Annette Funicello: 1942-2013

When I was a kid, we didn't own a TV. The family next door did, and—if we were in favor at the time—we might be invited in to watch the after-school TV shows, which included The Lone Ranger (1949-1957), Robin Hood (1955-1960), and The Mickey Mouse Club (1955-1959).

The moment I waited for, the moment when my little prepubescent heart skipped a beat, was at the first appearance of Annette Funicello in blurry B&W. Oh, she was gorgeous...

Funicello began her professional career at the age of twelve. She rose to prominence as a "Mouseketeer" on the original Mickey Mouse Club.

She moved on from Disney to become a teen idol, starring in a series of "Beach Party" movies with Frankie Avalon. These included Beach Party (1963), Muscle Beach Party (1964), Bikini Beach (1964), Pajama Party (1964), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965) and How to Stuff a Wild Bikini (1965).

Funicello and Avalon became iconic as "beach picture" stars and were re-united in 1987 for the Paramount film Back to the Beach, parodying their own surf-and-sand films two decades earlier.

In 1992, Funicello announced that she had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. She died of complications of the disease on April 8, 2013.

    The New York Times