The Disney Star With A Secret
The success of child star Tommy Kirk made a fortune for Disney—and then he simply disappeared. What happened to him? And what made him leave the entertainment world behind?
1. He Kept It To Himself
As a boy, Tommy Kirk quickly became a family favorite playing the boy-next-door roles in some of Disney’s most treasured films. He even guaranteed himself a permanent place in pop culture history by shooting his beloved dog in a movie scene that emotionally scarred an entire generation. But Kirk’s abrupt departure from Disney left his fans feeling confused.
The thing was, Kirk had a secret—and when Disney found out, they wanted nothing to do with him.
2. They Had To Move
Tommy Kirk was born on December 10, 1941, in Louisville, Kentucky. He grew up with three brothers—but sadly, his parents had trouble putting food on the table. They decided that a move was in order—to somewhere with promising work opportunities. Like many Americans, the Kirks moved west to California.
Little did they know what a huge impact this move would have on their lives.
3. He Got An Offer
Kirk’s older brother, Joe, had somehow caught the acting bug, and he dragged his little brother Tommy to an audition at the Pasadena Playhouse. Sadly, Joe didn’t get the part he wanted, but something unexpected happened. Even though it was Joe who wanted to act, it was Tommy who got a part.
This seemingly random incident would change Kirk’s life forever.
4. They Signed Him
Kirk’s part at the Pasadena Playhouse was only a handful of lines and paid exactly zero dollars. But there was an agent in the audience one night, and Kirk impressed him. The agent represented the Gertz agency, and they quickly signed Kirk on. Before he knew it, Kirk was off the stage and on to much more lucrative media.
5. He Was On A Path
Kirk’s first role away from live theater was on a TV Reader’s Digest episode called, “The Last of the Old Time Shooting Sheriffs”. While his brother had to consider other career options—he eventually became a dentist—Kirk was on a path to stardom. It didn’t take long for the folks at Disney to notice Kirk, and they came calling.
6. He Joined The Disney Family
The Mickey Mouse Club was only a year old when Kirk got the call to appear in their series based on the popular Hardy Boys books. Kirk got the role of Joe Hardy, and the show was an immediate hit with audiences. Kirk was quickly getting tight with the folks at Disney.
They had big plans for their new little star.
7. He Had A Very Impressive Talent
The thing about Kirk was that he was the rare child actor who could cry on cue. Disney saw the potential of this and cast him in Old Yeller. At the end of this dramatic feature, Kirk’s character has to shoot his beloved dog because it has rabies. It was bad enough that the dog had to go, but it was Kirk’s performance that made cinematic history.
No one knew then, but this scene would become a pop culture phenomenon.
8. It Was Just So Dramatic
The scene where Kirk’s character has to end the life of his dog Yeller is utterly brutal. In fact, many adults say that watching it is up there with the worst moments in their lives. Bill Murray’s character in Stripes references it, and there’s even an episode of Friends where the jaded New Yorkers watch the scene and recoil in horror.
Despite all the drama—or because of it—Old Yeller was about to take Kirk to the next level.
9. He Was A Good-Luck Charm
Old Yeller ended up being number five on the list of highest-grossing films of 1957. Of course, this made Disney very happy. Kirk remembers being in a hotel in Beverly Hills and running into Walt Disney himself. Kirk beamed with pride as Disney told his companion that Kirk was his “good-luck piece”.
Sadly, these warm feelings would not last forever.
10. He Wanted The Wizard
In 1939, The Wizard of Oz had wowed both audiences and critics, and Disney wanted a piece of the pie. In 1954, he bought the film rights to the 13 Oz books and had plans to do a Disney TV version of these stories. Disney gave Kirk, along with some Mouseketters, roles in the show and thought he’d have a hit on his hands.
That didn’t quite happen.
11. He Wasn’t Big Enough
No one thought Disney could make The Rainbow Road to Oz as a TV show because of the budget needed. Well, the execs at Disney agreed, and instead of changing it into a movie they pulled the plug. It turned out that Disney didn’t trust that the cast—including Kirk—could pull off a movie.
Well, Kirk was about to prove how wrong Disney was.
12. He Was Tiny
In 1959, Disney made The Shaggy Dog which launched a new kind of film for the studio. This was a live-action supernatural comedy, and these films would make the studio a fortune. Even though Kirk played the titular character, Fred MacMurray’s name dominated the advertising.
It would take years, but eventually, people would start to see how essential Kirk was to these films.
