American actor Tommy Kirk was BOTD in 1941. Born in Louisville, Kentucky to a working-class family, he was raised in Downey, California. He made his first stage appearance in 1954, aged 13, leading to his casting as teen detective Joe Hardy in Disney TV drama series The Hardy Boys. He rose to major fame in the 1957 Disney film Old Yeller, a moving drama about a boy who is forced to euthanise his beloved dog. He became one of Disney’s most popular teen stars, appearing in family films including The Shaggy Dog, Swiss Family Robinson andThe Absent-Minded Professor, often paired with Disney favourite Annette Funicello. His career imploded spectacularly in 1963, when he began a relationship with a 15 year-old boy and was caught having sex with him at a public swimming pool. An infuriated Walt Disney fired Kirk, but backtracked after the success of The Misadventures of Merlin Jones, keeping Kirk under contract to allow him to film a sequel, The Monkey’s Uncle. Post-Disney, he changed studios and had a success with the teen comedy Pajama Party, though his wholesome G-rated persona quickly fell out of fashion as Hollywood embraced 1960s counterculture. His remaining career was spent in low-budget horror and science fiction films, and he spiralled into alcohol and drug addiction. After getting sober, he left Hollywood in the mid-1970s, working as a waiter and chauffeur and eventually opening a carpet-cleaning business. He came out publicly as gay in a 1974 magazine interview, openly discussing homophobia in Hollywood and his struggles with amphetamine addiction. Later in life, he became a born-again Christian, making cameo appearances in horror films and participating in movie fan conventions. In 2006, he was inducted into the Disney Legends Hall of Fame. He retired to Las Vegas, dying in 2021 aged 79.