Kevin Corcoran, the former child actor known to generations of Disney fans as “Moochie” from The Mickey Mouse Club, as well as for his roles in such hits as Old Yeller and Pollyanna, died on Tuesday at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank. He was 66.
The cause was colorectal cancer, his wife, Laura, said.
Corcoran made his movie debut at five playing the child version of Tyrone Power’s character in the 1955 drama Untamed. He was about seven when he started playing Moochie, an adorably bratty character in The Mickey Mouse Club and Spin and Marty serials. He continued as Moochie in a number of films, including the 1959 Disney feature The Shaggy Dog.
In later roles, Corcoran was not named Moochie. In the 1957 tear-jerker Old Yeller, for instance, he played the young boy Arliss, who champions a stray yellow dog that meets a sad end after contracting rabies. In 1960s Pollyanna, he was the title character’s friend Jimmy Bean. In Swiss Family Robinson, he portrayed the youngest son, Francis.
His other Disney credits include Babes in Toyland and Bon Voyage.
Corcoran, who was born in Santa Monica on June 10, 1949, quit acting after the 1968 Western Blue and earned a theatre arts degree at Cal State Northridge.
He went on to a long career behind the camera, with TV credits ranging from directing episodes of Murder, She Wrote to co-producing Sons of Anarchy.
