Earlier today, Annette Funicello died at age 70. At the age of 12, Walt Disney saw her at a dance recital and decided to cast her as a Mouseketeer on The Mickey Mouse Club. As the show became a hit, she grew to be a household name. However, it was in the sixties, when she teamed up with Frankie Avalon to make those beach party movies, like Beach Party, that she truly became an icon. She was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1987 and had been battling the disease ever since. In 2004, she lost the ability to walk. In 2009, she lost the ability to talk. According to Extra, she had been in a coma for years before her family decided to take her off life support. She is survived by her husband and three children.
