![]() ![]() Though his film-making days are behind him, Kirk has since appeared in one reunion show produced by the now-gay-friendly Disney Corporation. … I have a nice business, a nice pension and friends.” I’ve done it for 20 years and I live well. … I went out and started my own little carpet and upholstery cleaning business. I’m gonna make a new life for myself, and I got off drugs, completely kicked all that stuff. “Finally, I said, to hell with the whole thing, to hell with show business. Like William Haines before him, Tommy Kirk discovered that there was life after movies. I had no self-discipline and I almost died of a drug overdose a couple of times. To make things worse, Kirk got mixed up with drugs, a habit that ruined him financially and almost killed him. Kirk’s post-Disney performances ranged from cute and campy fluff like Pajama Party (1964) to unmitigated disasters like the godawful Mars Needs Women (1968) (Kirk played a Martian in both movies). “After I was fired from Disney, I did some of the worst movies ever made and I got involved with a manager who said it didn’t matter what you did as long as you kept working.” Just 23, Kirk was now “box office poison”. After they found out I was involved with someone, that was the end of Disney.” The year was 1964, and Kirk’s career was effectively over. “Disney was a family film studio and I was supposed to be their young, leading man. ![]() The story goes that Disney personally fired Kirk after Kirk’s “backstreet affair” with “a younger actor” became the talk of the studio. Eventually, I became involved with somebody and I was fired.” I didn’t know what the consequences would be, but I had the definite feeling that it was going to wreck my Disney career and maybe my whole acting career. They were desperate and miserable.”Įventually, young Kirk came to terms with his sexual orientation: “When I was about 17 or 18 years old, I finally admitted to myself that I wasn’t going to change. “I had some brief, very passionate encounters and as a teenager I had some affairs, but they were always stolen, back alley kind of things. The idea of a lonely Tommy Kirk boggles the mind, but it wasn’t long before our hero met others who shared his proclivities. The lifestyle was not recognized and I was very, very lonely.” It wasn’t until the early ’60s that I began to hear of places where gays congregated. It was very hard to meet people and, at that time, there was no place to go to socialize. “I knew I was gay, but I had no outlet for my feelings. As a result, “I consider my teenage years as being desperately unhappy.” I think Swiss is probably my favorite film”.īut Kirk knew that his homosexuality would jeopardize his movie career, clash with his All-American Boy image and anger both the homophobic Disney and Kirk’s “strict Baptist parents”. “I want to be remembered for the work, like Swiss Family Robinson and Old Yeller. ![]() Kirk’s years at Disney, where he starred in a series of wholesome, family comedies and drama, were the high point of his show business career. The boy’s clean-cut good looks won him the attention of Uncle Walt, who signed Kirk to a long-term contract. Pasadena Playhouse production of Eugene O’Neill’s Ah, Wilderness. For that I have no apologies.” Kirk’s quotes are taken from Minton’s interview.īorn in 1941, the 13-year old Kirk was discovered in 1954 while performing at a Will Rogers, Jr. “I’m not ashamed of being gay, never have been and never will be. Kirk is gay–which is why he is in this column in the first place–a fact about himself hat he is quite open about and willing to talk about in his interview: Unfortunately, “Tommy Kirk was a square peg being shoved into a round mouse hole ” a peg who had to be ejected before he damaged the works. ![]() Walt Disney himself groomed Kirk to be the ideal “All-American Boy” the epitome of young masculinity. In its films and TV shows, comic books and theme parks, Walt Disney Studios created an ideal world for a Baby Boom generation growing up in the American Fifties. The Kirk that emerges in this interview, after decades of obscurity and silence, is an older and wiser man one who is willing to deal with the contradictions in his life and their effect on his career. It was Kevin Minton’s in-depth interview with Tommy Kirk. Issue # 38 of Filmfax (Apr.-May 1993) featured, among the usual fluff about flying saucers and giant lizards, Sex, Lies and Disney Tape: Walt’s Fallen Star. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |