Walt Disney died Dec. 15, 1966, and was cremated on Dec. 17. The first human ever frozen for cryonics went under a month later. Where the rumor came from, and why it won’t die, 60 years on.
Walt Disney died at St. Joseph Hospital in Burbank on Dec. 15, 1966, ten days after his 65th birthday. He was cremated two days later at Forest Lawn in Glendale, after a private funeral that only his immediate family attended.
That’s the whole story. There is no frozen body. There is no vault under the ride.
And yet, six decades later, the frozen-Walt legend is still the first thing a lot of people know about him. So let’s do the timeline, because the timeline kills it.
Did Walt Disney get frozen when he died?
No. Snopes has the death certificate details and the funeral record: a 5 p.m. service on Dec. 16, 1966 at Forest Lawn’s Little Church of the Flowers, then cremation on Dec. 17.
His ashes were interred in a small private garden near the Freedom Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Glendale. The estate paid about $40,000 for the plot.
The Walt Disney Family Museum, run by his daughter’s family, has said it as plainly as it can be said: “Walt Disney was never cryogenically frozen.“
His daughter, Diane Disney Miller, addressed it in 1972: “There is absolutely no truth to the rumor that my father, Walt Disney, wished to be frozen.“
When was the first person frozen for cryonics?
A month after Walt died. Dr. James Bedford, a retired psychology professor, became the first human placed in cryonic suspension on Jan. 12, 1967. That’s the date the whole field starts.
So even if Walt had wanted it, the option didn’t exist yet in any working form when he died. He’d have been the guinea pig, and the guinea pig was Bedford.
Where did the frozen Walt rumor come from?
A tabloid, a French magazine and a guy who ran a cryonics club.
Per Snopes and a 2018 history by Dr. Howard Markel for PBS, a reporter for a scandal sheet called the National Spotlite claimed in early 1967 to have sneaked into St. Joseph’s and seen Walt’s body in a cryogenic cylinder. The first print version most people cite ran in the French magazine Ici Paris in 1969. The National Tattler later predicted Disney would be thawed out in 1975.
Then there’s Bob Nelson, president of the Cryonics Society of California, who told the Los Angeles Times in 1972 that Walt had wanted to be frozen but “missed out.” The rest of his quote, which nobody repeats: “They had him cremated. I personally have seen his ashes.”
Readers kept the first half and dropped the second.
A Disney publicist at the time blamed the studio’s own animators and their “bizarre sense of humor.” That part might be true. Animators are like that.
Two biographies, Leonard Mosley’s Disney’s World in 1986 and Marc Eliot’s Walt Disney: Hollywood’s Dark Prince in 1993, kept it alive by repeating the claim. Both books were widely criticized for factual errors.
Why do people say he’s under Pirates of the Caribbean?
Because it’s the most Disney place to hide a body, and because Pirates was the last ride Walt worked on. D23 says he “worked extensively on this attraction, but passed away before it was finished.“
The location has a problem. Pirates of the Caribbean opened at Disneyland on March 18, 1967. Walt died three months earlier. If the plan was to stash him under the ride, they’d have had to hold the body somewhere else first and then move it into an active construction site.
Nobody did that. He was in a garden plot in Glendale by Dec. 17.
What actually killed Walt Disney?
Lung cancer. He’d been a heavy smoker for most of his life. In early November 1966 a routine X-ray found a tumor in his left lung, and surgeons removed the lung within days. The cancer had already spread.
He was readmitted at the end of the month and died Dec. 15 of circulatory collapse.
His last filmed appearance was shot Oct. 27, 1966: the EPCOT pitch film, where he stands in front of a map of Florida and describes a city of the future. It was shown publicly for the first time in February 1967, in Winter Park, Florida, after he was gone.
He wanted no fuss. Snopes quotes his standing instruction: “When I’m dead I don’t want a funeral. I want people to remember me alive.”
Where is Walt Disney buried, and can you visit?
Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California. The plot is a small garden outside the Freedom Mausoleum, with a simple plaque. Forest Lawn staff won’t point you to it, per SFGate, but it’s not a secret and fans find it every day. Leave the Mickey ears at home; it’s a cemetery.
Walt Disney’s 125th birthday and 60th death anniversary
Dec. 5, 2026 is the 125th anniversary of Walt’s birth, in Chicago, in 1901. Dec. 15 is 60 years since his death.
Walt was 65. Bedford, the actual first frozen man, is still in a tank in Arizona.
The rumor outlived them both.
Article compiled with the help of the Pirates & Princesses newsroom.
Pirates and Princesses is your destination for Disney news, theme park updates, and the pop culture you love. From Disney cruises and travel tips to Disney fashion, food, collectibles, and movie news, PNP covers it all. Visit us at piratesandprincesses.net for daily coverage. Follow PNP on Facebook and Instagram, and listen to the Pirates & Princesses podcast on Apple Podcasts and YouTube.
Hat Tips:
The Walt Disney Family Museum (”In Defense of Walt Disney,” Jan. 2014), the museum’s cremation and interment statement
Snopes (”Suspended Animation”), funeral and cremation dates, the $40,000 plot, the rumor’s print history, the Nelson and Diane Disney Miller quotes, and the Bedford date
PBS NewsHour (Dr. Howard Markel, Dec. 2018), the November 1966 diagnosis and surgery, and the National Spotlite claim
D23 (Walt Disney and Pirates of the Caribbean A-to-Z entries and history timeline), birth and death dates, EPCOT planning, and the March 18, 1967 ride opening
MousePlanet, the Oct. 27, 1966 EPCOT film shoot and its February 1967 debut
Smithsonian Magazine (Sept. 2022), the Forest Lawn garden plot location
SFGate, Forest Lawn’s policy on the gravesite
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