Tommy Kirk

Tommy Kirk was an American actor known as a Disney child star for Old Yeller (1957), The Shaggy Dog (1959), Swiss Family Robinson (1960), and The Misadventures of Merlin Jones (1964). While filming Merlin Jones in 1963, the 21-year-old Kirk was discovered by a co-star's mother to have been involved with a 15-year-old boy; Walt Disney fired him personally, though Disney briefly rehired him to complete a sequel after Merlin Jones became a surprise hit. A 1964 arrest for marijuana and prescription-drug possession further damaged his career, and he was effectively erased from Disney's promotional materials. He came out publicly as gay in 1973, one of the first Disney stars to do so, and reflected in numerous interviews on the cruelty of the experience of being expelled from his career for his identity. He was found dead at his Las Vegas home on September 28, 2021, at age 79; a cause of death was never publicly released.