Cheryl Holdridge dies at 64; popular Mouseketeer

LA times ^ | January 9, 2009 | By Dennis McLellan

[Perdogg]

After 'The Mickey Mouse Club,' the actress played Julie Foster on 'Leave it to Beaver' and appeared on 'The Rifleman,' 'Bachelor Father,' 'My Three Sons,' 'Bewitched' and 'The Dick Van Dyke Show.'

[LottieDah]

I heard Tommy Kirk was gay but I never heard about him being a pedophile.

[Lancey Howard]

Thanks for posting that link! I was born in the early ‘50s and grew up on Mickey Mouse... and Sally Starr’s Popeye Theater (with the Three Stooges) and Pete’s Gang (Our Gang shorts) and Birdy the Bunyip (with Sir Guy deGuy) and Clutch Cargo and Gene London and Captain Kangaroo and Tom Terrific (with Manfred the Wonder Dog) and Chief Halftown and Soupy Sales....

[UncleDick]

He was good in everything back then, as a child actor. But Disney had quite a time making him disappear after they found out he was a homosexual pedophile.

I'm not sure where you got your info, but Kirk was recently inducted as a Disney legend. No way they would have done that if he was ever suspected of pedophilia.

[Arizona Carolyn]

Yes, too young. BTW how is Annette doing? I haven’t seen anything on her in a long time and when I saw her about ten years ago at a doll show in Los Angeles she was very frail.

[Lancey Howard]

I don’t know if Tommy Kirk was a pedophile, so I retract my earlier post. I did hear something to that effect a long time ago, but it was just hearsay and apparently untrue.

FRegards,
LH

[trisham]

After a short time on Google, it is my impression that she has withdrawn from public life, with her last series of Teddy Bears coming out around 2004. MS is a dreadful disease. It’s very sad.

[Arizona Carolyn]

The last time I saw her it was very sad. They honored her at a dinner and she was unable to speak, her husband spoke on her behalf, she was there in a wheelchair. Frankly after seeing her then I am very surprised she is still with us.

[trisham]

She's had the disease since 1992 or earlier. It's been a long time, and although MS does not seem to affect life expectancy, symptoms are progressive. It's such a shame. She has always seemed like a sweet lady to me.

[Arizona Carolyn]

Her booth was across from us at a show in Los Angeles and she appeared to promote the bear collection in her name, she stayed for quite a long time as the line was out the door to see her. That was probably around 1996 or 1997 and she was already wheelchair bound.