Phil Lengyel, who served for years as a marketing executive with Disney’s Parks & Resorts division, passed away last month, his family told The Hollywood Reporter yesterday. He was 70 years old. Lengyel passed away at Adventist Health Glendale hospital, following a heart attack. Lengyel, who worked with Disney for more than 20 years, oversaw a team that was responsible for the largest expansion in the parks’ history, transforming Walt Disney World into the top tourist destination in the world. He also spearheaded ideas like Disney Sports and the Parks Alliance Department, which have helped to modernize and diversify Disney’s park attractions and properties.
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Lengyel was born in 1949 in Hammond, Indiana, and raised in the state, relocating to Muncie to attend Ball State University, where he studied radio and television. He would get an honorary doctorate in business administration from Webber College. He worked as a journalist in radio and TV before heading to Disney, where he worked in publicity. He was eventually promoted to senior VP at Disney Parks & Resorts Marketing and then senior VP of sports and VP of alliance development for Disney Parks & Resorts Worldwide.
“From Raglan Road to our golf courses, this place is filled with Phil’s memory, and his fingerprints are all over the work that made us what we are today,” Walt Disney World Resort president Josh D’Amaro said in a statement.
You can see a video of Lengyel, speaking at his alma mater Ball State, below.
“Phil was brilliant in business development and the marketing group at Walt Disney World,” said former Disney CEO Robert Eisner. “He was polite and aggressive at the same time. He worked with CEOs to achieve creative and fair deals for Disney. He did things his way and got them done. Phil was one of the funniest, kindest, decent and most caring people on the planet, with an outsized heart to match his personality.”
Lengyel left Disney in 2005 to spend a few years working for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (home of the Indy 500) before moving on to Dick Cook Studios in 2011. Cook, himself a former Disney executive, told THR that Lengyel was “an extremely creative marketer, with brilliant ideas that he brought to life.”
Lengyel is survived by his wife Jana and their children Lauren and Shane, as well as his son, Will, as well as a brother, sister, and grandchildren.
Donations in his honor can be made to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
