Tommy Kirk

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Tommy Kirk (2009)

Thomas Lee Kirk (born December 10, 1941 in Louisville , Kentucky ) is an American actor and businessman.

Life

Kirk grew up in Los Angeles and was audited for a theater production of Eugene O'Neill's Ah, Wilderness! At the age of 13 . discovered that his older brother had actually applied for a role. Tommy Kirk got his first television role in 1955, a year later he was one of the leading actors in the 19-part television series The Hardy Boys in the role of Joe Hardy . With this series began his long-term collaboration with Disney Studios , where he became one of the most successful young actors in Hollywood at times through a series of successful movies. His friend Jello (1957), in which he takes care of a dog, and the comedy The Unheimliche Zotti (1959), in which he turns into a dog, were very successful. He also had bigger roles in the Disney films Jungle of 1000 Dangers , Babes in Toyland , The Flying Drummer and The Drummer Can't Quit . His career at Disney came to a quick end when Walt Disney learned of Kirk's homosexuality and released him from his studio contract.

From 1964 Kirk worked for the American International Pictures (AIP) studio , where he was used in the beach movies that were popular at the time and aimed at a young audience. He starred in these summery, quickly produced beach comedies. Kirk had developed alcohol and drug problems in the meantime, which was also reflected in a sometimes unprofessional behavior on the set, as he later openly admitted. The news of scandals ruined Kirk's previously clean and family-friendly image in the press. With a negative headline, for example, he lost the role of the youngest Elder son in the western The Four Sons of Katie Elder with John Wayne . After the beach movie wave flattened, the roles for Kirk became sparse, so that he largely left acting in the early 1970s.

In the mid-1970s, Kirk overcame his addiction problems and ran a successful carpet cleaning company in Los Angeles for 20 years. In the late 1980s, Kirk began to appear in a handful of supporting roles in cheaply produced action films and trash horror films, directed several times by Fred Olen Ray . He now lives in retirement in Redding, California .

In 2006 he received an award as one of the Disney Legends .

Filmography (selection)

  • 1955: TV Reader's Digest (TV series, an episode)
  • 1956: The Hardy Boys: The Mystery of the Applegate Treasure (TV series, 19 episodes)
  • 1957: His friend Jello (Old Yeller)
  • 1959: The Shaggy Dog (The Shaggy Dog)
  • 1960: Jungle of 1000 dangers (Swiss Family Robinson)
  • 1961: The Flying Timpani (The Absent-Minded Professor)
  • 1961: Babes in Toyland
  • 1961: Mondgeflüster (Moon Pilot)
  • 1962: Champagne in Paris (Bon Voyage!)
  • 1962: In the Valley of the Apaches (Savage Sam)
  • 1962: The timpanist can't help it (Son of Flubber)
  • 1964: Pajama Party (Pajama Party)
  • 1964: The Misadventures of Merlin Jones
  • 1965: A college full of monkeys (The Monkey's Uncle)
  • 1966: Inheritance with Obstacles (The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini)
  • 1966: Mars Needs Women
  • 1967: It's a Bikini World (It's a Bikini World)
  • 1971: Ride the Hot Wind
  • 1973: The Streets of San Francisco ( The Streets of San Francisco , television series, episode Deadline )
  • 1987: Street Power (Street of Death)
  • 1995: Attack of the 60 Foot Centerfold
  • 1997: The Little Witch (Little Miss Magic)
  • 2001: The Education of a Vampire

Web links and sources

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Tommy Kirk | Biography, Movie Highlights and Photos. Retrieved April 28, 2020 (American English).
  2. ↑ Jesse Monteagudo: This child actor's gay days at Disney cost him his career. March 7, 2017, accessed April 28, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Thomas Lisanti: Hollywood Beach Surf and Movies: The First Wave, 1959-1969 . McFarland, 2015, ISBN 978-1-4766-0142-7 ( google.de [accessed April 28, 2020]).
  4. ↑ Tommy Kirk | Biography, Movie Highlights and Photos. Retrieved April 28, 2020 (American English).
  5. ↑ Jesse Monteagudo: This child actor's gay days at Disney cost him his career. March 7, 2017, accessed April 28, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Kirk, Tommy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kirk, Thomas Lee
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American actor and businessman
DATE OF BIRTH December 10, 1941
PLACE OF BIRTH Louisville , Kentucky