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Annette Joanne Funicello (born October 22, 1942) was Walt Disney's most popular Mouseketeer.
Born in Utica, New York to an Italian-American family, she took dancing and music lessons as a child to try to overcome shyness, and was discovered by Disney in a recital while performing in Swan Lake. Her family had moved to southern California when she was four years old.
She was cast as one of the original "Mouseketeers". She was the last as well as the only one picked by Walt Disney. She had her own self-titled serial on The Mickey Mouse Club, and also appeared in the second and third Spin and Marty serials. After the Mickey Mouse Club she went on to television roles in Zorro and Elfego Baca, and 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."
After maturing, she became a teen idol and went on to star in a series of "Beach Party" movies with Frankie Avalon including 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.
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 rumours, due to her impaired carriage, that she was an alcoholic. 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. Patterns are sized to fit a standard 8 x 10" picture frames and may be resized as required.
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