13. He Raked In The Bucks
Many years after the release of The Shaggy Dog, Diabolique magazine opined that it wasn’t only MacMurray who carried The Shaggy Dog, it was also Kirk. There was something about Kirk that audiences responded to. He was the all-American boy, and he was bringing Disney a not-so-small fortune. After all, The Shaggy Dog was the number two film at the box office that year.
And then something happened that left Kirk out in the cold.
14. He Looked Bad
Kirk later said that, while working for Walt Disney Studios, he went through "a difficult stage". His appearance was the problem as he had gotten too thin and bony. Although they didn’t come out and say it, Disney wasn’t about to hire someone who looked so bad. That’s when a role appeared that he’d be perfect for.
15. He Faced A Challenge
In 1960, Walt Disney Studios was planning for a huge feature film, and being a little too thin was perfect. This was Swiss Family Robinson about a family who finds themselves shipwrecked on a desert island. The filmmakers needed to find an unspoiled tropical island, and they quickly discovered Tobago.
Being in Tobago meant being away from home. Kirk immediately felt lost.
16. He Wanted To Quit
While shooting Swiss Family Robinson in Tobago, Kirk got so homesick that he wanted to quit and go home. If you’re thinking Kirk missed his family, you’re not quite right. Kirk was actually missing the nightlife in California. Kirk put on his big boy pants and finished the film. But wasn’t it weird that Kirk wasn’t missing his family?
The truth was, Hollywood was his family.
17. He Looked For A Father
Kirk had certainly played Fred MacMurray’s son enough times. In 1962, they were back together in Bon Voyage, and Kirk was starting to see MacMurray as his real father. Sadly, MacMurray had no intention of filling in the shoes of Kirk’s absent parent. When Kirk started acting out, a very un-fatherly MacMurray took the young actor aside.
It wasn't a very warm and cozy moment.
18. He Got Told Off
MacMurray, who was also on TV as the oh-so-patient father on My Three Sons, had had it with Kirk. Instead of a friendly father-son chat, MacMurray gave what Kirk later called “the biggest dressing-down” of his lifetime. If Kirk thought he could turn to his onscreen mom for support, he was sadly mistaken.
19. She Was Mean
In Bon Voyage, Jane Wyman played Kirk’s mother. Kirk said that she was very mean to him on the set. Maybe she was angry because she was an Academy Award-winning actress, and now she’d been reduced to playing someone's mom. No, Kirk was sure he knew why she wasn’t nice to him—and it was for a shocking reason.
20. He Was In A Tough Situation
By the time he was making Bon Voyage, Kirk had come to terms with the fact that he was gay. He also suspected that Wyman knew as well, and for this reason, she treated him horribly. Kirk could handle Wyman, but it also seemed that Disney had figured out that his golden boy had a thing for other men.
Kirk was in a difficult situation and knew that he had to keep making money for Disney. If he didn’t, they’d surely fire him.
21. They Kept It A Secret
In 1962, Disney sent Kirk to Europe to make Escapade in Florence. Here, they paired him with Annette Funicello, and newspapers started suggesting the two were more than just co-stars. Obviously, this wasn’t the truth, but it must have made Disney happy. It meant that Kirk’s secret would remain just that.
Kirk was walking on thin ice—and he could slip through at any minute.
22. They Tried It Again
Gay or not, Disney still had high hopes for Kirk. They decided it was time to do a sequel of the movie that made him famous. Old Yeller had been such a hit that Savage Sam seemed destined to do the same. Kirk was back with his screen brother—Kevin Corcoran—but there seemed to be something missing.
Before filming started, a disaster had already placed a heavy cloud over this film.
23. There Was A Bad Omen
Fred Gipson wrote the screenplay for Savage Sam based on his own book. He even had a dog that had inspired him to write the story. Before the film came out, Gipson’s son discovered the dog’s lifeless body—it had been repeatedly clubbed. To make matters much, much worse, Gipson’s son then took his own life.
With this horrible situation as a backdrop, Kirk had to try and make Savage Sam as big a hit as Old Yeller was.
24. He Couldn’t Do It
There was no way that Savage Sam would ever amount to the success of Old Yeller. Neither critics nor audiences seemed to like Savage Sam, and one pundit even called it a “dogged, listless effort”. Disney had finally witnessed Kirk failing to elevate a film, and Savage Sam became his strike one.
Sadly, strike two would be an even bigger disaster.
