate whether this thought process applied to Walt Disney as well.


Photo: Disney
What I can say for certain is that Diane Disney fell for a football player named Ron Miller. He was a good one, too.
The dude played wide receiver for the Los Angeles Rams! A hilarious anecdote from those days involved legendary cornerback Night Train Lane.
Apparently, Lane struck the prone Miller hard enough to knock Walt Disney’s son-in-law unconscious.
At this point, Walt gently suggested to his new family member that a career in the company might be safer and smarter.


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NBC TELEVISION
Miller gave up football to become an executive at his father-in-law’s company.
That decision quickly paid dividends as he worked on a film production the following year. It was Old Yeller.


Photo: Disney
Miller’s jock-ish good looks earned him at least one opportunity to appear in front of the camera. However, Walt put the kibosh on that.
Disney knew that the real money came from the production side and wanted Miller to be able to provide for his new wife.


Photo: Disney
Over the years, Miller earned producer credits on famous films like Freaky Friday, Tron, Escape to Witch Mountain, and That Darn Cat!
In 1980, Miller became the President of Walt Disney Productions and later the company’s CEO in 1983.


Photo: WaltDisney.org
The Nepotism with an Unlikely Resolution
Along the way, Miller made the bold choice to introduce Touchstone Pictures, a live-action studio for more adult fare like Splash.
The Touchstone move paid immediate dividends for Disney, as Splash became a lucrative hit, as did a 1986 release, Down and Out in Beverly Hills.


Photo: Touchstone Studios
Alas, Miller had left the company by then. Less than six months after Splash debuted, Walt Disney’s nephew, Roy E. Disney, did the unthinkable.
I’m confident you’re at least vaguely aware of the 2005 story that led to Bob Iger’s ascension to CEO. If not, we’ll discuss it in just a moment.


Photo: Washington Post illustration; Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP; iStock
However, the stunning part, at least with the benefit of hindsight, is what happened first!
Disney led a group that ousted his cousin’s husband from the company! Even more remarkably, Disney settled on an ideal candidate: Michael Eisner.


Photo Credit: Michael Eisner via Twitter @Michael_Eisner
That’s right, folks! Roy E. Disney and the rest of Disney’s Board of Directors hand-picked Eisner to run the company in 1984. Did I just blow your mind?
Oddly, the story of how this happened will sound strikingly familiar to recent events.


Photo: D23
After Roy O. Disney died in 1971, his close confidante, Donn Tatum, replaced him as CEO. Tatum then groomed his successor, Card Walker.
In 1983, Walker was 67 years old and chose to retire from Disney, ceding the CEO role to Miller.


Photo: D23
However, Walker remained as – you guessed it! – Chairman of the Board at Disney for a while. Doesn’t that sound familiar?
Walker disliked the idea of Disney converting to more adult fare despite the fact that Miller had firsthand knowledge that Uncle Walt wanted to do it, too.


Photo: D23
Miller fell victim to the fact that his ideas like computer-animated movies were too bold. Also, it didn’t help that Miller’s critics perceived him as owing the CEO gig to nepotism.
Walker, the Chairman of Disney’s Board, felt Miller was in over his head and forced him out. Where have we heard that recently?


Photo: D23
Roy E. Disney Regrets Everything
The arrival of Eisner irrevocably changed Disney. As an established Hollywood studio boss, Eisner possessed a strong vision for what Disney could be.
Meanwhile, Roy E. Disney faced a reckoning with his cousin Diane Disney, who didn’t appreciate his manipulating her husband out of a job.


Photo: D23
For his part, Eisner arrived with two aces in the hole. Jeffrey Katzenberg led Disney’s film division, while Frank Wells worked side-by-side with Eisner in running the company.
Roughly ten years later, Wells tragically died in a helicopter crash, which reset Disney’s fortunes seemingly overnight.


Photo: D23
For a decade, the three of them formed a dream team that led Disney to record earnings and share prices.
However, Katzenberg also kept an eye on Eisner’s CEO gig. Once he realized he would never hold that title, he left and later founded DreamWorks Animation.


Photo: CNBC
Meanwhile, Eisner’s second decade proved to be failure after failure. Without Wells to offer guidance, Eisner suffered several unforced errors like Disney’s America.
Simultaneously, Disney’s films trended downward after the massive blockbuster, The Lion King.


Photo: Lion King
Several disappointing results frustrated the Board and – you guessed it – Roy E. Disney!
The Disney heir famously plotted an overthrow of Eisner that never quite went according to plan.


Photo: Disney
Eisner technically survived the coup, but he recognized by then that he’d never have the Board’s full support again. That sounds familiar, too.
Eisner willingly left the company and, much like Bob Chapek, didn’t even leave any sort of parting thoughts.


Photo: AAP News
The departing CEO got a one-page mention in the company newsletter, and that was it.
Roy E. Disney effectively toppled the very CEO he had once brought in to lead the company. And yes, that eerily parallels what just happened.


Photo: Disney
Chapek’s Ouster Brings Disney Full Circle
Disney’s Board eliminated Ron Miller due to a series of high-profile PR woes.
Corporate raiders eyed Disney hungrily in late 1983 and early 1984. Disney staved off one such bid, but its stock price collapsed in the process.


Photo: American Greetings
Meanwhile, Disney announced a $337.5 million acquisition of Gibson Greetings Co., which we now know as American Greetings.
This move came on the heels of a different activist investor threatening to buy half the stock and overthrow Disney’s Board.


Photo: Bank rate
Disney actually completed a similar transaction earlier in 1984, which demonstrates how insane that year was.
Before the pandemic, that was probably the most challenging year ever for the company. So, the Board brought in a new CEO capable of weathering the storm.


Photo: measureupgroup.com
Had Disney’s stock remained at its previous levels or no activist investors tried to hoard it, Miller would have likely remained CEO.
Fast forward to the past three months. Bob Chapek just added a Board member specifically to calm an activist investor, Daniel Loeb.


Photo: CNBC.com/Getty
Then, another group, Trian Fund Management bought $800 million in stock and wanted more. It was a case of history repeating itself.
When investors smell blood in the water, a company’s CEO is in trouble. In Disney’s case, a viable option presented itself.


(Photo by Kimberly White/Getty Images for Vanity Fair)
Bob Iger agreed to return. While this change appears scandalous and inflammatory in nature, the reality is that it’s not unprecedented.
Over the past 29 years, Disney has experienced three different intense struggles over who should be CEO.


Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Thankfully, the previous two times that it happened, the replacement CEO secured the job for many years.
While I doubt that happens with the 71-year-old Iger, it’s still nice to know that Disney’s c-suite should be calm for a while.
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Feature Image: CNBC.com