Disney child actor Kevin Corcoran, who played Moochie in the Spin and Marty serials on The Mickey Mouse Club and went on to play roles in films such as Old Yeller, died on Tuesday at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank at the age of 66.
The cause of his death was colorectal cancer. Moochie – an adorable, talkative kid who was always getting into jams – was not far removed from the real-life Corcoran. Corcoran was 7 when he started appearing in the series that took place on a dude ranch.
The character was so popular that Corcoran as Moochie was featured in other Disney productions, including the film The Shaggy Dog.
Among the other Disney films in which he appeared were Toby Tyler or Ten Weeks With a Circus, Pollyanna (opposite Hayley Mills) and Swiss Family Robinson. Corcoran also went on to a career behind the camera.
He was born into a show business family on 10 June, 1949, in Santa Monica. “While my father was working at MGM, he heard that children were needed to play some extra roles,” he said in an interview with Walt Disney Productions for a company biography.
One of his earliest appearances was in the film “The Glenn Miller Story,” released in 1954. His first Disney appearance was the short “Adventures in Dairyland,” and it led to him being cast in “Spin and Marty.”
In 2006, he was named a Disney Legend by the studio where he saw his most success as an actor and where he did occasional work, including producing episodes of the “Herbie, the Love Bug” series in 1982.
In addition to his wife, Corcoran is survived by his sisters, Che Keene, Noreen Corcoran and Kerry del Villar; and a brother, Hugh.