From Disney Star to Car Designer: The Remarkable Journey of David J. Stollery
- Candace Watkins
- Sep 18, 2025
- 3 min read
Updated: Nov 2, 2025
Few careers shift as dramatically as that of David J. Stollery. Famous in the 1950s as a Disney child star, he walked away from Hollywood to pursue a completely different passion: designing automobiles. That bold transition would carry him from the bright lights of television to the studios of General Motors, Toyota’s pioneering California design team, and eventually to building experimental sports cars of his own.
A Life in Two Acts
Born in Los Angeles in 1941, Stollery came from a theatrical family and by age seven was performing on Broadway with Judith Anderson in Medea. He went on to appear in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court with Bing Crosby and in Disney’s Spin and Marty serials, where he played spoiled rich boy Marty Markham on The Mickey Mouse Club.
The show made him an overnight sensation, swamped with fan mail, live appearances at Disneyland, and crowds of children who lined up for autographs. Yet while the role made him a household name, Stollery chose not to pursue an acting career into adulthood. Instead, he enrolled at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. He graduated at the top of his class in 1964, then landed a coveted job at General Motors in Detroit, where he spent seven years as an automotive designer.
CALTY Design: Toyota’s California Experiment
In 1973, Toyota hired him to help establish its first American design studio, CALTY Design Research, in El Segundo, California. This was a groundbreaking move for a Japanese automaker, and Stollery played a key role in shaping cars for American tastes.
His most notable achievement at CALTY was the 1978 Toyota Celica, the first production model developed at the studio. With its sharp wedge styling and California flair, the Celica proved Toyota could succeed on style as well as engineering. The Celica won Motor Trend’s Import Car of the Year in 1978, outselling the competition with 167,000 units in its first year and more than 400,000 by 1982. For his work, Stollery was also honored as “California Designer of the Year.” Over the course of his career at Toyota, he contributed to more than 22 models, cementing CALTY’s place as a creative powerhouse.
Independent Innovation
After leaving Toyota, Stollery founded Industrial Design Research (IDR). There, he pursued a range of independent projects. One was the motorcycle-powered FireAero, of which about 30 were built and are now extremely rare. Another was the three-wheeled Trihawk, initially backed by entrepreneur Lou Richards and later acquired by Harley-Davidson. Stollery also patented fiberglass lifeguard towers, which he continues to manufacture today. His towers now line much of the Pacific coast, all of Hawaii, and even some Florida beaches.
His versatility extended beyond automobiles. His firm designed and built the submarine bridge set for the TV series seaQuest. He also created a promotional prototype roadster that debuted at the 1991 North American Auto Show in Detroit, which Motor Trend ranked sixth among ten worldwide designs.
He also contributed to large-scale transportation and utility design, including work on the Las Vegas Monorail and the snowcat vehicles for Bombardier.
Stollery also built the Arex Super Coupe Roadster, not as a production car, but as an attention-grabbing advertising piece for his fiberglass company. Development stretched nearly 20 years, as time and funding allowed, before the car finally reached fruition. Known for his hands-on craftsmanship, he worked directly on models and prototypes, sanding and shaping forms himself as both artist and engineer.
As his longtime friend and former co-star Tim Considine put it: “In terms of design, he’s one of our heavyweights in the country."
The Arex Super Coupe Roadster
Today, this bold one-off creation has found a home at the Tampa Bay Automobile Museum. The 2008 Arex Super Coupe Roadster features a fiberglass body, butterfly doors, a tubular steel frame, double wishbone suspension, disc brakes at all four corners, and a mid-mounted Magnuson-supercharged LT1 Corvette V8 paired with a ZF five-speed transaxle.
Aircraft-inspired styling cues include a “pointed” nose, wraparound windshield, fixed side windows, and a clamshell rear that reveals the engine. Inside, the two-seat cockpit is outfitted with racing harnesses and a well-equipped dash, remarkable for a one-off vehicle.
While originally intended as an advertisement for his company, its radical design and staggering performance, a top speed of 200 mph and 0–60 in just three seconds, embody the daring creativity that defined David Stollery’s career, a journey that bridged Hollywood stardom, global car design, and inventive engineering.