Old Yeller star Kevin Corcoran dies, aged 66

Disney Legend Kevin Corcoran passed away on October 6 at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank following a five-year battle with colorectal cancer.

The Santa Monica native attended California State University, Northridge for college, and quickly entered the industry with his first producing job on the 1978 Disney film Return From Witch Mountain.

Born in Santa Monica and raised with seven siblings, who also acted, Corcoran appeared in several Disney productions in the 1950s. He would play different versions of “Moochie” throughout the 1950s, and among his roles during this period were appearances in three Mickey Mouse Club serials, episodes of the series of television shorts Spin and Marty, and The Shaggy Dog.

Corcoran portrayed Arliss Coates, the youngest son of Jim (Fess Parker) and Katie (Dorothy McGuire) and the brother of Travis (Tommy Kirk), in the post-Civil War tear-jerker Old Yeller, which revolved around the family’s heroic mastiff. Corcoran’s other movie credits include Toby Tyler (aka Ten Weeks With a Circus), Swiss Family Robinson, Babes in Toyland, and A Tiger Walks. He also worked on non-Disney TV shows like “Scarecrow and Mrs. King” and “Quantum Leap“. He also stayed with Disney for several more years before leaving to work on Murder, She Wrote, The Shield, and-most recently-Sons Of Anarchy.

I left that meeting and called my agent.

His wife Laura, to whom he was married since 1972, confirmed the sad news to The Hollywood Reporter. “I want to know if you feel you’re being treated fairly.’ I know darn well if I had said I was unhappy, he would have done something about it”. He later became a producer, working on TV series including “Sons of Anarchy” and “The Shield“.