Frankie Avalon (Actor)

Frankie Avalon at the August Wilson Theater in New York City. (Photo: Paul Hawthorn / Getty Images)

A boyish pop-rock singer of the late 1950s who turned to films, Avalon is best remembered for the light "beach party" movies he made in the early 60s, usually opposite Annette Funicello. He also made several dramatic films as a young leading man. Since the 60s, Avalon has continued his singing career in Las Vegas and other venues, making only occasional film and TV appearances.

Avalon was still in high school in Philadelphia when he signed his first record contract with Chancellor, had his first gold record--the single "Venus"--and appeared for the first of many times on "American Bandstand". Features beckoned almost immediately. Looking pre-pubescent, he made his screen debut singing a song in "Jamboree" (1957), a backstage musical with Paul Carr and Freda Halloway. Hollywood had Avalon in its grips by 1960, slipping him into "Guns of the Timberland", a saga of loggers starring Alan Ladd, and "The Alamo," which starred and was directed by John Wayne. In the latter, Avalon played a teenaged member of Davy Crockett's crew whom Crockett sends out of the fort on a mission before Santa Ana arrives, thus giving Avalon, as the lone male survivor, the last moment of the film. He also appeared in "Panic in the Year Zero" (1962), a well-received story of a family fending for themselves after a nuclear holocaust.

But Hollywood powers decided that Avalon's popularity as a teen idol was being wasted on supporting parts in dramas, and in 1963, William Asher directed Avalon and Annette Funicello in the first of numerous frothy sand, surf, and song epics, "Beach Party". The plot had Robert Cummings studying average teen-agers doing what average teen-agers do. The subsequent films, made during the next three years, usually had Avalon and Funicello as boyfriend and girlfriend. Boy does something really dumb, thus almost losing girl to burly guy. But boy surfs the wild wave, is crowned Kahuna, and has girl at his side as the tide comes in. The comedy may have been silly, but the films made money. Most were filmed in about 15 days, but Avalon and Funicello would go on the road to promote them for two months at a time. During this time, it was also never mentioned publicly that Avalon had married his high school sweetheart and was on his way to fathering eight children. He tried to keep up a dramatic film career as well, even traveling to Spain to make "The Castillian" (1963), an odd medieval honor film. But the beach movies made dramatic film work impossible and the British invasion ended the teen idol careers of Avalon, Fabian and Rick Nelson.

By the end of the decade, Avalon was nostalgia. But not forgotten. He continued to play Las Vegas and made occasional guest appearances on sitcoms (such as "Here's Lucy") and offered a rare dramatic turn on an episode of "Police Story" (1974). Johnny Carson would invite him to "The Tonight Show" couch now and again, and CBS gave him a summer series in 1976, "Easy Does It ... Starring Frankie Avalon". Avalon had a cameo in "Grease" (1978), as the teen idol Didi Conn pines for. If Avalon resented his typecasting, he didn't reveal it in interviews, and almost good-naturedly accepted his fate. He had been off the screen for a decade when he teamed up with Funicello again, as executive producers and stars of "Back to the Beach" (1987). The feature had the duo married and living in Ohio, but they return to the old haunt to rescue their daughter from a man she is living with, only to, once again, stir up their own relationship. Again, Avalon must win back Annette's heart on his surf board. The film did moderately well at the box office, and Avalon wanted to do more, but Funicello, stricken with multiple sclerosis, and could no longer act. He played himself in the CBS TV-movie about her struggles, "A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes: The Annette Funicello Story" (1995).

But Avalon continues to be active. He appeared as himself performing in Las Vegas in Martin Scorsese's "Casino" (1995) and hosted "Ballyhoo: The Hollywood Sideshow!", a 1996 American Movie Classic special on gimmickry in the movies. The waves may not always be gnarly, but Avalon continues to ride them.