Annette
Joanne Funicello (October
22, 1942 – April 8, 2013) was an American actress and singer. Funicello
began her professional career as a child performer at the age of twelve. She was one of the
most popular Mouseketeers on the original Mickey Mouse Club. As a teenager, she transitioned to a successful
career as a singer with the pop singles "O Dio Mio", "First Name
Initial", "Tall Paul" and "Pineapple Princess",
as well as establishing herself as a film actress, popularizing the successful
"Beach Party" genre
alongside co-star Frankie Avalon during
the mid-1960s. In 1992, Funicello announced that she had been diagnosed
with multiple sclerosis in
1987. She died of complications from the disease on April 8, 2013. Annette Joanne Funicello was
born in Utica, New York, to Italian Americans Virginia Jeanne (née Albano) and Joseph
Edward Funicello. Her family moved to Southern California when
she was four years old. Funicello moved on from Disney to become a teen idol, starring in a series of "Beach Party" movies with Frankie Avalon for American International Pictures.
These started with Beach Party (1963), which was so
successful American International Pictures signed
Funicello to a seven-year contract and starred her in a series of beach party
movies. Funicello guest-starred on episodes of Wagon Train, Burke's Law and The Greatest
Show on Earth, then starred in another two-part Disney telemovie
with Kirk, The Misadventures of Merlin
Jones (1964). This was released to cinemas in the US and
became a surprise box office hit. Also popular were the follow ups to Beach
Party, Muscle Beach Party (1964)
and Bikini Beach (1964). When she was
cast in her first beach movie, Walt Disney requested that she only wear modest
bathing suits and keep her navel covered. However, she wore a pink
two-piece in Beach Party, a white two-piece fishnet suit in the
second film (Muscle Beach Party) and a blue and white bikini in the
third (Bikini Beach). All three swimsuits bared her navel, particularly
in Bikini Beach, where it is visible extensively during close up
shots in a sequence early in the film when she meets Frankie Avalon's
"Potato Bug" character outside his tent. Funicello made Pajama Party (1964)
for AIP with Kirk, not Avalon, though it was an unofficial Beach Party movie
and Avalon made a cameo. Avalon was back as Funicello's co-star in Beach Blanket Bingo (1965),
then she and Kirk did a sequel to Merlin Jones, The Monkey's Uncle (1965). The
Monkey's Uncle featured Annette singing with The Beach Boys and was another huge hit Funicello made a cameo in two AIP comedies
starring Avalon, Ski Party (1965) and Dr Goldfoot and the Bikini
Machine (1965), then she did How to Stuff a Wild Bikini (1965)
with Dwayne Hickman. Box office
receipts for the series were in decline, and neither Avalon nor Funicello
appeared in the final installment, The Ghost in the Invisible
Bikini (1966).