R.I.P.: Tim Considine, TV, Movie Actor, Dead at 81

Tim Considine, who was a television star at the age of 14 in Disney’s “Spin and Marty” and went on to wider fame in the family series “My Three Sons,” died on Thursday at his home in the Mar Vista section of Los Angeles. He was 81, according to The NY Times.

“Spin and Marty” was an 11-minute serial shown on “The Mickey Mouse Club” from 1955 to 1958 — and in reruns through 2002. The young Considine was originally cast in what was supposed to be the lead, as Marty Markham, a snobbish rich kid spending the summer at the Triple R dude ranch. But he told his agent that he didn’t want the part, that he’d rather play Spin Evans, the more athletic and more popular character, the city boy with the cool flattop haircut, he said.

The agent passed along the request, Spin’s role was beefed up and the series ended up being a partnership of adolescent equals — rivals who eventually became friends, riding, roping, boxing, sleeping in a bunkhouse and sitting around the campfire together. Mr. Considine became the first screen heartthrob for many preteen girls. David Stollery played Marty.

1940 – 2022

Considine’s Disney career was busy. In “The Hardy Boys” serials (1956 and 1957), which were also shown on “The Mickey Mouse Club,” he and Tommy Kirk played the sons of a private detective, boys who investigated neighborhood mysteries. He was also in the “Annette” serial, starring Annette Funicello.

At 18 he appeared in the Disney feature film “The Shaggy Dog” (1959) — it also starred Mr. Kirk and Ms. Funicello — playing a duplicitous teenage boy whose best friend turns into a Bratislavian sheepdog and breaks up a spy ring. Considine’s part consisted mostly of expressing superiority over Mr. Kirk’s character and flirting with Funicello’s and Roberta Shore’s.

The film’s adult lead, Fred MacMurray, went on to star in “My Three Sons,” a half-hour sitcom about a widower and his all-male household, with Considine as his eldest son, Mike. The second son, Robbie, was played by Don Grady, and the youngest, Chip, by Stanley Livingston.

The show had its premiere on ABC in 1960 and ran, moving to CBS, until 1972. But Considine bowed out in 1965; his character married his girlfriend, played by Meredith MacRae, and moved away. (To fill his shoes, more or less, the family adopted a neighborhood boy, Ernie, played by Barry Livingston, Stanley’s real-life younger brother.)

Leaving “My Three Sons,” Mr. Considine did six television guest appearances in five years and had a memorable scene — playing a character credited as Soldier Who Gets Slapped — with George C. Scott in the film “Patton” (1970)

Timothy Daniel Considine was born on Dec. 31, 1940, in Los Angeles. His father, John W. Considine Jr., was a producer whose films included “Broadway Melody of 1936,” “Boys Town” (1938) and “Young Tom Edison” (1940). His mother, Carmen (Pantages) Considine, was the daughter of Alexander Pantages, founder of the vaudeville and movie theater chain.