Darlene Faye Gillespie (born April 8, 1941) is a Canadian-American former

child actress The term child actor or child actress is generally applied to a child acting on stage or in movies or television. An adult who began their acting career as a child may also be called a child actor, or a "former child actor". Closely associated t ...

, most remembered as a singer and dancer on the original ''

The Mickey Mouse Club ''The Mickey Mouse Club'' is an American variety television show that aired intermittently from 1955 to 1996 and returned to social media in 2017. Created by Walt Disney and produced by Walt Disney Productions, the program was first televised ...

television series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed be ...

from 1955 to 1959. Her Irish father and

French Canadian French Canadians (referred to as Canadiens mainly before the twentieth century; french: Canadiens français, ; feminine form: , ), or Franco-Canadians (french: Franco-Canadiens), refers to either an ethnic group who trace their ancestry to Fre ...

mother were a former

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

dance team. When Darlene was two years old, her family moved to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

, where she became a naturalized U.S. citizen in September 1956 at the age of fifteen. After her career in entertainment ended, she became a nurse.

Biography

Early life and career

Gillespie was born in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirte ...

, Canada. At age ten, she started singing lessons with Glen Raikes, and took dance lessons with , founder of the American Folk Ballet Company. She auditioned for ''The Mickey Mouse Club'' in March 1955, was hired, and appeared on the program for all three seasons of its original run. She was the leading female singer and starred in the serial ''Corky and White Shadow'' during the first season. In the third season, she appeared in the serial ''The New Adventures of

Spin and Marty ''Spin and Marty'' is a series of television shorts that aired as part of ''The Mickey Mouse Club'' show of the mid-1950s, produced by Walt Disney and broadcast on the ABC network in the United States. There were three serials in all, set at the ...

'' with

Tim Considine Timothy Daniel Considine (December 31, 1940 – March 3, 2022) was an American actor, writer, photographer, and automotive historian. He was best known for his acting roles in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Early life Considine was born in Lo ...

and

David Stollery David John Stollery, III (born January 18, 1941 in Los Angeles, California) is a former American child actor and, as an adult, an industrial designer. He appeared in numerous Disney movies and television programs in the 1950s. He is best known for ...

. Her sister

Gina Gillespie Gina Gail Gillespie (born September 20, 1951) is an American former child actress best known for her recurring roles in the television series ''Law of the Plainsman'' and ''Karen'', and for playing Pippi Longstocking in a 1961 episode of ''Shirl ...

was a child actress in television and films who eventually became a lawyer. She was cast as Dorothy in a musical number from the proposed live-action

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

film '' Rainbow Road to Oz'' on an episode of the ''

Disneyland Disneyland is a theme park in Anaheim, California. Opened in 1955, it was the first theme park opened by The Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney. Disney initially envisio ...

in September 1957. The movie was never made, and after ''The Mickey Mouse Club'' stopped filming in 1958, her short acting career neared its end. Her last television appearance was as Beth Brian in the 1962 episode "The Star" of the

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

family drama series ''

National Velvet ''National Velvet'' is a novel by Enid Bagnold (1889–1981), first published in 1935. It was illustrated by Laurian Jones, Bagnold's daughter, who was born in 1921. Plot summary ''National Velvet'' is the story of a 14-year-old girl named ...

'' starring Lori Martin as a budding thoroughbred rider. Gillespie made many recordings under various Disney labels, including an album of 1950s

rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It originated from African-American music such as jazz, rhythm ...

standards, ''Darlene of the Teens'' (1957). She sang the songs "Valentine Greetings" and "My Pa", a song that she sang in "Corky and White Shadow", from the album "Happy Birthday and Other Holiday Songs". She recorded albums from Disney animated films in which she sang and narrated stories such as ''

Alice in Wonderland ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (commonly ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English novel by Lewis Carroll. It details the story of a young girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world of anthropomorphic creatur ...

'' and ''

Sleeping Beauty ''Sleeping Beauty'' (french: La belle au bois dormant, or ''The Beauty in the Sleeping Forest''; german: Dornröschen, or ''Little Briar Rose''), also titled in English as ''The Sleeping Beauty in the Woods'', is a fairy tale about a princess cu ...

''. In 1975, attempting to revive her singing career, she formed her own record company, Alva Records, and released a

45 rpm record In music, a single is a type of release, typically a song recording of fewer tracks than an LP record or an album. One can be released for sale to the public in a variety of formats. In most cases, a single is a song that is released separa ...

country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. It may be a sovereign state or make up one part of a larger state. For example, the country of Japan is an independent, sovereign state, whi ...

songs under the name Darlene Valentine. When Annette Funicello became a singing and acting star, Darlene became very jealous as a youth and an adult. She did not want to be in the same room as Funicello at Mouseketeer reunions. She was banned from participating in the 40th anniversary Mickey Mouse Club documentary because of her criticisms of Disney and Funicello.

Arrests

In 1997, she was charged with petty theft for helping her then-fiancé Jerry Fraschilla shoplift four women's shirts. She was found guilty and sentenced to three days in jail and three years' probation. Gillespie, then 56 years old, denied the charges and filed preliminary papers to appeal. The disposition is unclear. In December 1998, she was convicted in federal court of aiding her third husband, Fraschilla, to purchase securities using a

check-kiting Check kiting or cheque kiting (see spelling differences) is a form of check fraud, involving taking advantage of the float to make use of non-existent funds in a checking or other bank account. In this way, instead of being used as a negotiable i ...

scheme. She was sentenced to two years in prison, but was released after serving only three months. In 2005, she and her husband were indicted on federal charges of filing multiple fraudulent claims in the settlement of a

class-action A class action, also known as a class-action lawsuit, class suit, or representative action, is a type of lawsuit where one of the parties is a group of people who are represented collectively by a member or members of that group. The class action ...

lawsuit. The charges have since been dropped. Fraschilla died in 2008.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gillespie, Darlene 1941 births Living people Actresses from Montreal 20th-century American women singers 20th-century American actresses Anglophone Quebec people Mouseketeers Canadian emigrants to the United States American television actresses Naturalized citizens of the United States Singers from Montreal American nurses American women nurses American people convicted of theft American people convicted of fraud 20th-century American singers Canadian people of Irish descent Canadian people of French descent