Stan Lee was born Stanley Martin Lieber on December 28, 1922. He grew up in a humble Romanian Jewish household that struggled to survive during the Great Depression.

Little did he or his family know that one day he would be one of the biggest figures in Hollywood history. It was his daughter JC who broke the news of her father’s death earlier this week. Lee passed away on November 12 after struggling through several illnesses over the past year. But the icon is most remembered as the former president and chairman of Marvel Comics.

He created Marvel’s most popular characters including Spider-Man, the Hulk, the Fantastic Four, Daredevil, Iron Man, Thor, and the X-Men just to name a few. But Lee didn’t start out with Marvel. Although he dreamed of writing an American novel, he had various jobs while still in school. In 1942 he entered the army and was part of the Training Film Division.

As part of this job, he created cartoons, as well as training films and slogans. His big break came while he was writing filler stories for Timely Comics. It was here that he debuted the shield ricochet toss of Captain America that is still being used decades later.

Eventually Timely’s editor left and Stan took over the position at the age of 19. He held the position until the 1970’s. It was during the 1950’s when many of his super heroes came to life.

DC Comics had revived several superheroes and Stan was assigned to create a competing brand of characters. He had been thinking about quitting his job anyway. With encouragement from his wife, Joan who told him to create anything he pleased because, after all, what did he have to lose.

He created the Fantastic Four characters that had flaws that made readers identify with them. The characters were an instant hit and Stan took off creating even more characters.

But it wasn’t just his characters that caught people’s attention. If you’ve ever watched a Stan Lee film, you know that he had a cameo appearance in nearly all of Marvel’s recent movies beginning with Spider-Man in 2002.

Although Lee is gone, it’s not likely that his memory will go away any time soon. Check out the video below to learn more about Lee’s legacy and be sure to share it with your family and friends.