This just in from Howard Green:
BELOVED DISNEY MOUSEKETEER AND ICONIC TEEN STAR
ANNETTE FUNICELLO DIES AT AGE 70
BURBANK, Ca., April 8, 2013 - Actress
Annette Funicello, long-time Disney and Beach Party star, passed away on Monday
April 8 at Mercy Southwest Hospital in Bakersfield, CA, at the age of 70. She died peacefully from complications due to
Multiple Sclerosis, a disease she battled for over 25 years. Beloved by
television viewers in the 50s for her stint on Disney's original The Mickey Mouse Club, and by film buffs
for her numerous roles in a series of popular teen-oriented movies in the 60s,
Funicello became a pop culture icon.
Commenting on her passing, Bob Iger,
Chairman and CEO of The Walt Disney Company, said, "Annette was and always
will be a cherished member of the Disney family, synonymous with the word
Mousketeer, and a true Disney Legend.
She will forever hold a place in our hearts as one of Walt Disney’s
brightest stars, delighting an entire generation of baby boomers with her jubilant
personality and endless talent. Annette
was well known for being as beautiful inside as she was on the outside, and she
faced her physical challenges with dignity, bravery and grace. All of us at Disney join with family,
friends, and fans around the world in celebrating her extraordinary life."
Diane Disney Miller, daughter of Walt
Disney, added, "Everyone who knew Annette loved and respected her. She was one of the loveliest people I've ever
known, and wasalways so kind to everyone.
She was also the consummate professional,and had such great loyalty to
my father. Annette will always be very
special to me and Ron.” Diane’s husband,
Ron Miller, who helmed the Disney company in the 1980s and worked with Annette
when he was a young assistant on The
Mickey Mouse Club, recalled, “She was always in good spirits and ready to
help out if she needed to step in when something unexpected happened.”
Oscar®-winning
composer and Disney Legend Richard Sherman, who, with his late brother Robert,
wrote many of Annette's biggest song hits, said, "Annette's sweet,
unassuming spirit, her love of people, and her capacity to exude kindness and
good feelings to everyone she met was part of her beautiful charisma. Because
the songs we wrote for her brought us to the attention of Walt, Bob and I
always referred to Annette as our 'lucky star.’
My wife, Elizabeth, joins me in sending a heartfelt aloha with much love
to our 'Pineapple Princess.'"
Fellow Mouseketeer and long-time friend
Sharon Baird observed, "Throughout all the years we were friends she never
changed from that sweet person who cared so much about others. She always had time for everyone; family,
friends and fans alike. It’s no wonder
she was America’s sweetheart."
Born October 22, 1942,
in Utica, New York, Funicello and her family moved to Los Angeles' San Fernando
Valley when she was four years old. She
was discovered by Walt Disney at age 13 while dancing the lead in Swan Lake at
the Starlight Bowl in Burbank and he invited her to audition for his new children’s
TV series called The Mickey Mouse Club
and was hired on the spot to become a Mouseketeer. The show debuted on October 3, 1955 and
Annette soon became the most popular member of the group. The series ran for three original seasons and
in reruns through the 1990s.
After leaving the Mickey Mouse Club, Funicello was the
only Mouseketeer to remain under contract to Disney and appeared on the TV
shows Zorro (1957), The Nine Lives of Elfego Baca (1958),
and starred in the Disney feature films The
Shaggy Dog (1959), Babes in Toyland
(1961), The Misadventures of Merlin Jones
(1964), and The Monkey's Uncle
(1965).
In the early 1960s,
Annette starred in a series of beach party movies with teen idol Frankie
Avalon, including Beach Party (1963),
Muscle Beach Party (1964), Bikini Beach (1964), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), and How to Stuff a Wild Bikini (1965).
During this time, she recorded a series of hit top-40 pop singles, including
"Tall Paul," "First Name Initial," "How Will I Know My
Love," and "Pineapple Princess."
Her string of successful record albums included such favorites as
"Hawaiiannette" (1960), "Italiannette" (1960), and
"Dance Annette" (1961).
In 1987, Funicello
again teamed up with Frankie Avalon to co-produce and star in Paramount's Back to the Beach as parents of a pair
of troublesome teenagers. In 1989 and 1990, Avalon and Funicello staged a
nostalgic concert tour, performing the beach party music and pop hit singles
they made famous in the 1960s.
In 1987, Funicello was
diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS), a degenerative neurological disease and
in 1992 went public with her illness.
Later that year, she established The Annette Funicello Research Fund for
Neurological Diseases. It is dedicated to
funding research into the cause, treatment and cure of multiple sclerosis and
other neurological diseases and continues to be an active charity.
Despite battling MS, in
the 1990’s Annette launched The Annette Funicello Teddy Bear Company, marketing
a line of collectible bears on QVC, and developed her own perfume line, Cello,
by Annette. In 1992, on her 50th
birthday, she was named a Disney Legend.
However, as she became more debilitated by MS, Annette retreated from
public appearances in the late 1990s and has been cared for since that time by
her second husband, rancher Glen Holt, who she married in 1986. She was previously married to Jack Gilardi
from 1965 until their divorce in 1981.
She has three children from her first marriage; Gina, Jack Jr. and
Jason, and three young grandchildren.
Summing up the life of
the iconic star, Diane Disney Miller quoted a verse from Byron’s “She Walks in
Beauty,” that she felt “seemed to have been written for Annette:
She
walks in beauty, like the night
Of
cloudless climes and starry skies,
And
all that's best of dark and bright
Meet
in her aspect and her eyes
Thus
mellow'd to that tender light
Which
Heaven to gaudy Day denies.
In lieu of flowers, donations
in Annette’s memory can be made to The Annette Funicello Research Fund at
annetteconnection.com.
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