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Sandra Dee

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Sandra Dee
Dee in 1961
Born
Alexandra Zuck

(1942-04-23)April 23, 1942
Bayonne, New Jersey, U.S.
DiedFebruary 20, 2005(2005-02-20) (aged 62)
Thousand Oaks, California, U.S.
Cause of deathKidney failure
Resting placeForest Lawn Memorial Park, Hollywood Hills, California, U.S.
Other namesSandra Douvan
EducationHollywood Professional School
Occupation(s)Actress, model
Years active1957–1983
Spouse(s)
​
(m. 1960⁠–⁠1967)​
; divorced; 1 child

Sandra Dee (born Alexandra Zuck; April 23, 1942 – February 20, 2005) was an American actress. Dee began her career as a child model, working in commercials before transitioning to film in her teenage years. Best known for her portrayal of ingenues, Dee earned a Golden Globe Award as one of the year's most promising newcomers for her performance in Robert Wise's Until They Sail (1958). She became a teenage star for her subsequent performances in Imitation of Life and Gidget (both 1959), which made her a household name.[1]

By the late 1960s her career had started to decline, and a highly publicized marriage to Bobby Darin (m. 1960–1967) ended in divorce. She rarely acted after this time, and her final years were marred by illness. She died in 2005 at the age of 62 of complications from kidney disease, brought on by a lifelong struggle with anorexia nervosa.

Early life

Dee was born Alexandra Zuck in Bayonne, New Jersey, in 1942, the only child of Mary (née Cymboliak) and John Zuck, who met as teenagers at a Russian Orthodox church dance and married shortly afterward, but divorced before Sandra was five years old.[2][3] She was of Carpatho-Rusyn ancestry,[4] and raised in the Russian Orthodox faith.

Her son, Dodd Darin, wrote in his biographical book about his parents, Dream Lovers, that Dee's mother, Mary, and her aunt Olga "were first generation daughters of a working class Russian Orthodox couple."[4] Dee recalled, "we belonged to a Russian Orthodox Church, and there was dancing at the social events."[4] Alexandra would soon take the name Sandra Dee. She became a professional model by the age of 4 and subsequently progressed to television commercials.[citation needed]

There has been some dispute as to Dee's actual birth year, with evidence pointing to both 1942 and 1944. Legal records, including her California divorce record from Bobby Darin, as well as the Social Security Death Index (SSDI) and her own gravestone[5] all give her year of birth as 1942. In a 1967 interview with the Oxnard Press-Courier, she acknowledged being 18 in 1960 when she first met Bobby Darin, and the couple wed three months later.[6] According to her son's book, Dee was born in 1944, but, having begun modelling and acting at a very young age, she and her mother falsely inflated her age by two years so she could find more work. According to this version, this explains why 1942 was listed as her birth year in official studio press releases. It does not however explain why her gravestone, which had to have been commissioned by her son, her only child and sole immediate survivor, gives 1942 as her year of birth.[4][5][5] Dee's parents divorced in 1950, and her mother remarried. It was to a man who reportedly sexually abused Dee.[7]

Career

Modeling

Producer Ross Hunter claimed to have discovered Dee on Park Avenue in New York City with her mother when she was twelve years old.[1] In a 1959 interview, Dee recalled that she "grew up fast", surrounded mostly by older people, and was "never held back in anything [she] wanted to do".[8] During her modeling career, Dee attempted to lose weight to "be as skinny as the high-fashion models", although an improper diet "ruined [her] skin, hair, nails—everything." Having slimmed down, her body was unable to digest any food she ate, and it took the help of a doctor to regain her health. According to the actress, she "could have killed [herself]" and "had to learn to eat all over again."[8] In spite of the damaging effects on her health, Dee earned a generous $75,000 a year working as a teen model in New York, which she used to support herself and her mother after the death of her stepfather. According to sources, Dee's large modeling salary was more than she would later come to earn as an actress.[7]

Hollywood films

Ending her modeling career, Dee moved from New York to Hollywood in 1957. After studying at the Hollywood Professional School, she graduated from University High School in Los Angeles in June 1958. Dee's onscreen debut was in Until They Sail in 1957, directed by Robert Wise, and opposite Joan Fontaine and Piper Laurie.[9] To promote the film, Dee appeared in a December issue of Modern Screen in a column by Louella Parsons, who praised the young girl and compared her looks and talent to those of Shirley Temple.[7] She won a Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actress, along with Carolyn Jones and Diane Varsi for her performance in the film.[10] Despite her newfound success, Dee continued to struggle with anorexia nervosa, which led to her kidneys temporarily shutting down.[7]

In Imitation of Life trailer (1959)

In 1958, Dee was signed with Universal Pictures, and was one of the company's last contract players prior to the dissolution of the old studio system.[11] She had a lead role in The Restless Years (1958), and shot The Reluctant Debutante in Paris the same year, playing the daughter of Rex Harrison.[12] Dee was subsequently cast in Imitation of Life (1959), opposite Lana Turner. The film became a wild box office success, and at the time was Universal Pictures's highest-grossing film in history, making Dee a household name.[1]

