Kevin Corcoran, child actor for disney in 'Old Yeller', dies at 66 | The OC Register 

You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser to improve your experience.

Subscribe Today Customer Service eRegister Today\'s Paper Knowledge Cafe Magazines Unidos Weather

Best of OC Celebrities Events Music Disney Knott\'s Movies Dining TV Arts OCVarsity Arts Columns

Walking for a cause: Thousands hit the pavement for CHOC Walk at Disneyland

Need a fast track to citizenship? Invest in these Orange County luxury hotels

Should homeowners with solar panels pay to help maintain the electrical grid?

Hiking couple reports mountain lion following them on trail off Ortega Highway

Miller: USC coach Steve Sarkisian\'s problems go far beyond football field

Dodgers\' Chase Utley suspended for NLDS Games 3 and 4 for \'illegal slide\'

Steve Sarkisian takes leave of absence, leaving USC in an uncertain state

Dean Chance, Angels\' first Cy Young winner, dies at age 74

First a historic Coto de Caza general store, soon to be a social hub with restaurant, wine bar and more

No simple cure for O.C.\'s wage gap: Disparity in pay among middle income earners is significant

Retail-restaurant roundup: Distillery coming to Santa Ana, Wings Cafe debuts at Fullerton Airport

Lower gas prices means no Social Security increase next year

‘The Big Bang Theory’ has grown from also-ran to America’s biggest comedy

Zac Brown Band stretches the boundaries of country in Hollywood Bowl performance

Watch \'Fargo\' and \'Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,\' skip \'Jane the Virgin\'

Cirque du Soleil mixes it up with \'Kurios,\' coming to Costa Mesa

In 1959, 10-year-old Kevin Corcoran, an actor for Walt Disney Productions, sits on a horse, a birthday present his mother, Kay Corcoran, right, gave him. The photo was taken at a birthday party for the young star on a ranch near Newhall for the film "Toby Tyler.” Corcoran died Tuesday in Burbank. He was 66. FILE: DAVID SMITH, AP

In 1959, 10-year-old Kevin Corcoran, an actor for Walt Disney Productions, sits on a horse, a birthday present his mother, Kay Corcoran, right, gave him. The photo was taken at a birthday party for the young star on a ranch near Newhall for the film "Toby Tyler.” Corcoran died Tuesday in Burbank. He was 66.FILE: DAVID SMITH, AP

By DANIEL E. SLOTNIK / New York Times News Service

Vestibulum tortor quam, feugiat vitae, ultricies eget, tempor sit amet, ante. Donec eu sit amet quam egestas semper. Aenean mi vitae est. Mauris placerat eleifend leo.

Vestibulum tortor quam, feugiat vitae, ultricies eget, tempor sit amet, ante. Donec eu sit amet quam egestas semper.

Kevin Corcoran, a child actor for Walt Disney in the 1950s and ’60s who appeared in films like “Old Yeller” before moving behind the camera to work in production, died Tuesday in Burbank, California. He was 66.

The cause was colorectal cancer, his niece Karnel Watkins said.

Known as Moochie (a nickname supposedly bestowed by Walt Disney himself) during much of his performing career, Corcoran began acting soon after he could walk, usually playing an irrepressible, high-pitched youngster in television shows like “The Ford Television Theater” in the early 1950s.

“He was the quintessential bratty kid brother or mischievous moppet,” the critic Donald Liebenson wrote about Corcoran in The Los Angeles Times in 2000.

He was first called Moochie in 1956 on “Adventures in Dairyland,” a serial shown on “The Mickey Mouse Club,” and went by that name in films like “The Shaggy Dog” (1959) and other Disney serials, including “Moochie of Pop Warner Football” and “Moochie of the Little League.”

Corcoran also played characters not named Moochie in three family-oriented films released in 1960: “Pollyanna,” with Hayley Mills and Jane Wyman; “Swiss Family Robinson,” with John Mills and Dorothy McGuire; and “Toby Tyler, or Ten Weeks With a Circus,” with James Drury and a chimpanzee.

Three years earlier he had made audiences sob in “Old Yeller,” the coming-of-age story of two farm boys (Corcoran and his fellow Disney child star Tommy Kirk) whose beloved dog becomes rabid; Fess Parker played their father. Corcoran and Kirk reprised their roles in a sequel, “Savage Sam” (1963).

By the late 1960s Corcoran was ready to leave acting. He told The San Francisco Chronicle in 2012 that he knew it was time to quit when a director and producer were unable to delineate a character they wanted him to play.

“Then it hit me,” he said. “You know what? I know more about making movies than the guy making this picture. I’m done acting.”

Corcoran stayed in show business, but on the other side of the camera. He worked in different capacities, usually as an assistant director, on shows that ranged far from Disney fare, including “Baywatch” and “Sons of Anarchy.”

Kevin Anthony Corcoran was born in Santa Monica on June 10, 1949, to Kathleen and William Henry Corcoran. He was discovered on the MGM lot, where his father worked as a security guard.

Most of his seven siblings acted — without undue pressure, he said.

“My folks were very down to earth,” Corcoran said in 2000. “Some people’s families are in the delicatessen business. My family was in the picture business.”

Corcoran graduated from a Roman Catholic high school in Los Angeles before receiving a bachelor’s degree in theater from California State Northridge.

In 1972 he married Laura Soltwedel, with whom he lived in Los Angeles. She survives him, as do three sisters, Che Keene, Noreen Corcoran and Kerry del Villar, and a brother, Hugh.

Suspect in assault with a deadly weapon leads police on pursuit before crashing in Garden

French Quarter-inspired Newport Beach house with funky, Airstream trailer home office sel

What\'s the value of Kelly Thomas\' life? Father\'s lawsuit vs. Fullerton seeks police accou

Comments are encouraged, but you must follow our User Agreement

Keep it civil and stay on topic. No profanity, vulgarity, racial slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about tragedies will be blocked. By posting your comment, you agree to allow Orange County Register Communications, Inc. the right to republish your name and comment in additional Register publications without any notification or payment.

Orange County college campuses baiting bike thieves

An invite to Esperanza High\'s homecoming goes viral

Metrolink approves $24 million plan to lease locomotives

Watchdog: Catholic Church transfers property worth some $100 million

Watchdog: Nuclear waste can be stored at new San Onofre site, Coastal Commission says

Covered California: Over 2 million sold. In O.C., more women are enrolled than men and more Asians than Latinos

St. Joseph Hoag, Cigna to offer employers new health plans they say will be affordable and keep employees healthy

How to extract the pain from your dental plan: Choose the right one, use in-network dentists and shop around for best prices

‘The Big Bang Theory\' has grown from also-ran to America\'s biggest comedy

Best of OC 2015: Critic\'s Pick for Best Food Truck

Aldi vs. Grocery Outlet: Comparing the bargain grocers and what they\'ll bring to O.C.

Dig in, drink up: Here\'s your guide to six of O.C.\'s most inventive gastropubs

Reality Check: \'The Voice\' corrals some veteran acts

41 years of \'SNL\': The hosts, jokes, and cast members who held it all together

French Quarter-inspired Newport Beach house with funky, Airstream trailer home office sells for $2.95 million

Cartoons: Cloudy forecast for Hillary\'s polling numbers

Week 6: Tackles, touchdowns and fan fun from O.C. high school football

O.C.\'s feathered predators are fierce hunters but a fragile population

Privacy Policy | Site Help | User Agreement | Site Map