tonight on "nightline," american genius. a special broadcast on a visionary who changed the way we live, work and play. man who gave us products we love and pointed the way to a future that he alone seemed able to see. apple director steve jobs is dead at 56. friend and founder. disney ceo bob iger and apple ceo steve wozniak tell the story of our apple computer went from a garage startup to a company worth $350 billion. and public outpouring. moving tributes around the world, all over the internet, to a giant business, technology and

entertainment. a special edition of "nightline" starts right now. >> announcer: from the global resources of abc news, with terry moran, cynthia mcfadden and bill weir in new york city, this is "nightline," october 5th, 2011. >> good evening, i'm bill weir. he was our eddy sisoedison, our. yes, steve jobs was the most successful businessman of our generation, but deep down, he was an artist who worked in metal and glass, plastic and pixels. and the ideas that live inside his machines completely change our definition of form and function. after surviving pancreatic cancer and a 2009 liver transplant, the 56-year-old founding father of apple computer died tonight. he is mourned by his wife, four children and millions around the world who could not wait to see what he would come up with next. >> reporter: before he put a virtual world at our fingertips --

>> and we call it the ipad. >> reporter: before he turned household tools into objects of desire -- >> today, apple is going to reinvent the phone. >> reporter: before he changed the way we are entertained -- >> and you can watch it on your ipod. >> reporter: steve jobs was a baby his parents didn't want. he was adopted by a working class cup until silicon valley. and to their dismay, he dropped out of college after six months. but he was still curious enough to drop in on classes that interested him. and at age 20, along with buddy steve wozniak, he set up a workshop in his folk's garage to set out to move the power of the computer from the laboratory to your lap. >> the penalty for failure, for going and trying to start a company in this valley is nonexistent. >> reporter: and his brimming confidence was validated when they launched the macintosh. >> i'd like to show you macintosh in person.

we worked hard, and in ten years, apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4,000 employees. >> reporter: this 2005 stanford commencement speech is the only time jobs every spoke publicly about the most vulnerable points in his life, including the power struggle within apple that forced him out of the company he founded just as he was hitting his stride. >> and so at 30, i was out. and very publicly out. what had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone. and it was devastating. i really didn't know what to do for a few months. i felt that i had left the previous jeb ration of entrepreneurs down, that i had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. i was a very public failure and i even thought about running away from the valley. but something slowly began to dawn on me. i still loved what i did. the turn of events at apple had not changed that one bit. i'd been rejected but i was still in love.

and so i decided to start over. >> reporter: in his 30s, he met his wife, started another computer company called next and took over pixar, changing animation forever. >> my name is woody and this is andy's room. >> reporter: in '96, apple bought next and soon jobs was back in charge, leading a digital renaissance. he took decisive command, cutting a bloated product line to just four useful and artful machines. and selling them in the kind of stores no one had ever seen. since the return of steve jobs, apple stocks soared more than 7,000%, turning that garage startup into a $350 billion company. and in a valley of geniuses, his myth grew into thomas edison meets willy wonka proportions. turning his products -- >> are you using that as your phone? >> i haven't been able to. i can't take it out in public. >> reporter: and his life

fiercely under wraps. not even the board knew of his pancreatic cancer. >> i just wanted to mention this. >> reporter: and he didn't reveal he needed a liver transplant until after the procedure. >> i now have the liver of a mid-20s person who died in a car crash. >> reporter: but while his body grew frail in recent years, that mind, that drive, never quit. >> good morning. >> reporter: a standing ovation welcomed his surprise appearance at the spring launch of the ipad 2. >> we've been working on this product for awhile and i didn't want to miss today. thank you. >> reporter: but then came this letter in august -- "i've always said if there ever came a day when i could no longer meet my duties, i would be the first to let you know," he wrote. "up fortunately, that day has come." here was a man who set out to change the way we work and play -- >> everything will be portable. people want large color screens they can put photographs on.

people want motion video. >> reporter: here was a man driven anew by the clock. and that burning need to build something great. >> no one wants to die. even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. and yet, death is the destination we all share. no one has ever escaped it. and that is, as it should be, because death is very likely the single best invention of life. it's life's change agent. it clears out the old to make way for the new. remembering that you are going to die is the best way i know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. you have alreaare already naked. there is no reason not to follow your heart. >> and when we come back, the men who run disney and google pay their respects. an apple cofounder steve wozniak joins me live. ♪

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good morning. thanks for coming. thank you. >> that was the ipad 2 launch back in the spring. a lot of people didn't think he could make that one and yesterday, for all of us sitting in cupertino for the iphone 4s launch, we hoped against hope he could maybe surprise us again. but it was not meant to be. welcome back to our special broadcast on the life and legacy of steve jobs. the year after he was fired from apple, back in the mid-80s, he brought a small graphics computing company called pixar, a decade and several mega-hits later, pixar was brought by disney, bringing jobs closer than ever to the ceo of our parent company, bob iger. we spoke tonight, and i

wondered, how did his friend naact in those lightbulb moments? what was it like to watch steve jobs create? >> whether we were sitting in creative sessions at pixar or at apple to show me in secret but in very excited ways some of the great new products they were designing or he was even dreaming about, it was clear to me that he had a way of seeing things that many would believe would be impossible, as reality, meaning he turned these ideas into reality and believed they could be turned into reality. and he also had an uncanny way of always expecting the impossible to become possible. i've never seen anyone as dedicated to turning dreams and big ideas into actuality and to reality. he was amazing that way. more than anything for me, he was a really good friend.

