Michael Eisner
From Freepedia
Michael Dammann Eisner (born March 7, 1942) ran the The Walt Disney Company from 1984 to 2005.
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Early life
Eisner, born in Mt. Kisco, New York to wealthy parents, was raised on Park Avenue in New York. He attended the Lawrenceville School and graduated from Denison University in 1964 with a B.A. in English.
ABC and Paramount
After two brief stints at NBC and CBS, Barry Diller at ABC hired Eisner as Assistant to the National Programming Director. Eisner moved up the ranks, eventually becoming a vice president in charge of programming and development. In 1976, Diller, who had by then moved on to become chairman of Paramount Pictures, plucked Eisner from ABC and made him president and COO of the movie studio. During his tenure at Paramount, the studio turned out such hit films as Saturday Night Fever, Grease, the Star Trek film franchise, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Beverly Hills Cop, and hit TV shows such as Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley, Cheers and Family Ties.
Diller left Paramount in 1984, and, as his protege, Eisner expected to assume Diller's position as studio chief. When he was passed over for the job, though, he left to look for work elsewhere and lobbied for the position of CEO of The Walt Disney Company.
Disney
After Walt Disney Productions, the struggling movie studio renowned for its animated feature films, survived takeover attempts by corporate raiders, shareholders Sid Bass and Roy E. Disney brought on Eisner and former Warner Brothers chief Frank Wells to turn the floundering company's fortunes around.
In the next ten years the studio became one of the world's largest money whores. Under Eisner and Wells's leadership, Disney rebuilt its once legendary animation department, and the division had a "golden age" with annual box office hits with such regularity that even their creative structure started to be known as the "Disney formula." Disney also broadened its adult offerings in film with its ventures in Touchstone Pictures (created by Eisner's predecessor, Ron W. Miller, and a noted acquisition of Miramax Films in 1994. This tremendous run culminated with a surprise announcement by Eisner of Disney's takeover of Capital Cities/ABC - A stunning move involving the second largest corporate takeover in history up till that point, the largest in the field of media, with no leaks to the very same media which was involved in the deal. Along with ABC (the number one network at the time), Disney acquired a slew of other media sources, including ESPN.
Eisner's role in this turnaround, and Disney's growth into one of the leading media firms, is the subject of passionate debate by many historians and Disney fans, though he is generally given the bulk of the credit for transforming Disney into a provider of entertainment. As the years went on, Eisner would gain further controversy through a rapid consolidation of authority. Wells died in a helicopter crash in 1994, ending the longstanding feud between the two men. Shortly thereafter, [Jeffrey Katzenberg] resigned and formed Dreamworks SKG with partners [Steven Spielberg] and [David Geffen] because Eisner would not appoint Katzenberg to Wells' now available post.
The Save Disney war and Eisner's ouster
In 2003, Roy Edward Disney, also the son of co-founder Roy Oliver Disney, resigned from his positions as Disney vice chairman and chairman of Walt Disney Feature Animation, accusing Eisner of micro-management, failures with the ABC television network, timidity in the theme park business, turning the Walt Disney Company into a "rapacious, soul-less" company, and refusing to establish a clear succession plan. (Text of resignation letter)
On March 3, 2004, at Disney's annual shareholders' meeting, a surprising and unprecedented 43% of Disney's shareholders, predominantly rallied by former board members Roy Disney and Stanley Gold, voted to oppose the reelection of Eisner to the corporate board of directors. This vigorous opposition, unusual in major public corporations, convinced Disney's board to strip him of his chairmanship and give that position to former U.S. Senator George Mitchell. However, the board did not give Eisner's detractors what they really wanted: his immediate removal as chief executive.
As criticism of Eisner intensified in the wake of the shareholder meeting, however, his position became more and more tenuous, and on March 13, 2005, Eisner announced that he would step down as CEO on September 30, one year before his contract expired. On September 30, Eisner resigned both as an executive and as a member of the board of directors, and, severing all formal ties with the company, he waived his contractual rights to perks such as use of a corporate jet and an office at the company's Burbank headquarters. Eisner's replacement was his longtime lieutenant, Bob Iger.
Eisner's struggle to maintain control of the legendary entertainment company was the subject of journalist James R. Stewart's bestselling book DisneyWar.
Post-Disney
On October 7, 2005, Eisner hosted The Charlie Rose Show. His guests were John Travolta and his ex-boss-turned-rival, Barry Diller.
Personal life
His sons are Breck, Eric, and Joe Eisner. Breck is a filmmaker, best known as the director of Sahara.
| Preceded by: Raymond Watson | Disney Chairmen 1984–2004 | Succeeded by: George J. Mitchell |
| Preceded by: Ron W. Miller | Disney CEOs 1984–2005 | Succeeded by: Robert A. Iger |
| Preceded by: Frank Wells | Disney Presidents 1994–1995 | Succeeded by: Michael Ovitz |
External link
- Michael Eisner at the Internet Movie Database
- Disney's America -- Ranked first for background on Michael Eisner's passion for defeated Park
