Sure, while Tommy Kirk is best known for his roles in a plethora of Disney films, such as Old Yeller, The Shaggy Dog, The Misadventures of Merlin Jones, and many others, you might be wondering why I would be mentioning his passing here on the Krypt. Well, like a lot of stars that “fall from grace”, they sometimes end up in some low-low-low budgeted films, which is exactly what happened with Kirk.

Disney had primed him to be an even bigger star in his youth, but once they found out that Kirk was gay, that was all it took and gave him the boot. At that time, it was hard to recover from that. Having bouts with drug addiction, which was not helping his career. After Disney, he started to work with A.I.P. in films like Pajama Party (1964), as well as working with director Bert I. Gordon in Village of the Giants (1965).

But for us fans of low budget horror, Kirk appeared in Al Adamson’s Blood of Ghastly Horror (1967), as well as TWO films for Larry Buchanan, Mars Needs Women (1968) and It’s Alive (1969). While he called Buchanan a “cinematic serial killer”, but then also stated that he “was one of the nicest, most gracious men I ever worked for. He paid me well, he was generous, and he was decent.”

No matter what you might remember this actor with the boyish face, it is just important that we do remember him, and his work. Coming through the Disney couldn’t have been easy, especially being gay. Kirk passed away on Sept. 28th, at the age of 79. Our thoughts go out to him and his family during this difficult time.