Tommy Kirk Net Worth

Tommy Kirk's Quotes

• 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.
• 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.
• In December 1964, I 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.
• [on why he quit acting] I got sick of it and I just stopped.
• 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.

Interesting Facts about Tommy Kirk

1. Played Kevin Corcoran's brother in five different films: Old Yeller (1957), The Shaggy Dog (1959), Swiss Family Robinson (1960), Bon Voyage! (1962) and Savage Sam (1963).
2. 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.
3. Runs a carpet/upholstery cleaning business. [2000]
4. Father Louis was a mechanic and mother Doris a legal secretary. He had three brothers: Joe, Andy and John.
5. Was about to co-star in the John Wayne movie The Sons of Katie Elder (1965) when in 1964 he was busted at a Christmas Eve party using marijuana. As a result, he was replaced by Michael Anderson Jr..
6. In 1976 he was asked to appear in a western entitled "My Name Is Legend" that filmed in Wichita, but the film was never finished.
7. He, along with Tim Considine, Kevin Corcoran and David Stollery were named "Disney Legends" for their work in TV and film. joining the company of such stalwart contributors as Fred MacMurray, Fess Parker, Annette Funicello, Hayley Mills, Kurt Russell, John Mills and Ed Wynn.
8. There was talk of Tommy starring in "Rainbow to Oz" as a young Davy Crockett but the project never came to fruition.
9. 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.
10. Provided lead voice-over work with Sandra Dee in the animated Russian film Snezhnaya koroleva (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 Cannes Film Festival.
11. 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.
12. Born on exactly the same date as Fionnula Flanagan.