Tommy Kirk Wiki: Salary, Married, Wedding, Spouse, Family
Thomas Lee "Tommy" Kirk (born December 10, 1941) is a former American actor and later a businessman. He is best known for his performances in a number of highly popular movies made by Walt Disney Studios such as Old Yeller, The Shaggy Dog and The Misadventures of Merlin Jones, as well as beach party movies of the mid 1960s.
Full Name
Tommy Kirk
Net Worth
$1.4 Million
Date Of Birth
December 10, 1941
Place Of Birth
Louisville, Kentucky, USA
Height
5' 9" (1.75 m)
Occupation
Actor/businessman
Profession
Actor, Businessperson
Nationality
American
Spouse
Never married
Parents
Lucy Kirk, Louis Kirk
Siblings
Joe Kirk
Nicknames
Tommy Kirk, Kirk, Tommy
IMDB
Movies
Old Yeller, The Shaggy Dog, Swiss Family Robinson, The Misadventures of Merlin Jones, The Absent-Minded Professor, Pajama Party, The Monkey's Uncle, Savage Sam, Babes in Toyland, Village of the Giants, Mars Needs Women, Son of Flubber, The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini, Bon Voyage!, Catalina Caper, ...
TV Shows
The Mickey Mouse Club, The Hardy Boys (1956)
Star Sign
Sagittarius
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Trademark
1
Disney movies
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Quote
1
I thought Jane Wyman was a hard, cold woman and I got to hate her by the time I was through with Bon Voyage! (1962). Of course, she didn't like me either, so I guess it came natural. I think she had some suspicion that I was gay and all I can say is that, if she didn't like me for that, she doesn't like a lot of people.
2
[when asked about his contract termination with Walt Disney] Yeah, I picked somebody up. It was just one of those crazy things that I didn't know what I was doing; I used to swim in the public pool in downtown Burbank, and I met this teenager and one thing led to another and we had an affair. And then he talked ... he either told a friend or told his parents about me, because his parents went down to the studio one day and Disney was confronted with this. They didn't press sodomy charges, but that was the end of my contract. They did not renew me.
3
After I was fired from Disney, I did some of the worst movies ever made and I got professionally involved with a manager who said it didn't matter what you did as long as you kept working. I wound up completely broke. I spent all my money on drugs to get out of the emotional pain I was in. I had no self-discipline or self-control and I almost died of a drug overdose a couple of times. It's a miracle that I'm still around. Finally, I said to myself, "to hell with the whole thing, to hell with show business. I'm gonna make a new life for myself", and I got off drugs, completely kicked all that stuff.
4
I consider my teenage years as being desperately unhappy. I knew I was gay since I was a little kid, but I had no outlet for my feelings and I felt that I could not confide in anyone because of the fear of being discovered to who I really was. It was very hard to meet people and, at that time, there was no place to go to socialize. It wasn't until the early Sixties that I began to hear of places where gays congregated... When I was about 17 or 18 years old, I finally admitted to myself that I wasn't going to change. I was born homosexual and I had to accept that. I didn't know what the consequences would be if I came out, but I had the definite feeling that it was going to wreck my Disney career and maybe my whole acting career... and I turned out to be right. Eventually, I became involved with somebody and I was fired. Disney was a family film studio and I was supposed to be their young, leading man. After they found out I was involved with some guy, that was the end of Disney.
5
[on why he quit acting] I got sick of it and I just stopped.
6
In 1965, I'd signed a contract for 'The Sons of Katie Elder' with John Wayne, but a week before shooting I went to a Hollywood party that the vice squad busted because of marijuana. I was handcuffed and photos of me got in the papers with headlines like 'Ex-Disney Child Star Arrested for Pot!' So Wayne and the producers fired me.
7
In the 1960s, all my social life was underground gay bars. It was my own life. I kept it separate from work, where I went on publicity dates with Annette Funicello or Roberta Shore.
8
Even more than MGM, Disney [in the early 1960s] was the most conservative studio in town... They were growing aware. They weren't stupid. They could add two and two together, and I think they were beginning to suspect my homosexuality. I noticed people in certain quarters were getting less and less friendly. In 1963, Disney didn't renew my option and let me go. But Walt personally let me return to do the final Merlin Jones movie, 'The Monkey's Uncle,' because those were moneymakers for the studio.
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Fact
1
Kirk was not fired from Disney for being gay. He admitted in a 1993 interview that it was for having sex with a 15-year-old boy when he was 21.
2
Provided lead voice-over work with Sandra Dee in the animated Russian film The Snow Queen (1957) [The Snow Queen] at Universal. The film won the 1957 Venice Film Festival Golden Lion Award in the animated film category and first place in the animated group at the 1958 Cannews Film Festival.
3
According to Thomas A. Stebick, who interviewed Tommy for an April 2016 Classic Images magazine article, Tommy, who loved horseback riding, loved animals from a very young age and had a quarter horse named Bell in California for about five years which the family kept at a nearby stable.
4
There was talk of Tommy starring in "Rainbow to Oz" as a young Davy Crockett but the project never came to fruition.
Father Louis was a mechanic and mother Doris a legal secretary. He had three brothers: Joe, Andy and John.
9
Runs a carpet/upholstery cleaning business. [2000]
10
In July 1996, he was a guest at the Western Film Fair in Charlotte, North Carolina along with Morgan Woodward, Tony Young, Patricia Blair, Roberta Shore, Gregory Walcott, Gene Evans, Justin Tubb, Adrian Booth, Robert F. Hoy, Neil Summers and Dale Berry.
