Original Mouseketeer Doreen Tracey is dead at 74. After battling cancer, Tracey died at a hospital in Thousand Oaks, California.
Doreen Tracey appeared on the original Mickey Mouse Club from 1955-1959. “Our Dodo, as we lovingly nicknamed her, always had a smile on her face,” fellow Mouseketeer cast mate Tommy Cole said in a statement. “She never failed to make us all feel good, and we will miss her.”
She shared that Walt Disney advised her about her experience on the Mickey Mouse Club saying, “‘This will probably be the greatest thing you’ll ever do in your entire life,’” Tracey said in an interview with The Times. “That was pretty heavy stuff for a 12-year-old. But he was right.”
Born in London on April 3, 1943, Tracey was the child of parents who performed in vaudeville. They moved to the USA when Doreen Tracey was 4. There, her father opened a dance studio in Hollywood, California. There she learned how to sing and dance and would eventually get an uncredited movie role before auditioning for the Mickey Mouse Club when she was 12.
While performing on the Mickey Mouse Club, Tracey appeared in Disney’s Westward Ho the Wagons! She also appeared on The Mickey Mouse Club‘s Annette serial and on The Donna Reed Show. As time went by, she went on tour with the Mouseketeers in Australia.
After the Mickey Mouse Club, Tracey toured American military bases on her own along with appearing on various television shows. She also worked as a publicist for Frank Zappa with Warner Bros. Records. As decades went by, Tracey returned to her roots and appeared with other Mouseketeers at reunions at both Disneyland and Disney conventions. She most recently appeared in 2015 at the D23 Expo celebrating the Mickey Mouse Club’s 60th anniversary.
Tracey leaves behind her son and two grandkids.
