October 6 - Kevin Corcoran

On this day, in 2015, actor, director and producer Kevin Anthony Corcoran passed away after battling colorectal cancer. Born June 10, 1949, Kevin grew up with seven siblings, most of whom also did some acting in their youth. The fact that so many of the Corcoran children got into the business could have been a result of Take Your Child to Work Day; their father was Director of Maintenance at MGM Studios. Kevin gave most of his talent to the Walt Disney Studios. Throughout the Fifties and early Sixties, he appeared in Disney television shows and movies, frequently as a character with the nickname of “Moochie.” Just to be confusing, none of the Moochies Kevin played were meant to be the same character, it’s just a name that seemed to follow his career around.

Kevin began his Disney career appearing in the dramatic serials that were part of The Mickey Mouse Club. He was never a Mouseketeer but he was on the show pretty regularly. Kevin’s first role was on the serial Adventure inDairyland as Moochie McCandless. Annette Funicello and Sammy Ogg were also featured in Dairyland. Next, Kevin played Montgomery “Moochie” O’Hara, the young kid who wants to hang out with the older boys on the dude ranch, in the second and third Spin and Marty serials. Spin and Marty were played by David Stollery and Tim Considine, and Annette and Sammy were featured as well. In 1959, Kevin was Montgomery “Moochie” Daniels in the classic The Shaggy Dog. He then brought Moochie Morgan to life in Moochie of the Little League and Moochieof Pop Warner Football, both of which aired on the Wonderful World of Color.

Thankfully, Kevin’s other roles did not use the Moochie moniker, even if some of them may have been similar characters. His Disney credits include:

Arliss Coates in 1957’s Old Yeller and 1963’s Savage Sam

Goliath in Goliath II

Jimmy Bean in Pollyanna

Francis Robinson in Swiss Family Robinson

James Boone in Daniel Boone

Toby Tyler in Toby Tyler

Boy Blue in Babes in Toyland

Goofy Jr. in Aquamania

Skipper Willard in Bon Voyage!

Jonathan Feather in The Mooncussers

Johnny Lincoln Clem in Johnny Shiloh

Tom Hadley in A Tiger Walks

Tommy Kirk played Kevin’s brother in five of these films, Fred MacMurray was his father twice and Dorothy McGuire played his mother twice (what can I say, it was a tight knit group back then). Following A Tiger Walks, Kevin pretty much retired from acting and went off to California State University, Northridge. He did have one more small role in Blue, a Western, during college because you have to pay for books somehow, right?

After graduating with a degree in theater arts, Kevin returned to work at Disney, except this time he would be behind the cameras. He became an assistant director and producer throughout the Seventies on films like Superdad, The Island at the Top of the World, Pete’s Dragon and Return from Witch Mountain. Kevin also had a hand in the short lived 1977 revival of The Mickey Mouse Club. In the early Eighties, he co-produced Herbie Goes Bananas and returned to television as the producer of the Herbie, The Love Bug and Zorro and Son series.

Following his long career with the Walt Disney Company, Kevin continued directing and producing all sorts of popular television series. You may have heard of some of them: Quantum Leap, Scarecrow and Mrs. King, Profiler and Karen Sisco. He also spent several years on a series with another Disney Legend, Angela Lansbury. On Murder, She Wrote Keven had credits ranging from first assistant director to director to producer.

After decades of creating magic, Kevin became a Disney Legend himself in 2006 along with fellow former co-stars Tim Considine, David Stollery and Tommy Kirk. When he died at the age 66, Kevin was something of an anomaly in the word of former child stars. He’d been happily married for over 40 years, had a stable career and had avoided all the usual controversy. Kevin credited his success to a down-to-earth early family life. He once simply stated “Some families were in the delicatessen business. My family was in the picture business.” No drama about it. Just doing his job. Something a few modern families in the picture business could learn from.