Actor/singer Annette Funicello died today. Her twilight years were complicated by multiple sclerosis, but she will be remembered as the Mouseketeer who vaulted to teen flicks for Disney and a handful of squeaky-clean/covertly salacious "beach movies" for American Pictures International during the mid-1960s.
Her beach movie co-star was usually Frankie Avalon, but later another Disney grad, Tommy Kirk joined her. It was with Tommy Kirk that Funicello starred in The Monkey's Uncle, a live-action Disney caper released in 1965.
In the opening credits for Monkey, she's billed simply as "Annette" because she was just that famous at the time, ya dig? But crazier still is the theme song, recorded and performed during the credit sequence, by Annette and The Beach Boys:
[Thanks to j peoplemover for the Youtube upload.]
Good-bye, Ms. Funicello.
