Biografía

When asked in a 20/20 interview how she got the role as a mouseketeer on the Mickey Mouse Club program, she replied: "I was the ethnic one. Everybody else looked like I wanted to look my entire life: blue eyed and freckle faced.".

Her favorite television series was Zorro (1957). For her birthday one year, Walt Disney (who knew she was a huge fan of the series) arranged to have her guest star on a four episode arc.

Underwent brain surgery to slow down the tremors which result from her multiple sclerosis. She was recovering at home.

When she began working for the Disney studio, she suggested to her employer that she change her Italian family name of Funicello to something more "American", as was often done in those days. Walt Disney vehemently argued against this idea, saying that her own name was actually an asset because it was so unique that no one who heard it would ever be able to forget it. He convinced the young actress to retain it.

She spent her final years mostly confined to a wheelchair that was specially designed by her horse-trainer husband with a seat from a harness-racing sulky.