Cheryl Holdridge, one of the original “Mickey Mouse Club” Mouseketeers, died in Santa Monica, Calif. Jan 6. after a two-year battle with cancer. She was 64.
Born in New Orleans, she and her family relocated to Los Angeles when she was 2. At the age of 9, she was chosen by George Balanchine to perform for the New York City Ballet Company in “The Nutcracker Suite.” She also had a small role in the 1956 film musical, “Carousel.”
Holdridge was hired for “The Mickey Mouse Club” in the spring of 1956 and went on to appear in the several of the show’s episodic serials including “Boys of the Western Sea” and the “Annette Series.”
Her TV appearances included playing Wally Cleaver’s girlfriend on “Leave it to Beaver,” as well as appearing on “The Rifleman,” “Bachelor Father,” “My Three Sons,” “Bewitched,” and “The Dick Van Dyke Show.”
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In 1964 she married Lance Reventlow, son of Barbara Hutton and heir to the Woolworth fortune, who died in a plane crash in 1972.
Holdridge retired from show business until 1980 when she was invited to appear with fellow Mouseketeers on the club’s 25th anniversary TV special. She made brief appearances in TV shows and films including “The Flintstones in Viva Las Vegas” in 2000, as well as at Disneyland events.
Holdridge, who had no children, was predeceased by her third husband, Californian politician Manning Post, who died in 2000.
