RIP Tommy Kirk : (

[merlinjones]

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/tommy-kirk-dead-old-yeller-shaggy-dog-1235022775/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVWPeTJi1Qs

[Eagleman]

Tommy Kirk

Another Disney Great................
Thanks Tom for many ,many , Joy you bring to Walt Disney Film's
that grew up with !

My Heart and payer's - goes out to Tommy Kirk Family !

[donaldzduck]

Recently attended gay days. Not as busy as in the past but still well attended. I wonder if the organizers know how Tommy Kirk was fired for being gay?

[CASurfer65]

A Disney icon from the early days. Some great memories he gave us on the Disney screen. RIP.

[BigThunda]

We enjoyed his work, our daughters love Swiss Family Robinson.

[Mr Wiggins]

Rest in peace, Tommy Kirk.

From the Los Angeles Times:

"Tommy Kirk, who died Sept. 28 at 79, was a Disney boy-next-door type before Kurt Russell was a computer who wore tennis shoes or Justin Timberlake did whatever he did on whatever iteration of ‘The Mickey Mouse Club’ he was on. Kirk was clean-cut, in the mid-’50s to early ’60s mold, but he was more Ricky than David Nelson, if that makes sense to you. That is to say, his characters were often unconventional for the times, in ways that were still acceptable for a Disney film. If you were a kid, he just seemed cool, but the sort of cool kid you could imagine yourself becoming. And the Disney image notwithstanding, there was room for complexity in its moral universe; Kirk never seemed simple or saccharine.

"His Disney films include ‘Swiss Family Robinson,’ ‘The Shaggy Dog,’ ‘The Absent-Minded Professor’ and its sequel, ‘Son of Flubber,’ ‘The Misadventures of Merlin Jones’ and its sequel, ‘The Monkey’s Uncle,’ ‘Babes in Toyland,’ ‘Bon Voyage!’ and a pair of films originally made for television, shot overseas and co-starring Annette Funicello: ‘Escapade in Florence’ and ‘The Horsemasters.’ He was Joe, the younger and more intriguing of the Hardy Boys, in a couple of ‘Mickey Mouse Club’ serials.

"Pleasantly handsome, he could play both leads and character parts, though his leads usually had a bit of the character actor, and his secondary roles tended to make a bigger impression than the headliners. As toymaker Ed Wynn’s inventor assistant in ‘Babes,’ it’s Kirk, and not star Tommy Sands, you want to watch. (Kirk often played characters with a bent for invention, including in ‘Swiss Family Robinson.’) His strong suit was comedy, for which he had a light, lively touch, but he was also the dramatic linchpin of ‘Old Yeller,’ a western drama about a good dog the mere passing thought of will have me weeping before I finish typing this sentence.

"Later, like Funicello, he transitioned into surf comedies — ‘Pajama Party,’ ‘It’s a Bikini World’ — before downshifting into mockable sci-fi and horror films, including ‘Village of the Giants’ and ‘It’s Alive!’ His acting career was effectively over by the mid-1970s.

"This was not a matter of talent. Kirk was gay, and in 1964, when threatened with it becoming public, Disney fired him — though they brought him back for ‘The Monkey’s Uncle’ after ‘Merlin Jones’ proved a box-office success. He had problems for a time with substance abuse; one might reasonably speculate that the drugs were in some way a result of the firing. But, in interviews at least, Kirk almost never casts blame; when he talks about the direction of his career or conflicts with co-stars, he seems always ready to take the long view, to thoughtfully examine how things were with him in the time when they occurred. He was named a Disney Legend in 2006 and would show up for fan conventions."

[Mr Wiggins]

David Derks wrote a great review of Kirk's career on MiceChat...

Remembering Disney Legend and Teen Star Tommy Kirk

The readers' comments section has a reply to the article from his family.

[Tomorrowland67]

I liked his Disney movies. I also liked his "Beach" movies. I even liked "Mars Needs Women" with Yvonne Craig; it's so bad, it's good.

[Eagleman]

i liked his disney movies. I also liked his "beach" movies. I even liked "mars needs women" with yvonne craig; it's so bad, it's good.

x 2........

[DisneyIPresume]

I saw Mars Needs Women a couple weeks before attending the first D23 convention. Tommy Kirk was there at a booth signing autographs. Surprisingly not too many people were there. I told him I had recently seen Mars Needs Women and living in Newport Beach I was really interested in the opening scene which featured a flyover of Newport Harbor from the 1960s. I figured that this would be a good way to get to talk to him about his non-Disney work. He seemed quite excited that I remembered him and especially him in that movie and really became engaged in our conversation. But as soon as I mentioned his Disney stuff his mood changed immediately. I can tell he was not happy working with Disney, or perhaps he was happier with his non-Disney stuff. If I had the nerve I would have asked but I thought it would be best to leave it alone.