![]() ![]() 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. His son Chris Considine, CEO of CXC Simulations, has also been a guest here on Cars Yeah.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. Tim was my guest back in June of 2015 and you may know him from his time on TV as Spin of the series Spin & Marty on the original Mickey Mouse Club, Shaggy Dog, My Three Sons, and many more. Twice Around The Clock – The Yanks at Le Mans was voted Best Book of the Year by the Motor Press Guild and the author given their highest honor, the Dean Batchelor Award for Excellence in Automotive Journalism. It is the culmination of Tim’s research and interviews conducted for over 28 years and written over the last six years and Volumes I-III cover from 1923 through 1979. As Tim likes to say, “Yanks adds humanity, and a fair bit of profanity, to history.” Each of the three volumes (four more to come) is close to 120,000 words in length with approximately 300 curated black and white and color images from around the world, interspersed throughout – many never seen before. Yanks is a frank, sometimes blunt, personal account told in great part by the players – the drivers, mechanics and team owners who were there, which is what makes the work unique. Tim Considine is the author of the book Twice Around The Clock – The Yanks at Le Mans, a massive multi-volume, unapologetically chauvinistic personal history of hundreds of American drivers and the American cars that have participated in the epic 24 Hours of Le Mans. ![]()
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