Tim Considine was born in Los Angeles on December 31, 1940 into a theatrical lineage; he is the son of British-born film producer John W. Considine and theater-chain heiress Carmen Pantages. Tim’s brother John is also an actor and writer, and his uncle was King Features newspaper columnist Bob Considine.
Tim began his acting career at age 11, playing Red Skelton’s son in 1953’s The Clown (a remake of the 1933 Wallace Beery/Jackie Cooper film The Champ, a performance Leonard Maltin called “so good he overcomes some of the hokiness of the script.” This was followed by a role in Executive Suite with William Holden and June Allyson, and the Greer Garson boarding school story Her Twelve Men, where he met future co-star, friend, and Disney Legend and friend David Stollery.
Tim played Spin Evans in “The Adventures of Spin and Marty,” a popular serial from 1955’s Mickey Mouse Club. Alongside Stollery, Tim followed the original series with two “Spin and Marty” sequel serials. He once described those days on the “Triple-R Ranch” as especially carefree: “We shot on a ranch about forty miles away from the Burbank studio. But it might as well have been a thousand. In truth, the work and play were often indistinguishable.”
He went on to play Frank Hardy, opposite Tommy Kirk as Joe Hardy, in two “Hardy Boys” serials, and guest starred in the “Annette” serial, all for the Mickey Mouse Club TV show.
Tim had a starring role opposite Fred MacMurray in The Shaggy Dog (1959). “I’ve always thought that was one of the worst performances I ever gave,” Tim once said. “It was a very critical time as a teenager, and I was more interested in being a cool guy than being an actor.” Tim also played James Roosevelt opposite Ralph Bellamy in Sunrise at Campobello, and guest starred in the TV series Cheyenne, Johnny Ringo, and The Untouchables.
In 1960 he began working a five-year stint on the classic TV comedy My Three Sons starring Disney Legend Fred MacMurray and co-starring Disney contemporary Don Grady, a former Mouseketeer. He played the role of “Mike Douglas,” and eventually wrote and directed several episodes of the series.
In 1970 Tim played his most famous—but perhaps most brief—screen role, as the bedridden soldier slapped by George C. Scott in Patton.
Tim made some televised guest appearances and a few films afterwards, but for the most part has spent the ensuing decades combining his loves of writing, photography, sports, and cars.
Tim authored The Photographic Dictionary of Soccer, The Language of Sport, and American Grand Prix Racing: A Century of Drivers and Cars, which was serialized in Sports Car International magazine. He occasionally substituted for William Safire in the “On Language” column in The New York Times Magazine.
Of a childhood in the public eye, Considine once said, “It was generally a pretty good experience for me. What I missed, I’m sure I missed, but I’m not too unhappy about what I did. I’ve had the opportunity to screw up all kinds of things, and not just in that one career!”