Biography

Annette Funicello

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Overview

Born
October 22, 1942 · Utica, New York, USA
Died
April 8, 2013 · Bakersfield, California, USA (complications from multiple sclerosis)
Birth name
Annette Joanne Funicello
Nickname
- Annie
Height
5′ 1″ (1.55 m)

Mini bio

Annette Joanne Funicello achieved teenage popularity starting in October 1955 after she debuted as a Mouseketeer. She was born on October 22, 1942 in Utica, New York, but she and her family moved to California when she was very young. Walt Disney himself saw her performing the lead role in "Swan Lake" at her ballet school's year-end recital in Burbank and decided to have her audition along with 200 other children. Annette became the last Mouseketeer of the 24 that was picked. By the run-through in 1958 of The Mickey Mouse Club (1955) in which she appeared in her own multi-segmented series entitled "Annette", she had become the most popular Mousketeer of all, and the only one kept under contract by Walt Disney after he canceled the show. She was so popular that by the late 1950s she was known simply as "Annette": America's sweetheart and the first "crush" for many a teenage Baby Boomer. Whenever anyone spoke of Annette, no last name was ever needed; everyone knew who was being discussed.

The popular teenager became synonymous with wholesome entertainment and was borrowed by Danny Thomas in 1959 to play foreign-exchange student Gina on The Danny Thomas Show (1953) (aka "The Danny Thomas Show"). That year she had a recurring role on the Disney television series Zorro (1957), followed by several years of Disney vehicles including The Shaggy Dog (1959), Babes in Toyland (1961), and The Monkey's Uncle (1965). During this time, the modest young singer had a couple of hit singles on the "Hot 100" charts, notably "Tall Paul", and as a result, traveled with Dick Clark's caravan on singing tours around the country. At one point, she and teen idol Paul Anka became an item and he wrote both "Puppy Love" and "Put Your Head On My Shoulder" with her in mind. Their busy careers led to them parting ways.

During the early 1960s, American International Films wanted to use her in a fun-on-the-beach movie. They presented the idea to "Mr. Disney", as Annette always called him and with whom she was still under contract. To everyone's surprise, he gave his consent, as long as her navel was completely covered by a one-piece bathing suit. The first movie, aptly titled Beach Party (1963), starred Robert Cummings and Dorothy Malone as the older generation who explore the younger set represented by Annette (as "Dee Dee") and her love interest Frankie Avalon (as "Frankie"). The "teenage" couple (actually she was 20 and he was 23) proved so popular in this that they were whisked into a number of sand-and-surf romps--(Muscle Beach Party (1964), Bikini Beach (1964), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), and How to Stuff a Wild Bikini (1965))--that showcased the actors engaging in harmless fun while singing and dancing in the sand, and falling into silly slapstick.

After the surfing craze died out in 1965, Annette married Jack Gilardi, Paul Anka's agent, and became the mother of his three children: Gina, Jack Jr. and Jason. While appearing in a few other movies that did nothing to further her career, including Fireball 500 (1966), Thunder Alley (1967), and Head (1968), she guest-starred on shows and, most famously, became the spokesperson for Skippy Peanut Butter in a host of commercials. But she phased out her career in favor of family.

She and Gilardi divorced in 1983. Three years later, she married Glen Holt, a harness-racing-horse breeder/trainer. A year into this second marriage, she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. She hid her condition for five years before making a formal announcement in 1992, for fear that her uncontrollable movements might be characterized as drunkenness. She became the most famous spokesperson for the disease. Annette's life was filmed as a television movie with A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes: The Annette Funicello Story (1995) co-starring her good friend, Shelley Fabares. Receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1993, Annette was eventually wheelchair-bound and went into complete seclusion.

Following a tragic March 2011 incident in which their Los Angeles house burnt to the ground and both Annette and husband Glen were hospitalized with smoke inhalation, they moved to Bakersfield, California. A little more than a year later, over 25 years after she was diagnosed with this long, painful illness, Annette passed away at age 70 on April 8, 2013 from complications. Her foundation continues to raise money to help find cures for this and other debilitating disorders, including Lou Gehrig's disease.
- IMDb mini biography by: Bill Hafker thehuntzie@yahoo.com

Family

Spouses
Children
Parents

Trademarks

Disney movies and Beach Party movies
Mickey Mouse Club Mouseketeer
Her sweet smile.

Trivia

When asked in a 20/20 interview how she got the role as a mouseketeer on the Mickey Mouse Club program, she replied: "I was the ethnic one. Everybody else looked like I wanted to look my entire life: blue eyed and freckle faced.".
Her favorite television series was Zorro (1957). For her birthday one year, Walt Disney, who knew she was a huge fan of the series, arranged to have her guest-star on a four-episode arc.
When she began working for the Disney studio, she suggested to her employer that she change her Italian family name of Funicello to something more "American", as was often done in those days. Walt Disney vehemently argued against this idea, saying that her own name was actually an asset because it was so unique that no one who heard it would ever be able to forget it. He convinced the young actress to retain it.
She spent her final years mostly confined to a wheelchair that was specially designed by her horse-trainer husband with a seat from a harness-racing sulky.
In 1987, she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. She kept her condition a secret and felt that this was necessary to go public in order to combat rumors that her impaired ability to walk was the result of alcoholism.