Born Hazel Gilman in Bisbee, Arizona, in 1904, Hazel George moved to Los
Angeles in 1929, and after completing nursing school, was hired by the
Walt Disney Studio. Walt Disney received a
fairly serious neck injury in a polo game in 1938 and she helped nurse
him back to health. Disney then made her his personal nurse, and she
soon became his confidante. WHen Disney launched
The Mickey Mouse Club (1955),
he hired Hazel to help write songs for the show. Under the name "Gil
George", she wrote or co-wrote more than 90 songs for the series, in
addition to penning songs for such Disney films as
Das Herz eines Indianers (1958),
Sie nannten ihn Komantsche (1958) and
Sein Freund Jello (1957).
In the early 1960s she began to devote less time to songwriting and
more time to the care of Walt Disney himself, whose health was
beginning to decline. She was apparently the one who got him interested
in cryogenics.
She died in Burbank, California, on March 12, 1996.
