Tommy Kirk, CHild Star of Ole Yeller, Died at 79

[JamesSavik]

Read his bio here. Pay attention to the part about his marital status and how Disney fucked him over at 21.

Tommy Kirk, Obit at The Sun

 

Was Tommy Kirk married?

Kirk remained unmarried throughout his life.

Despite being viewed as one of Disney's favorite kid actors, it was previously reported that the company fired him over being gay in 1964 when he was 21-years-old.

According to TMZ, Kirk once said: "When I was about 17 or 18 years old, I finally admitted to myself that I wasn’t going to change. I didn’t know what the consequences would be, but I had the definite feeling that it was going to wreck my Disney career and maybe my whole acting career. It was all going to come to an end." 

The child star added: "Eventually, I became involved with somebody and I was fired."

[Nigel Gordon]

Sometime around the late 1960s or early 70 a film production company I did some casual work with, looked at using Tommy Kirk for a role in a film that was being made in the UK but with American backers. They were told by their distributors in the States that if Kirk was in it, they would not be able to show it. The word was that Walt Disney had said he would not allow any of his films to be shown in any cinema circuit that showed a film with Kirk in it.

[dude]

The touch of Disney is lethal. 

I had worked for ABC News for nearly 30 years as correspondent, producer and bureau chief in Asia when Disney bought ABC in  1995 under the hand of Michael Eisner.  He immediately slashed the news budget and started closing overseas bureaus.  

My friend and colleague - World News Tonight anchor Peter Jennings - the only person at ABC to whom I was out - referred to Eisner as "Mickey Louse."

Mike