Sharon Baird, best known as Mousketeer "Sharon" on
The Mickey Mouse Club (1955),
was born in Seattle, Washington, on August 16, 1943 (her brother,
Jimmy Baird, also had an acting career,
although it was shorter than Sharon's). She took ballet lessons as a
child, and showed an aptitude for dancing, later taking up tap, jazz
and other forms of dance.
In 1950 she won a "Little Miss Washington" beauty contest. The prize
was a trip to Los Angeles to compete in the national pageant; she took
second place. Her parents found that they preferred the warm, dry
climate of L.A. to the cold, rainy one of Seattle and moved there. It
was in L.A. that Sharon got a new dance teacher, renowned tap dancer
Louis Da Pron. His new pupil showed such
promise that he recommended she audition for an upcoming part in a skit
involving children on
The Colgate Comedy Hour (1950).
She didn't get the part, but the show's host,
Eddie Cantor, put her under personal
contract, and whenever he hosted the show, he put her in it. She
eventually tried out for, and got, a part in the film
Bloodhounds of Broadway (1952).
Cantor had a heart attack in 1952, and without him Sharon's career
slowed considerably. She managed to get parts in a few TV series
episodes but not much more than that.
The 11-year-old Sharon was at a Capitol Records recording session when
she was spotted by Jimmie Dodd, who was to
be one of the co-hosts of the upcoming Disney show "The Mickey Mouse
Club". He urged her to audition for it. She did, and got the part. She
had more singing and dancing experience than most of her fellow cast
members, and eventually wound up being featured in almost every show in
the first year. In addition to her work on the show, Sharon also
performed in live shows at Disneyland, and went on the road with some
of her fellow cast members.
By the show's third year, however, things began to change. Sharon found
herself being used less and less, and often just in the background
instead of being a featured singer or dancer. When the show ended in
1958, Sharon continued to perform at Disneyland and at other functions
with some of her former cast members, such as an Australian tour in
1959. She later performed with song-and-dance man
Donald O'Connor in a Las Vegas
engagement. The variety show genre was on its last legs, however, and
Sharon made ends meet by teaching dancing and enrolling in math and
secretarial courses at Los Angeles Valley College, which she attended
from 1960-1962. In 1963 she married singer Dalton Lee Thomas, but they
separated in 1966, finally divorcing in 1972.
Sharon was working as a secretary in 1969 when she got a call from
producer Sid Krofft, who offered her a part
in his new show,
H.R. Pufnstuf (1969). She took
it, and was later hired by Krofft and his brother
Marty Krofft for all of their subsequent
series. In 1975 Sharon appeared at the 20th Anniversary Celebration for
"The Mickey Mouse Club" at Disneyland. She appeared as "Frodo" in the
animated/live action
Der Herr der Ringe (1978)
by Ralph Bakshi and on "The Mickey Mouse
Club's" 20th Anniversary Show in 1980. In 1986, however, she appeared
in a film unlike anything she had appeared in before: she played--under
the pseudonym "S.L. Baird"--a teenage boy whose physical deformity and
behavior led him to be called "Ratboy" in the film of the same name,
Ratboy (1986). Unfortunately the film was
a commercial and critical failure and Sharon returned to performing in
children's shows, and appeared in a direct-to-video production called
The Mother Goose Video Treasury (1987).
She has since appeared in several Mousketeer reunions and at
Disneyland's 50th Anniversary Event in 2005. She has remained close
friends with former Mousketeer
Annette Funicello.
