Doreen Tracey | |
---|---|
Born | Doreen Isabelle Tracey April 3, 1943 |
Died | January 10, 2018 | (aged 74)
Nationality | British– American |
Occupation(s) | Actress, performer |
Years active | 1953–2018 |
Spouse |
Robert Washburn
(
m. 1961;
div. 1962) |
Children | 1 |
Doreen Isabelle Tracey (April 13, 1943 – January 10, 2018) was a British-born American performer who appeared on the original Mickey Mouse Club television show from 1955 to 1959.
Tracey was born in St Pancras, London, England. [1] Her parents, Sidney Tracey and Bessie Hay, were an American vaudeville dance team that performed for Allied soldiers during World War II. [2] Her father's original name was Murray Katzelnick. He emigrated to the United States from Russia with his Jewish parents as an infant. [2]
When Doreen was four, her family returned to the United States, where her father first ran a nightclub, then opened a dance studio in Hollywood, California. [3] She learned to dance and sing at an early age, courtesy of the many instructors and performers who worked out at her father's studio. [4] Her first professional work was an uncredited singing and dancing bit in the musical film The Farmer Takes a Wife (1953). [4] At age twelve she auditioned for the Disney's Mickey Mouse Club and was hired. She appeared for all three seasons of the show's original run. [1]
In 1956, Tracey was featured in the Disney western Westward Ho, the Wagons!, and in the third season of the Mickey Mouse Club, had a role in the serial Annette. [4] She was cast as Scraps, the Patchwork Girl, in a musical number from the proposed live-action Disney film The Rainbow Road to Oz on an episode of the Disneyland television show in September 1957. [3] The movie was never made, and when the Mickey Mouse Club was cancelled in 1958, Tracey switched to singing live at concerts and teen nightclubs. [5]
Tracey appeared on several television programs, including the episode "April Fool" (April 1, 1959), of ABC's The Donna Reed Show, with James Darren in a guest-starring role as well. [5] She ended her career as a performer by touring American military bases in South Vietnam and Thailand and performing lead vocals for a rock group called "Doreen and the Invaders". [6]
Tracey later worked as a publicist at Warner Bros. Records where she promoted acts including Frank Zappa and the Doobie Brothers. For awhile, she was also an amateur weightlifter. [4] Tracey twice posed nude for the sex magazine Gallery in 1976 and 1979; as a result, she was excluded from Mouseketeer reunions and official Disney functions for several years thereafter. She later reconciled with Disney and expressed regret at having posed for the photos. [6] In 2001, an excerpt from her unpublished memoir originally cowritten with celebrity biographer Jeff Lenburg, Confessions of a Mouseketeer, was published in the NPR anthology I Thought My Father Was God. [6]
Tracey married Robert Washburn and had a son, but the marriage ended in divorce. [2] In 2018, after having cancer for two years, Tracey died of pneumonia at a hospital in Thousand Oaks, California at the age of 74. [3]
Doreen Tracey | |
---|---|
Born | Doreen Isabelle Tracey April 3, 1943 |
Died | January 10, 2018 | (aged 74)
Nationality | British– American |
Occupation(s) | Actress, performer |
Years active | 1953–2018 |
Spouse |
Robert Washburn
(
m. 1961;
div. 1962) |
Children | 1 |
Doreen Isabelle Tracey (April 13, 1943 – January 10, 2018) was a British-born American performer who appeared on the original Mickey Mouse Club television show from 1955 to 1959.
Tracey was born in St Pancras, London, England. [1] Her parents, Sidney Tracey and Bessie Hay, were an American vaudeville dance team that performed for Allied soldiers during World War II. [2] Her father's original name was Murray Katzelnick. He emigrated to the United States from Russia with his Jewish parents as an infant. [2]
When Doreen was four, her family returned to the United States, where her father first ran a nightclub, then opened a dance studio in Hollywood, California. [3] She learned to dance and sing at an early age, courtesy of the many instructors and performers who worked out at her father's studio. [4] Her first professional work was an uncredited singing and dancing bit in the musical film The Farmer Takes a Wife (1953). [4] At age twelve she auditioned for the Disney's Mickey Mouse Club and was hired. She appeared for all three seasons of the show's original run. [1]
In 1956, Tracey was featured in the Disney western Westward Ho, the Wagons!, and in the third season of the Mickey Mouse Club, had a role in the serial Annette. [4] She was cast as Scraps, the Patchwork Girl, in a musical number from the proposed live-action Disney film The Rainbow Road to Oz on an episode of the Disneyland television show in September 1957. [3] The movie was never made, and when the Mickey Mouse Club was cancelled in 1958, Tracey switched to singing live at concerts and teen nightclubs. [5]
Tracey appeared on several television programs, including the episode "April Fool" (April 1, 1959), of ABC's The Donna Reed Show, with James Darren in a guest-starring role as well. [5] She ended her career as a performer by touring American military bases in South Vietnam and Thailand and performing lead vocals for a rock group called "Doreen and the Invaders". [6]
Tracey later worked as a publicist at Warner Bros. Records where she promoted acts including Frank Zappa and the Doobie Brothers. For awhile, she was also an amateur weightlifter. [4] Tracey twice posed nude for the sex magazine Gallery in 1976 and 1979; as a result, she was excluded from Mouseketeer reunions and official Disney functions for several years thereafter. She later reconciled with Disney and expressed regret at having posed for the photos. [6] In 2001, an excerpt from her unpublished memoir originally cowritten with celebrity biographer Jeff Lenburg, Confessions of a Mouseketeer, was published in the NPR anthology I Thought My Father Was God. [6]
Tracey married Robert Washburn and had a son, but the marriage ended in divorce. [2] In 2018, after having cancer for two years, Tracey died of pneumonia at a hospital in Thousand Oaks, California at the age of 74. [3]