Tim Considine, the actor best known for his role as Mike’s eldest son in the long-running sitcom My Three Sons, died Thursday at his home in Los Angeles, according to a Facebook post by his colleague Stanley Livingston. He was 81.
Born in Los Angeles to a show business family, his father, John Considine Jr., was an Oscar-nominated filmmaker for The Boys, and his mother was the daughter of theater mogul Alexander Pantage. Considine began as a child actor in the 1950s. , playing characters in the series “Mickey Mouse Club” on Disney Television. His roles include Frank Hardy in Hardy Boys and Spin Evans in The Adventures of Spin and Marty. In 2000, he returned to make a cameo appearance in a restart of the television movie The New Adventures of Spin and Marty. In 1959, Considine co-starred with her future television father, Fred McMurray, in the Disney film The Shaggy Dog.
Sorry to announce that Disney legend Tim Considine has died: https://t.co/Gud8VEeir1 pic.twitter.com/hJ10d2LRnE
– Disney D23 (@ DisneyD23) March 4, 2022
A year later will be the premiere of the first season of “My Three Sons”. In the series, McMurray plays the widower Stephen Douglas as he raises his three sons after the death of his wife. Considine co-starred with Livingston as Chip’s youngest brother and Don Grady as Robbie’s middle child. Considine also directed, for the first and only time in his career, one of the episodes in the series “Leopard Spots”. The series was one of the most successful sitcoms of the 60’s, lasting 12 years. However, Considine would leave after the fifth season and his character was discharged, forcing him to marry his fiancée Sally (Meredith McRae).
After leaving My Three Sons, Considine made numerous appearances on various television shows in the 1960s and 1970s, including The Fugitive, Bonanza, Gunsmoke, Ironside, and Medical Center. He also had a brief but memorable scene in the 1970 Oscar winner Patton, as a soldier struck by George C. Patton (George C. Scott).
In the following decades, Considine retired from acting, instead working as a writer, photographer and automotive historian. In particular, he took the photo of Johnny Mitchell, which appears on her album “Blue”. He published several photographic books, such as The Photographic Dictionary of Football in 1979, The Language of Sport in 1982, and The American Grand Prix: A Century of Drivers and Cars in 1997. He also occasionally wrote “For the Language” column for The New York Times Magazine, filling in regular columnist William Safire.
Considine is survived by his son Christopher, wife Willett, two grandchildren, sister Erin and brother John Considine.