25. He Got Caught
Kirk was filming The Misadventures of Merlin Jones—once again with Funicello—and he got into some misadventures of his own. It turns out that Kirk had a boyfriend who was just 15 years old. The two were getting it on in a public swimming pool, and someone caught them. When the 15-year-old’s mother found out, she got on the phone with the people at Disney.
Kirk was in serious trouble.
26. They Were Suddenly Cold
You can imagine that the rumor mill was on fire with the news of Kirk’s relationship with a 15-year-old boy. Kirk later said that people at the studio were certainly—and suddenly—less friendly toward him. Eventually, Kirk got some news that would make him stop cold in his tracks.
27. He Was High
It was Walt Disney himself who ended Kirk’s contract, but it wasn’t just for the episode in the pool with the 15-year-old. Kirk later admitted that his strike three was being “high all the time” during that time in his life. He later referred to this moment as "...the end of my fairy tale".
It was no surprise that Disney ended their relationship, but what Disney did next must have knocked Kirk’s socks off.
28. They Needed Him
One thing that Disney didn’t count on was The Misadventures of Merlin Jones becoming a huge hit. Critics easily saw the film for what it was: a two-hour TV show stitched together to make a feature. Audiences didn’t care. They liked Kirk, and they liked this picture. Walt Disney, who famously hated sequels, loved money enough to do one.
But there was a problem. He’d already fired Kirk.
29. He Brought In Money
One of Kirk’s talents was his ability to turn even low-budget movies into big money makers. The Monkey’s Uncle was no exception, and it became another box office bonanza for Disney. But all the money in the world couldn’t make the studio accept Kirk for who he was. Kirk’s time with Disney was over, and he needed to find something else.
30. He Had To Find Work
Disney didn’t exactly announce that they had fired Kirk, but it didn’t matter. The truth was that Kirk was out of a job. He turned to American International Pictures and met up with his old friend Funnicello. The studio was making a teen film called Pajama Party, and Kirk happily got on board.
Little did he know, but this film would set him on a course for bikini adventures.
31. He Put On His Swim Suit
Around this time, Americans had a thirst for beach party films, and Kirk seemed destined to appear in almost all of them. There was The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini, It’s a Bikini World, and Catalina Caper. Like his work with Disney, Kirk was drawing audiences to films and making the studio a ton of money.
All he had to do was stay out of trouble. Apparently, this was not possible.
32. They Took Him In
In 1964, Kirk went to a party to celebrate Christmas. For some reason, officers arrived and found that Kirk was in possession of marijuana. This was already a big deal, but then things got worse. When the officers searched Kirk’s car, they found barbiturates. This certainly wasn’t the behavior of an “all-American boy”.
Kirk had some explaining to do.
33. He Lawyered Up
The district attorney’s office dropped the marijuana possession charges against Kirk, but there were still the barbiturates found in his car. As Kirk’s lawyer pointed out, these pills were from a prescription from Kirk’s doctor. This was good news for Kirk, but not really. Dropped charges or not, Kirk had tarnished his reputation, and the fallout was immediate.
34. They Gave Him The Boot
Before his altercation at the Christmas party, Kirk had three films on the go. Sadly, they replaced him in all three films: Wild Bikini, Beach Ball, and The Sons of Katie Elder. This last loss really hurt. This was going to be a film that got Kirk out of the beach party films and into something more serious. It starred John Wayne, and it could have relaunched Kirk’s career.
Kirk had to make money somehow, so he did whatever he could.
35. He Made Some Bad Movies
Kirk’s manager didn’t care what Kirk did as long as he made money. So, more forgettable films followed. The thing was, Kirk could have taken this time to reevaluate his career, and maybe take it in another direction. Kirk didn’t do that, and soon his bad decisions had a fatal effect on his career.
36. He Made The Wrong Decision
In the early 70s, Kirk was desperate for work and he accepted a role in the low-budget Blood of Ghastly Horror. The problem with this film was that it was not a part of the Screen Actors Guild. This made Kirk lose his SAG membership. Now, producers would not be able to hire Kirk for union films.
Kirk knew he had made a bad decision, and he looked for any way to deal with it.
37. He Was Depressed
Because he was unable to work for most film productions, Kirk became depressed. He already had a bit of a drug habit, and at this point, it shifted into being a full-blown problem. On one harrowing occasion, he came close to overdosing. With no work in show business, Kirk had to do something—anything—to make money.
