Tommy Kirk got royally screwed by Walt Disney. I just finished watching Swiss Family Robinson and he was a very competent actor. He made millions for Disney in a slew of big hits including Old Yeller. Then Disney dumped him because he was gay. Even now the official photo for Swiss Family Robinson contains all of the Robinsons except Tommy Kirk. After that, he had to take crappy roles in terrible movies thus becoming a laughing stock. In Swiss Family Robinson the Ernst character is made out as an outcast and kind of an asshole. In a notable Christmas party scene, he has been upstaged by his big macho brother who scores with the girl and humiliates Ernst. While everyone else is dancing, he is left alone and dejected. He turns his back and exits. His treatment by Disney was deplorable. He is 76 now and the only remaining member of the cast still alive. So I guess, we wins! I hope has found contentment.
Tommy Kirk
by Anonymous | reply 28 | July 16, 2018 1:57 AM |
OP do some research. Kirk was fucking a 15 year old boy when Disney fired him. Not cool. He was lucky he didn't end up in prison. He didn't have the discipline or personal responsibility to transition to adult roles. He never really grew up. It's a sad story.
by Anonymous | reply 1 | July 15, 2018 5:04 PM |
I thought he had a major career as a make-up artist, no?
by Anonymous | reply 2 | July 15, 2018 5:04 PM |
I've just read the Wikipedia page, R1. At least in the autobiographical excerpts included in the article, he does not seem to show any awareness of the inappropriateness of his relationship - as a 21 year old - with a 15 year old boy, referring instead to the conservatism of the studio. Troubling.
by Anonymous | reply 3 | July 15, 2018 5:23 PM |
bump
by Anonymous | reply 4 | July 15, 2018 5:28 PM |
R4, you bumped a thread from 5 minutes ago?
by Anonymous | reply 5 | July 15, 2018 5:32 PM |
For a child actor, his career lasted longer than most.
by Anonymous | reply 6 | July 15, 2018 5:49 PM |
When I was 15, I would have let Tommy Kirk "abuse" me as often as he wanted. Extra points if he could get Tim Considine to help.
by Anonymous | reply 7 | July 15, 2018 6:15 PM |
Was Tommy Kirk also the child-actor who also developed bad acne as a teenager and lost his career because of it? Who am I thinking of?
by Anonymous | reply 8 | July 15, 2018 6:15 PM |
r7 Me too!
by Anonymous | reply 9 | July 15, 2018 6:21 PM |
So judgy R3.
by Anonymous | reply 10 | July 15, 2018 6:26 PM |
Disney didn’t fire Kirk because he was gay. He was fired after having “relations” with an underage boy he met at the Pickwick recreation center near the Disney Stidios in Burbank.
by Anonymous | reply 11 | July 15, 2018 6:31 PM |
^^^ Studios
by Anonymous | reply 12 | July 15, 2018 6:35 PM |
Did anyone ask the 15-year-old boy whether he'd been abused?
by Anonymous | reply 13 | July 15, 2018 6:36 PM |
FFS. Here come the NAMBLA apologisers again.
by Anonymous | reply 14 | July 15, 2018 6:41 PM |
No, r14. Simply someone who would have loved to be "abused' by Tommy Kirk at age 15.
by Anonymous | reply 15 | July 15, 2018 6:44 PM |
r8: - Bobby Driscoll.
That is a really sad story.....
by Anonymous | reply 16 | July 15, 2018 6:47 PM |
I don't get posters like R11; he just repeated what R1 said and others have already been discussing. I can understand if there were 100 posts and one didn't want to read through them all, but it was the second post in the thread.
by Anonymous | reply 17 | July 15, 2018 6:50 PM |
It's called "having a conversation," CQ r17.
by Anonymous | reply 18 | July 15, 2018 6:53 PM |
Kirk also had a massive drug problem, which made it even harder for him to land roles.
by Anonymous | reply 19 | July 15, 2018 8:08 PM |
I don't get posters like r17. Screaming "waaah!" because two posters say the same thing in the same thread? Really?
You put both the "pointless" and the "bitchery" in "pointless bitchery," you miserable vagino.
by Anonymous | reply 20 | July 15, 2018 9:47 PM |
I wonder if Tommy Kirk let that well known to be horse hung James MacArthur have his way with him during the filming of SFR.
by Anonymous | reply 21 | July 15, 2018 10:16 PM |
I wonder if Tommy posts on DL.
by Anonymous | reply 22 | July 15, 2018 10:17 PM |
James MacArthur could have been Russel Tovey's twin brother.
by Anonymous | reply 23 | July 15, 2018 10:17 PM |
R23 Of course I had to Google him. It's depressing to see formerly beautiful young actors age. He did retain his good looks up until middle age or so but damn aging sucks.
by Anonymous | reply 24 | July 15, 2018 10:39 PM |
Annette Funicello, Frankie Avalon, the Corcoran kids, Tommy Sands, Dwayne and Darryl Hickman, Sheila James, Tony Dow, Jerry Mathers, Rusty Hamer, Paul Peterson and Jay North are just a few of the young actors from that era who had great careeers that suddenly stopped at the same time. They, like Tommy Kirk, outgrew their child/teen actor roles and producers weren’t interested in them as adults. Kirk tries to palm himself off as some king of gay victim but he just didn’t make the leap to adult actor like almost every other teen or child actor in the same era.
You want real tragedy? That would be Bobby Driscoll.
by Anonymous | reply 26 | July 15, 2018 11:38 PM |
21 yo with 15 yo is abuse now?
by Anonymous | reply 27 | July 15, 2018 11:45 PM |
Even though Walt Disney fired Tommy Kirk, he asked him to return for the final Merlin Jones movie because they were so successful. It was called The Monkey's Uncle.
by Anonymous | reply 28 | July 16, 2018 1:57 AM |