Donald Warren “Don” Iwerks – The Santa Barbara Independent

Donald Warren “Don” Iwerks, the Oscar ®winning film pioneer, Disney Legend, and son of Mickey Mouse co-creator Ub Iwerks, whose groundbreaking innovations transformed cinematic storytelling and immersive entertainment, passed away peacefully on July 9, 2026, just days before his 97th birthday.

Over a remarkable career spanning more than six decades of projects for The Walt Disney Company, along with his own studio, Iwerks Entertainment. Don pioneered innovations in projection technology, 3D and large-format filmmaking, and immersive attractions that forever changed how audiences experience stories. From Disney’s pioneering Circle-Vision films and the groundbreaking 3D camera system for Captain EO to giant-screen theaters and motion simulator attractions, his work helped shape the future of location-based entertainment while inspiring generations of filmmakers, Imagineers, and inventors.

Among Disney enthusiasts, Don was known as the model for the hands of the Abraham Lincoln Audio-Animatronics® figure in Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln at Disneyland. Those original hand casts became a standard for Disney’s Audio-Animatronics figures, earning the nickname the “Iwerks Hands” and appearing on many similar figures in Disney parks around the world.

Born on July 24, 1929, Don grew up in Southern California in a family where imagination and invention were woven into everyday life. As the eldest son of Disney Legend Ub Iwerks and Mildred Iwerks, he inherited his father’s curiosity, inventive spirit, and intuitive understanding of how things worked. High school print, woodworking, and metal shops sparked a lifelong fascination with craftsmanship and problem-solving that became the foundation of an extraordinary career.

After graduating from Van Nuys High School in 1947, Don worked as a machinist before joining The Walt Disney Studios’ Process Lab in 1950. His career was interrupted by military service during the Korean War, when he spent a year and a half in Germany proving himself a highly regarded U.S. Army Signal Corps photographer.

Returning to Disney in 1952, he transferred to the famed Studio Machine Shop. There, working alongside his father, the self-taught engineer helped develop cameras, optical printers, special effects systems, and innovations that would shape Disney films, attractions, and theme parks for generations, from the original Circle-Vision camera system, refinements to the sodium traveling matte process used in Mary Poppins (1964), and numerous projection technologies for Disney attractions around the world.

In 1986, after 34 years at The Walt Disney Studios, Don began a remarkable second act by co-founding Iwerks Entertainment with former Disney executive Stan Kinsey. Under his technical leadership, the company became a global pioneer in giant-screen theaters, motion simulators, and immersive 3D experiences installed in nearly 300 venues across 38 countries, introducing millions of people to new ways of experiencing stories.

His pioneering work earned many of the entertainment industry’s highest honors, including the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ honorary Gordon E. Sawyer Award (Oscar®), an Academy Scientific and Technical Award, the Themed Entertainment Association Lifetime Achievement Award, Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award, and recognition as a Disney Legend in 2009. He and his father were further honored with a dedicated Main Street, U.S.A. window at in Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World Resort, celebrating their lasting contributions to Disney storytelling and innovation.

Their window is located above the Main Street Bakery and reads: Iwerks-Iwerks Stereoscopic Cameras

Ub Iwerks
Don Iwerks
Repairs I Modifications
No Two Exactly Alike

Even in retirement, Don never stopped creating. In 2007, Diane Disney Miller entrusted him with restoring many of Disney’s historic camera systems for exhibition at The Walt Disney Family Museum, including the Multiplane camera, the original Circle-Vision camera rig, the underwater cameras from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and the optical printer and Technicolor camera used to combine live-action and animation in Mary Poppins. At age 90, he wrote the biography, Walt Disney’s Ultimate Inventor: The Genius of Ub Iwerks, published by Disney Editions in 2019, preserving his father’s remarkable legacy as the co-creator of Mickey Mouse and one of motion picture history’s greatest technical innovators.

Those who knew Don remember not only his extraordinary accomplishments, but the quiet grace with which he achieved them. Like his father, he delighted in solving problems, sharing knowledge, and celebrating the successes of others. Humble, endlessly curious, and unfailingly optimistic, he believed every challenge held the possibility of a solution.

Don spent his final days at the Ojai Community Memorial Care Center, surrounded by the love of family and friends. Up to the end he was sketching new inventions, cheering on the Los Angeles Dodgers, and watching classic films. Mary Poppins remained especially close to his heart—a film whose optimism and enduring message that anything was possible perfectly reflected the way Don lived his life.

Don is survived by his beloved wife of 54 years, Betty; his sons, Larry, John and wife Chris, and his daughter, Leslie and great nephew Mike, both of whom followed in his footsteps working with The Walt Disney Company. He was preceded in death by his daughter, Tamara, whom he loved deeply and carried in his heart always. To the world, Don was an engineer, inventor, and Disney Legend. To those fortunate enough to know him, he was a devoted husband and father, a trusted mentor, a steadfast friend, and an eternal optimist.

A Celebration of Life will follow at a later date. In lieu of flowers, the family invites donations in Don’s memory to the following organizations, each of which held special meaning to him.

Community Memorial Continuing Care Center of Ojai The Walt Disney Family Museum