"Old Yeller" star Tommy Kirk passes. Disney fired him when he was outed as gay. [View all]
Tommy Kirk – the legendary child actor who starred as Travis Coates in Old Yeller and whose work for Disney came to an end when he was outed as gay – has passed away at the age of 79.
“Please know that Tommy Kirk loved you, his fans,” longtime friend Paul Petersen wrote on Facebook, informing the public of Kirk’s death.
Originally from Kentucky, Kirk started acting as a teenager and had some success on television. Shortly after getting a role on The Micky Mouse Club, he got his biggest break when he got the lead role in Disney’s 1957 film Old Yeller, about the adventures of a boy and his dog.
The film was a success for Disney and Kirk went on to star in a number of films, including Swiss Family Robinson and The Shaggy Dog, in the late 1950s. By the 1960s he was acting in comedies for Disney, like The Absent-Minded Professor.
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