Annette Funicello

Annette Funicello dated Jack Gilardi for a while before they got married in 1965. The marriage lasted until 1981, and the couple had three children.

In the 1980s, she was frequently seen with racehorse trainer Glen Holt. They were rumored to be dating and got married in 1986. The couple stayed together until her death in 2013.

Annette and fellow actor and singer Shelley Fabares were lifelong friends. She was also very close to fellow “Mouseketeer” Lonnie Burr. She later stated in an interview that he was her first boyfriend.

Annette Funicello was born on October 22, 1942, in Utica, US, to Italian–American parents, Virginia Jeanne and Joseph Edward Funicello. The family moved to California when Annette was 4 years old. She grew up with two brothers, Joey and Michael.

The family faced poverty for many years. The decision to move to California was made to make sure the children received good education. Her father worked as a mechanic, and during the first few months of struggle in California, the family lived in a trailer park. However, things changed for the better and Joseph got a steady job as a mechanic soon.

Annette was a shy child but also loved performing arts and excelled in dancing and acting. As soon as she moved to California, her desire to venture into acting intensified. She took professional lessons in acting and dance. This helped her overcome her shyness.

She also learned to play the drums and participated in various beauty pageants from time to time. She won the locally held ‘Miss Willow Lake’ beauty contest. As a child, she also modeled.

She learned ballet during her junior years, and this turned her life around. Walt Disney, the man behind the vastly successful empire, himself saw her perform a dance routine during one of her ballet classes. He asked her to audition for ‘Disney’ along with two hundred other children.

Disney started the ‘Mickey Mouse Club’ in the mid-1950s and hired the “Mouseketeers” to become more popular with the children. The show became a mega success by the end of its first season. Annette became the most popular of the “Mouseketeers,” and the show’s overall success made her doubly famous.

She started receiving numerous fan letters. A study revealed that she received about eight thousand fan letters every month, while the other members of the original club received about eight hundred. The ‘Mickey Mouse Club’ became a huge success, and Annette appeared in many of their dance routines and comedy sketches.

Inspired by its success, several spin-off shows such as ‘Adventure in Dairyland’ and ‘Walt Disney Presents: Annette’ were later aired. Annette also sang a song for ‘Walt Disney Presents: Annette,’ which became the stepping stone of her future music career. Following the success of the song, Walt Disney offered Annette a professional contract.

‘Disney’ ventured into live-action films with the proposed release of the film ‘Rainbow Road to Oz,’ but the film got shelved. ‘Disney’ had planned to cast some of the “Mouseketeers” to star in the film but the plans did not materialize. Finally, in 1961, ‘Babes in Toyland’ released. The film starred Annette but released after she had already made her film debut.

In 1959, Annette appeared in the first film of her career, ‘The Shaggy Dog.’ The film featured her as ‘Allison’ and was a major success. It was the most profitable ‘Disney’ film that year.