Annette Funicello - The Man Who Tried to Save Her

THE MICKEY MOUSE CLUB STAR FOUND HER GREATEST LOVE JUST WHEN SHE NEEDED HIM MOST

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A home health-care worker jolted Glen Holt awake on the morning of March 20, 2011, and told him she smelled smoke. The Encino, Calif., house he shared with his wife, Annette Funicello, was on fire and quickly filled with thick smoke. “I got her out of bed, put her in the wheelchair,” Glen recalled. “I didn’t want to frighten her, and I knew if I collapsed she would be helpless.”

Annette and Glen lost their home and most of their possessions — including all the mementos from her Disney career — but escaped with their lives thanks to his quick action. Although the rescue would be the most dramatic event of their 27-year marriage, it would not be the only time Glen acted heroically. “I told [Annette] a long time ago, before she was ever diagnosed with MS, that I would always take care of her, and I will always keep that promise,” Glen said in 2012.

Annette, the Utica, N.Y.-born daughter of an auto repair shop owner, became the most popular girl in America on The Mickey Mouse Club at age 12. The self-described “queen of teens,” charmed a nation with her wholesome appeal — and it was not an act. “Annette had enormous integrity, character and kindness. She was a loyal friend — sweet, funny, darling and shy,” her lifelong best friend, actress Shelley Fabares, tells Closer. “We shared all the secrets that teenage girls share. And we laughed a lot.”

After Annette retired her mouse ears in 1959, she starred in the Disney movies The Shaggy Dog and Babes in Toyland. She filmed