Out and Unashamed in 1964, Tommy Kirk Could Have Been Disney's First Openly Gay Actor

Back in the 1950s and early 1960s, Tommy Kirk was a major teenage movie star, having starred in two hugely successful Disney films – "Old Yeller" and "Swiss Family Robinson." He had also appeared in such other Disney successes like "The Shaggy Dog," "The Absent Minded Professor" and its sequel, "Son of Flubber."

Kirk, who passed this week at the age of 79 in Las Vegas, could have been Disney first gay star – but this was Hollywood in the 1960s and it wasn't to be. Variety reports that during the production of one of his last films with the studio, "The Misadventures of Merlin Jones,"�the then 21-year-old Kirk began seeing a 15-year-old boy and Disney found out. "Upon finding out Kirk was gay, Disney chose not to renew his contract," Variety writes.

Kirk's career didn't end there, however. He went on to make a series of beach party movies at American-International Pictures with Annette Funicello, and even returned to Disney for a sequel to the successful "Merlin Jones," but his career was derailed again when he was arrested in 1964 on drug-related charges, reported Variety. Police found marijuana and barbiturates in his car, though the barbiturates were found to be prescription. But because of the arrest, his relationship with American-International was severed.

"Kirk publicly came out as gay in 1973. He also decided to end his acting career and admitted to having struggled with drug abuse, which he spoke on throughout the rest of his life, saying he didn't blame studios for not wanting to work with him," adds Variety.

His friend Paul Peterson posted a heartfelt Facebook post about Kirk's death. "Tommy was gay and estranged from what remains of his blood-family. We in A Minor Consideration are Tommy's family. Without apology. We will take care of this," Peterson wrote.

Kirk spoke of how his coming out ended his relationship with Disney in a 1993 interview with Filmax Magazine, Entertainment Weekly reported. "When I was about 17 or 18 years old, I finally admitted to myself that [I was gay and] wasn't going to change," he said. "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... Disney was a family film studio and I was supposed to be their young leading man. After they found out I was involved with someone, that was the end of Disney."

While coming out was a career-ending move, Kirk did not regret having done so.

"I'm not ashamed of being gay, never have been and never will be. For that I have no apologies," he told Filmax.

Growing up in a conservative Christian family only made matters worse for Kirk.

"As a result, I consider my teenage years as being desperately unhappy... I knew I was gay, but I had no outlet for my feelings. It was very hard to meet people and, at that time, there was no place to go to socialize," he said. "It wasn't until the early '60s that I began to hear of places where gays congregated. The lifestyle was not recognized and I was very, very lonely."

When he did meet other gay men, they were not very satisfactory.

"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. They were desperate and miserable," he explained.

The story goes that Walt Disney personally fired Kirk after Kirk's "backstreet affair" with "a younger actor" became the talk of the studio. "Disney was a family film studio and I was supposed to be their young, leading man. 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.

Just 23, Kirk was now considered "box office poison."

"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," he said.

"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). To make things worse, Kirk got mixed up with drugs, a habit that ruined him financially and almost killed him. 'I wound up completely broke. I had no self-discipline and I almost died of a drug overdose a couple of times. It's a miracle that I'm still around,'" wrote LGBTQ Nation in 2017.

But Kirk did have a second act.

"Finally, I said, to hell with the whole thing, to hell with show business. I'm gonna make a new life for myself, and I got off drugs, completely kicked all that stuff. ... I went out and started my own little carpet and upholstery cleaning business. I've done it for 20 years and I live well. ... I have a nice business, a nice pension and friends," he told Filmax.