Disney star Annette Funicello, 70, dies from MS

NEW YORK - Annette Funicello, who became a child star as a perky, cute-as-a-button Mouseketeer on

The Mickey Mouse Club

in the 1950s, then teamed up with Frankie Avalon in a string of '60s fun-in-the-sun movies such as

Beach Blanket Bingo

and

Bikini Beach

, died Monday. She was 70.

She died at Mercy Southwest Hospital in Bakersfield, Calif., of complications from multiple sclerosis, the Walt Disney Co. said.

Ms. Funicello stunned fans and friends in 1992 with the announcement about her ailment. Yet, she was cheerful and upbeat, grappling with the disease with a courage that contrasted with her lightweight teen image of old.

"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," said Bob Iger, Disney chairman and CEO.

Avalon said Monday that Ms. Funicello never realized how beloved she was.

"She would say, 'Really?' " he told the Associated Press. "She was so bashful about it. She was an amazing girl."

The pretty, dark-haired Ms. Funicello was just 13 when she gained fame on Walt Disney's television kiddie "club," an amalgam of stories, songs, and dance routines that aired from 1955 to 1959.

Cast after Walt Disney saw her at a dance recital, she soon became the most popular Mouseketeer in the cast, receiving 8,000 fan letters a month, 10 times more than any of the 23 other young performers.

Her devotion to Walt Disney remained throughout her life.

"He was the dearest, kindest person, and truly was like a second father to me," she remarked. "He was a kid at heart."

When The Mickey Mouse Club ended, Annette (as she was often billed) was the only club member to remain under contract to the studio, appearing in such Disney movies as The Shaggy Dog and Babes in Toyland.

She also became a recording star, singing on 15 albums and hit singles, such as "Tall Paul" and "Pineapple Princess."

Outgrowing the kid roles by the early '60s, Annette teamed with Avalon in a series of movies for American International, the first film company to exploit the burgeoning teen market.

The shift in teen tastes begun by the Beatles in 1964 and Ms. Funicello's first marriage the following year pretty much killed off the beach-movie genre.

But she was, somehow, never forgotten, though mostly out of the public eye for years. She and Avalon staged a reunion in 1987 with Back to the Beach. It was during the filming that she noticed she had trouble walking - the first, insidious sign of MS.

When it was finally diagnosed, she later recalled, "I knew nothing about [MS], and you are always afraid of the unknown. I plowed into books."

Her symptoms were relatively mild at first, but gradually she lost control of her legs and feared that people might think she was drunk. So she went public with her ordeal in 1992.

She wrote of her triumphs and struggles in her 1994 autobiography, A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes - the title taken from a Disney song. In 1995, she appeared briefly in a television docudrama based on her book. And she spoke openly about the degenerative effects of MS.

Ms. Funicello was born Oct. 22, 1942, in Utica, N.Y., and her family moved to Los Angeles when she was 4. She began taking dance lessons the following year and won a beauty contest at 9. Then came the discovery by Disney in 1955.

In 1965, Ms. Funicello married her agent, Jack Gilardi, and they had three children, Gina, Jack, and Jason. The couple divorced 18 years later, and in 1986, she married Glen Holt, a harness racehorse trainer. After her film career ended, she devoted herself to her family. Her children sometimes appeared on the TV commercials she made for peanut butter.