Star Facts

  • Category Motion Pictures

    Address 6834 Hollywood Blvd.

    Ceremony date 09/14/1993

About
Annette Funicello
Born:
1942-10-22,
Utica,
New York,
USA
Education:
NA
Ethnicity:
Caucasian
Death Date:
2013-04-08
Death City:
Bakersfield
Death State:
California
Death Country:
USA
Death Country:
USA
Addition Websites

Annette Funicello

In memory of beloved entertainer and Walk of Famer Annette Funicello, flowers were placed on her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Monday, April 8, 2013. The star in category of Motion Picture is located at 6834 Hollywood Boulevard in front of The Disney Soda Fountain. “Rest in Peace, Annette ❤!” Ana Martinez, producer of the Walk of Fame signed the card on behalf of the Hollywood Historic Trust and the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce.

Annette Joanne Funicello is an American singer and actress. She was Walt Disney’s most popular cast member of The Mickey Mouse Club, and went on to appear in a series of beach party films.

Born in Utica, New York to Italian-Americans Joseph and Virginia Funicello, she took dancing and music lessons as a child to try to overcome shyness. Her family moved to Southern California when she was four years old.

In 1955, the 12-year-old was discovered by Walt Disney as she performed as the Swan Queen in Swan Lake at a dance recital in Burbank, California. On the basis of this appearance, Disney cast her as one of the original “Mouseketeers”. She was the last to be selected, and the only one picked by Walt Disney. She soon proved to be very popular. By the end of the first season of Mickey Mouse Club, she was receiving 6,000 letters a month, according to her Disney Legends biography.

In addition to appearing in many of the Mouseketeers’ sketches and dance routines, Funicello starred or co-starred in a number of serials on The Mickey Mouse Club. These included Adventure in Dairyland, her own self-titled serial, Walt Disney Presents: Annette, and the second and third Spin and Marty serials,The Further Adventures of Spin and Marty and The New Adventures of Spin and Marty. It was in a hayride scene in the Annette serial that she performed the song that was to launch her singing career. The studio received so much fan mail about “How Will I Know My Love,” written by the Sherman Brothers, that Walt Disney decided to issue it as a single, and to give Funicello, somewhat unwillingly, a recording contract.

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