Overview
- The Walt Disney Company announced Iwerks’s death and CEO Josh D’Amaro issued a public tribute praising his ingenuity and passion.
- Iwerks began at Walt Disney Productions in 1950, served in the Korean War, and returned to help build tools such as the Circle‑Vision 360 camera and the sodium‑vapor traveling matte used in Mary Poppins.
- He worked on early studio projects like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and later designed projection and camera systems for attractions including The American Adventure, Captain EO, and Star Tours.
- After about 35 years at Disney, he co‑founded Iwerks Entertainment in 1986, which installed large‑format, 3D and motion‑simulator attractions around the world and was sold to SimEx in 2001.
- Iwerks earned major honors including the Academy’s Gordon E. Sawyer Award and a Disney Legend induction, and his family and museums continue to preserve his and his father Ub Iwerks’s technical and archival legacy.