38. He Took A Day Job
By 1973, Kirk’s phone was not ringing with offers for films. It got so bad that he had to take a job as a waiter. He was taking acting classes at the Lee Strasberg Theater, but still, nothing was coming his way. He even worked as a chauffeur, likely driving around folks who didn’t even recognize him from Old Yeller.
Kirk had hit rock bottom.
39. He Told The World
When he’d sunk as low as he could, he decided it was time to come clean. In 1973, he came out to the world in an interview with John Marvin. This was a time when most Hollywood celebrities weren't open about being gay—some still aren't Well, back in 1973, coming out could equal an end to your career.
Kirk said goodbye to Hollywood.
40. He Went Where They Wanted Him
When Kirk came out, the film roles completely dried up. So, Kirk did what any self-respecting gay man would do, he got into musical theater. He headed back to Kentucky and appeared in Hello Dolly! and Little Mary Sunshine. Eventually, film offers started coming back, but they were not the family-friendly movies he’d made in the past. Not even a little bit.
41. He Made A Nasty One
In 1988, Kirk appeared in Streets of Death, which is a particularly nasty film about two men making snuff films. Kirk is the only professional actor in the cast and it showed. Kirk later called the film “a case of good intentions”. He also appeared in a tiny role in 1995’s ludicrously titled Attack of the 60 Foot Centerfold.
Kirk’s career was flat-lining, and nothing seemed capable of reviving it.
42. He Was Desperate
As the world turned over to a new millennium, Kirk continued appearing in some very forgettable films. If titles like Billy Frankenstein or The Education of a Vampire don’t ring any bells, there’s a reason. These were not wide-release films, and Kirk was scraping the bottom of the barrel just to stay in show business.
This kind of work would make anyone bitter about making movies. But Kirk was not like other people.
43. He Stayed Cheerful
Despite all this work, in 1990, Kirk announced that he was poor. He did have a good attitude though. He opened up a carpet cleaning company and proudly called it "Tommy Kirk’s Carpet and Upholstery". He said he wasn’t bitter and had no regrets. I’d guess he planned to quietly live out his remaining years.
44. He Became A Legend
In 2006, Disney seemed to forget that they had parted ways with Kirk. They decided to induct him as a Disney Legend. At his side were co-stars like Tim Considine and Kevin Corcoran who had been Kirk’s brothers on screen. You may think that receiving this honor was bittersweet for Kirk, but his response was a huge surprise.
45. He Wasn’t Bitter
Disney recounted what Kirk said when he received his Legend status. Apparently, he said that it was his Disney work that he wanted fans to remember. He mentioned two movies, Swiss Family Robinson and Old Yeller, as the ones he wanted fans to think about when they thought about Tommy Kirk.
Again, Kirk returned to his quiet life only to find out that people still cared.
46. They Wanted To Know
In 2017, a 76-year-old Kirk found out that there were still fans out there who wanted to know about him. He went on a radio program and stunned listeners by announcing that he wasn’t gay. He said he had relationships with women as well as men, which made him bi. Just four years after this interview, Kirk was gone.
47. He Was Lifeless
On September 28, 2021, a neighbor found Kirk’s lifeless body in his Las Vegas apartment. He was 79 years old. When Kirk’s longtime friend—and fellow child star—Paul Petersen learned of this sad news, he shared it with Kirk's fans through social media: “Please know that Tommy Kirk loved you, his fans".
However, there was another major revelation in Paul Petersen's post.
48. They Were Estranged
When Petersen announced Kirk’s passing, he also shared a saddening truth about the later actor's family. The truth was that Kirk had no contact with them, and the reason was tragic. Kirk’s family had disowned him, likely because he was gay. This could be why Kirk had clung so tightly to his on-screen families.
As it turned out, he did find a family in the end.
49. He Had A Brother
Kevin Corcoran was his on-screen brother in more than one film and he remembered Kirk as a “monster talent”. He also said that he had given Kirk a hard time over their careers together. Corcoran said that Kirk should have despised him, but that Kirk hadn’t hated him at all. Sounds like a typical brother relationship to me.
However, there was one more person from Old Yeller who also became like family.
50. He Found Her
Back in 1994, Kirk had gone to a convention where he met up with Beverly Washburn who had played his neighbor in Old Yeller. It had been years since the two had seen each other, and a new friendship began. It’s not surprising, and kind of touching, that Kirk had found a sort of family through his most popular film.