Deanna Durbin

Deanna Durbin has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1722 Vine St. Her autobiography, published in 1995, is A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes: The Annette Funicello Story. David died in Paris on March 1, 1999. After keeping it a secret for years, Annette announced in 1992 that she had begun suffering from multiple sclerosis. Since then she has resisted all offers to perform and has refused to be interviewed, steadfastly asserting her right to privacy. They re-united in 1987 for Back to the Beach, and toured the country as a singing act. The couple moved to Paris, France with Durbin stating she would never return to show business. Funicello said in interviews that the reason she was never scantily clad in these films is because she made a promise to Walt Disney that she would never show her navel in a film.

She retired from public life in 1950, after her marriage to Charles David, who had directed her in Lady On A Train. After maturing, she became a teen idol and went on to star in a series of "Beach Party" movies with Frankie Avalon including Beach Party, Muscle Beach Party, Bikini Beach and Beach Blanket Bingo. By the late 1940s Durbin had tried to assume a more sophisticated film persona in such films as the whodunnit Lady On A Train (1945), but the public preferred her as the sweet and wholesome adolescent she had come to represent. Annette had a number of pop record hits in the late 1950's and early 1960's, including: "Tall Paul" (dedicated to Paul Anka), "First Name Initial," "O Dio Mio," "Train of Love," and "Pineapple Princess.". Her second marriage, to Felix Jackson, a writer, in 1945, produced her only child, Jessica Jackson, and ended in divorce in 1949. She was cast as one of the original "Mouseketeers", and went on to television roles in Zorro and Elfego Baca, and Disney-produced movies such as The Shaggy Dog, Babes in Toyland, The Misadventures of Merlin Jones, and The Monkey's Uncle. She married an actor, Vaughn Paul, in 1941 and they were divorced in 1943. Born in Utica, New York, she took dancing and music lessons as a child and was discovered by Disney while performing in Swan Lake.

In 1939 she received a special Academy Juvenile Award, along with Mickey Rooney. Annette Funicello (born October 22, 1942) was one of Walt Disney's most popular Mouseketeers. Durbin was quickly signed to a contract with Universal Studios and the huge success of her films were reported to have saved the studio from bankruptcy. Hollywood legend has recorded that he instructed his staff to "drop the fat one" and that they had dismissed Durbin, misunderstanding that Mayer had in fact intended to terminate the contract of Garland. Mayer felt he did not need two young female singers under contract.

Durbin was released from her contract shortly thereafter as studio executive Louis B. She made her first film Three Smart Girls in 1936. Changing her name to Deanna Durbin at the commencement of her career, Durbin signed a contract with MGM Studios in 1936 and made her first film appearance in a screen test with another contractee, Judy Garland. Deanna Durbin (born Edna Mae Durbin on December 4, 1921 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada) was a popular singer and actress in Hollywood films.