i had the great fortune of meeting steve and getting to know him well other the last six years. and becoming good friends. and it's hard to think of him in any other way. but i will say, bill, even in responding to your questions, it's -- first of all, it's impossible to talk about him in the past tense th. this is all very raw and very fresh. but it's also impossible to talk about a man who was so full of life and what was possible -- in the past. it's -- it's hard for me. he also -- he always could pull rabbits out of hats. i know that sounds trivial, but -- you know, turn what many people would consider magic into reality. and i actually think that's how he was viewing the last months

and the last years of his life. time and time again, we saw him recover from the impossible in terms of what he was going through medically. so, it's hard to imagine that he didn't pull another rabbit out of his hat. he had such an incredible way of connecting people to ideas, to entertainment, to information, ofbringing things to life and people's lives. we talk about steve and all his accomplishments, but i think he was just getting started. his ideas were so plentiful and so constant. and it's -- he was not only youthful, but just at the beginning, as i see it. not nearly -- not nearly close to the end. >> just think of how much more he could have given the world. after dropping out of college and wandering around india for a

spell, steve jobs came back to silicon valley, started hanging out with a hardware genius that went by the name woz. they cofounded a computer startup in jobs' bedroom and the rest changed the world. joining us from california, the other founding father of apple, steve wozniak. steve, thank you for being with us. our condolences on the loss of your friend. >> hello. it's tough to talk tonight. >> i wonder what went through your mind when you got the news? >> um -- i was shocked. you know, you get shocked when people you know die and this was closer to like when john lennon died or jfk or martin luther king. it's just -- you don't know how you're going to recover, where you're going to go from there, how is the world going to be the same without him. it's that kind. when my father died, he knew it was coming for a long time and, you know, steve knew his health wasn't that good and he would

talk about it and, you know, even if i told him, well, we're all going to die. you can look at it positively, and his comments about death really means that you had life -- that's really valid. but he would say, oh, no. he was really still worried of dying. i remember when he left apple, he had a premonition in his life that he would die before he hit 40. so, you know, he exceeded far more than anyone's dreams ever could be. and i hope -- i hope that he's looking down on apple and hoping, watching to make sure it goes in the right d here on, because that was really the center of his life. >> well, all the people, his legacy, all those people who work there, i'm sure he'll be in their memories as a driving force every day. what memories loom largest for you? was there a project, a joke, a fight, that defines him in any way?

>> well, obviously, when we were young and doing the thing, young things young people do and pl playing pranks and driving to college. i remember one time he got a ticket and it was in oregon, for going too slow. he was in the fast lane, but he wasn't passing. so what a legacy, i think it was the first ticket of his life and he went back to oregon and they, some how they arrested him and the warrant, i had to bail him out, i think. >> is the story true -- >> when it came to discussing products, i remember how adamant he was, when xerox park center had a new computer that had graphics, it had things like menus, buttons you could press, hover over icons, and he said, we're the company that can bring this to the masses. you're making it too expensive, $50,000 is too much. we're the company that can do it for $5,000, look what woz did to computers. and, you know, that was like one of those dreams that, it's impossible, as it's being

describe and nobody could think it was and yet he really did. and yeah at first the macintosh was kind of expensive, didn't go over with the business crowd, got a low market share but every computer in the world was a macintosh. almost every computer in the world has some steve jobs history in it. >> the influence is staggering. woz, thank you again. i could talk to you all night about this stuff, but again, we appreciate your memories. thank you. >> yeah, well, i'm very sorry for his family and also everyone else who will miss him as deeply as i will. >> please give everyone in the valley our best. in 1997, when he came back to apple, they launched an ad campaign that seemed to play all of ibm's long-time motto, think. we think you'll agree this ad has a new resonance tonight. >> here's to the crazy ones. the misfits. the rebels. the troublemakers. the round pegs in a square hole.

the ones who see things differently. they're not fond of rules. and they have no respect for the status quo. you can quote them. disagree with them. glorify orville if i them. about the only thing you can do is ignore them. because they change things. they push the human ratice forward. and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do. >> still to come, the incredible outpouring from all of you who think different because of steve jobs. we know a place where tossing and turning have given way to sleeping. where sleepless nights yield to restful sleep.

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maybe even the visionary could not have imagined how the internet would be ablaze with obituaries and sadness and spontaneous tributes tonight. we're hearing so much from those marking his passing. here's a little bit of what we're seeing. >> i was just in complete shock. i just sat there, like, this can't be real, because i i meme he's gone. >> i've been able to accomplish a lot of my dreams, largely due to apple products.

>> you've got to find what you love. if you haven't found it yet, keep looking. and don't settle. as with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. and like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. so keep looking. don't settle. >> it's just crazy. i can't believe it. so sad. >> you were a wizard among muggles. we couldn't think of anything as awesome as that. >> i really love steve jobs. he's like my man. >> "good morning america" will continue our special coverage and the tribute of steve jobs including steve