tommy kirk

Born in Louisville (Kentucky), on December 10, 1941, Tommy Kirk  was the son of Louis, a humble mechanic, and Lucy, a secretary. In search of better job opportunities, his parents moved to Downey, California, when he was 15 months old. At age 13, he accompanied his older brother, Joe, to an audition for a role in a play. In the end they took him for a role of five lines, irrelevant, but which caught the attention of a representative who had attended the performance, and who decided to offer him a contract.

He debuted on television with Lux Video Theater and other successful series of the time. ” Tommy Kirk  was tossed around as an actor almost immediately,” wrote one reviewer. “Watching his early performances, it’s easy to see why: wide-eyed, lanky, enthusiastic, and immensely likeable…the very picture of Eisenhower-era American youth, unaffected and natural, surprisingly unobtrusive, it’s extremely easy to remember someone’s little brother, son, or neighbor.”

He was very successful as one of the investigative brothers who starred in  The Hardy Boys Mysteries , a series included in Disney’s The Mickey Mouse Club , who was so pleased with his services that he was offered an exclusive contract. Tommy Kirk  made his big screen debut with Faithful Friend , a tragic tale of friendship between a country boy and a stray dog. He appeared in other films of the house, such as The Strange Case of Wilby , The Wise Man in the Clouds , The Wise Man in Trouble and The Robinsons of the South Seas , among others. “He’s my lucky charm,” Walt Disney himself said about Tommy Kirk. 

In 1963 he ended his employment relationship with Disney, which he attributed for a long time to the fact that his open homosexuality was not viewed favorably. “Studio executives were beginning to suspect that he was gay. Some people were becoming less and less friendly,” stated Tommy Kirk . Perhaps this appreciation is a bit debatable, because after he filmed  The Pajama Club with another studio,  Disney himself was reluctant to let him go – perhaps mainly because of his success at the box office, but this denies that he did not want to work with the-. He personally asked her to return at least temporarily to the studio, to star in Zafarrancho en la universidad , and after the success of it The Monkey’s Uncle, the sequel.

Unfortunately, his career was completely ruined when he was arrested for drug possession on Christmas Eve 1964. The scandal took its toll on him, as he was replaced as one of the leads in The Four Sons of Katie Elder , and others. two titles. Tommy Kirk ‘s career  suffered, to the point that he only appeared again in B-series titles, such as Crazy Love and Love and The Man with the Synthetic Brain.. After hardly being given roles in the 70s, at most in irrelevant films, he decided to redirect his life by leaving the film industry. After overcoming his addiction to narcotics, he worked as a waiter and driver before running a carpet-cleaning commercial in the San Fernando Valley area of ​​Los Angeles, a job he did for two decades. 

For some time, his statements were filled with rancor. ” “This city is full of right-wingers,  the world is full of right-wingers, intolerant and cruel,” he said after his arrest. But as the years went by, he spoke more calmly.  “I don’t blame anyone but me and my abuse . because of my crazy career,”  Tommy Kirk said   in 2013. “I’m not ashamed of being gay, never was and never will. But I don’t have animosity towards anyone because the truth is that I ruined my own career.” After his retirement he retired to Redding, California.