Annette Funicello - Rotten Tomatoes Celebrity Profile

Biography

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Annette Joanne Funicello (born October 22, 1942) is an American singer and actress. She was Walt Disney's most popular Mouseketeer, and went on to appear in a series of beach movies.

Biography and career

Born in Utica, New York to an Italian-American family, she took dancing and music lessons as a child to try to overcome shyness. Her family had moved to southern California when she was four years old.

In 1955, the 12-year-old was discovered by Walt Disney as she performed as the Swan Queen in Swan Lake at a dance recital in Burbank, California. On the basis of this appearance, Disney cast her as one of the original "Mouseketeers". She was the last of them to be selected, and the only one picked by Walt Disney. She soon proved to be quite popular. By the end of the first season of Mickey Mouse Club, she was receiving 6,000 letters a month, according to her Disney Legends biography.

In addition to appearing in many of the Mouseketeers' sketches and dance routines, Funicello starred or co-starred in a number of serials on The Mickey Mouse Club. These included Adventures in Dairyland, her own self-titled serial, Annette (which co-starred Richard Deacon), and the second and third Spin and Marty serials,The Further Adventures of Spin and Marty and The New Adventures of Spin and Marty.

After the Mickey Mouse Club she remained under contract with Disney for a time, with television roles in Zorro, Elfego Baca and The Horsemasters. For Zorro she played Anita Cabrillo in a three-episode storyline, about a teenaged girl who arrives in Los Angeles to visit a father who does not seem to exist. This role was reportedly a birthday present from Walt Disney, and the first of two different characters played opposite Guy Williams as Zorro. Annette also co-starred in Disney-produced movies such as The Shaggy Dog, Babes in Toyland, The Misadventures of Merlin Jones, and The Monkey's Uncle.

Although uncomfortable being thought of as a singer, Annette had a number of pop record hits in the late 1950s and early 1960s, mostly written by the Sherman Brothers and including: "Tall Paul", "First Name Initial," "O Dio Mio," "Train of Love" (written by Paul Anka) and "Pineapple Princess." In an episode of the Disney anthology television series titled "Disneyland After Dark", Annette can be seen singing live at Disneyland.

After maturing, she moved on from Disney and became a teen idol, starring in a series of "Beach Party" movies with Frankie Avalon for American International Pictures. These included Beach Party, Muscle Beach Party, Bikini Beach and Beach Blanket Bingo. Funicello and Avalon re-united in 1987 for Back to the Beach, and toured the country as a singing act.

When she was cast in her first beach movie, Walt Disney himself asked her to not wear a bikini and instead wear a one–piece swimsuit because Annette had an image to uphold, and she agreed.

In 1979, at age 37, Funicello began starring in a series of television commercials for Skippy peanut butter.[1]

Funicello announced in 1992 that she suffers from multiple sclerosis. She had kept her condition a secret for many years, but felt it necessary to go public in response to false rumors, due to her impaired carriage, that she was an alcoholic. That same year, she was inducted as a Disney Legend. In 1993 she opened the Annette Funicello Fund for Neurological Disorders at the California Community Foundation.

Her autobiography, published in 1994, is A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes: My Story. The title is taken from a song from the movie Cinderella. A made-for-TV movie based on the book, A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes: The Annette Funicello Story, was made in 1995. During this period she also produced her own line of teddy bears for the Annette Funicello Collectible Bear Company. The last collection in the series was made in 2004.

Positions in Billboard

Tall Paul # 7 (1959)
Jo-Jo The Dog Faced Boy # 73 (1959)
Lonely Guitar # 50 (1959)
My Heart Became Of Age # 74 (1959)
First Name Initial # 20 (1959)
O Dio Mio # 9 (1960)
Train Of Love # 36 (1960)
Pineapple Princess # 11 (1960)
Talk To Me Baby # 92 (1960)
Dream Boy # 87 (1961)

Filmography

The Shaggy Dog (1959)
Babes in Toyland (1961)
Elfego Baca: Six Gun Law (1962) (compilation of episodes from Wonderful World of Disney serial)
Beach Party (1963)
The Misadventures of Merlin Jones (1964)
Muscle Beach Party (1964)
Bikini Beach (1964)
Pajama Party (1964)
Beach Blanket Bingo (1965)
The Monkey's Uncle (1965)
Ski Party (1965) (Cameo)
How to Stuff a Wild Bikini (1965)
Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine (1965) (Cameo)
Fireball 500 (1966)
Thunder Alley (1967)
Head (1968)
Back to the Beach (1987)
Troop Beverly Hills (1989) (Cameo)

Television Work

Mickey Mouse Club (1955-1959)
The Danny Thomas Show (cast member in 1959)
The Horsemasters (1961)
Escapade in Florence (1962)
Easy Does It... Starring Frankie Avalon (1976) (canceled after 4 episodes)
Frankie and Annette: The Second Time Around (1978) (unsold pilot)
The Mouseketeer Reunion (November 23, 1980)
Lots of Luck (1985)
Growing Pains episode "The Seavers and the Cleavers" (guest star, 1985)
Pee-wee's Playhouse Christmas Special (guest star, 1988)
A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes: The Annette Funicello Story (1995)

Book

Funicello, Annette and Patricia Romanowski. A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes: My Story 1994, ISBN 0-7868-8092-9

References

Cotter, Bill. The Wonderful World of Disney Television ISBN 0-7868-6359-5

External links

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