Cheryl Holdridge: Mickey Mouse Club ‘Mouseketeer’ Dies at 64

Cheryl Holdridge was an actress best known for being one of the original Mickey Mouse Club cast members. The 64 year old died on January 5, 2009 of lung cancer.Mouseketeer Cheryl joined the original Mickey Mouse Club in the spring of 1956.She was a member of the ‘Red Team’, the most visible and popular of the Mouseketeers.The original cast included Annette Funicello, Doreen Tracey, Tommy Cole, Darlene Gillespie, Bobby Burgess, Cubby O’Brien, Karen Pendleton, Lonnie Burr and Sharon Baird.

After the show ended she returned to high school and graduated in 1961. She was cast in two episodes of Leave It to Beaver in 1959 and later played the recurring role of Wally Cleaver’s girlfriend Julie Foster.Her television career kicked into high gear in 1960 when she appeared on over twenty different shows, including The Rifleman, My Three Sons, Bewitched, Bringing Up Buddy and The Dick Van Dyke Show.

In later years, she made a cameo appearance in a 2000 feature film, The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas. In 2005 she appeared at Disneyland for their 50th anniversary celebrations.Holdridge’s first husband was sportsman and athlete Lance Reventlow, son of Barbara Hutton.He died in a plane crash eight years after they were married. Her second husband Manning J.Post was a major figure in Democratic politics in California. He died in 2000.Neither marriage produced children.