Her titular role in the teenage beach comedy Gidget (1959) established Dee's reputation for playing wholesome ingenue roles. She also starred in A Summer Place, followed by Come September (1961), opposite Rock Hudson and Gina Lollobrigida; also starring in the film was Bobby Darin, whom Dee met on the set. She and Darin married after filming on December 1, 1960.[13] Newly married, Dee and Darin appeared in the romantic comedy If a Man Answers together, and Dee later played Tammy in two Universal sequels to Tammy and the Bachelor—Tammy Tell Me True (1961); and Tammy and the Doctor (1963), opposite Peter Fonda––in the role created by Debbie Reynolds. She reunited with Darin in That Funny Feeling (1965), followed by a role as a detective in A Man Could Get Killed (1966).

Decline and later roles

By the end of the 1960s, Dee's career had slowed significantly, and she was dropped by Universal Pictures.[14] Dee rarely acted following her 1967 divorce from Bobby Darin. In a 1967 interview with Roger Ebert, Dee reflected on her experience in the studio system, and on the ingenue image that had been foisted on her, which she found constricting:

Look at this––[a] cigarette. I like to smoke. I'm 25 years old, and it so happens that I like to smoke. So out in Hollywood the studio press agents are still pulling cigarettes out of my hand and covering my drink with a napkin whenever my picture is taken. Little Sandra Dee isn't supposed to smoke, you know. Or drink. Or breathe.[15]

Dee was inactive in the film industry for several years before appearing in the American International Pictures occult horror film The Dunwich Horror (1970) as a student who finds herself in the center of a Satanic ritual plot.[16] The film was based on the story by H.P. Lovecraft. Throughout the 1970s, Dee took roles sporadically in several television series, making brief appearances in Night Gallery, Fantasy Island, and Police Woman. Her final film performance was in the 1983 drama Lost. In her later years, Dee told a Newark, New Jersey newspaper that she "felt like a has-been that never was."[17]

Illness and death

Grave of Sandra Dee, at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills

Dee's later adult years were marked by poor health, and she became a self-described recluse.[17] She battled anorexia nervosa, depression, and alcoholism for many years. She quit drinking altogether after being diagnosed with throat cancer and kidney failure in 2000, attributed to years of heavy drinking and smoking.[9]

Complications from kidney disease led to her death on February 20, 2005, at the Los Robles Hospital & Medical Center in Thousand Oaks, California at the age of 62.[18][19] Her remains are interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Hollywood Hills.[5] Dee was survived by her son, her daughter-in-law and two granddaughters.

Personal life

Dee's marriage to Bobby Darin in 1960 kept her in the public eye for much of the decade. They met while filming Come September, which was released in 1961. She was under contract to Universal Studios, which tried to develop Dee into a mature actress, and the films she made as an adult—including a few with Darin—were moderately successful. On 16 December 1961, they had one son, Dodd Mitchell Darin (also known as Morgan Mitchell Darin).[20] She and Darin divorced in 1965 but continued to live together.[21] Bobby Darin died at age 37 in 1973.[22] She never remarried.

In 1994, Dodd Darin published a book about his parents, Dream Lovers: The Magnificent Shattered Lives of Bobby Darin and Sandra Dee, in which he chronicled his mother's anorexia, drug and alcohol problems, and her claim that she had been sexually abused as a child by her stepfather, Eugene Douvan.[22]

Filmography

Year Title Role Notes
1957 The Snow Queen Gerda Voice: English version
1957 Until They Sail Evelyn Leslie
1958 The Reluctant Debutante Jane Broadbent
1958 The Restless Years Melinda Grant Alternative title: The Wonderful Years
1959 A Stranger in My Arms Pat Beasley Alternative title: And Ride a Tiger
1959 Gidget Gidget (Frances Lawrence)
1959 Imitation of Life Susie (at age 16)
1959 The Wild and the Innocent Rosalie Stocker
1959 A Summer Place Molly Jorgenson
1960 Portrait in Black Cathy Cabot
1961 Romanoff and Juliet Juliet Moulsworth Alternative title: Dig That Juliet
1961 Tammy Tell Me True Tambrey "Tammy" Tyree
1961 Come September Sandy Stevens
1962 If a Man Answers Chantal Stacy
1963 Tammy and the Doctor Tambrey "Tammy" Tyree
1963 Take Her, She's Mine Mollie Michaelson
1964 I'd Rather Be Rich Cynthia Dulaine
1965 That Funny Feeling Joan Howell
1966 A Man Could Get Killed Amy Franklin Alternative title: Welcome, Mr. Beddoes
1967 Doctor, You've Got to Be Kidding! Heather Halloran
1967 Rosie! Daphne Shaw
1970 The Dunwich Horror Nancy Wagner
1971–72 Night Gallery Ann Bolt
Millicent/Marion Hardy 		2 episodes
1972 The Manhunter Mara Bocock Television movie
1972 The Daughters of Joshua Cabe Ada Television movie
1972 Love, American Style Bonnie Galloway Segment "Love and the Sensuous Twin"
1972 The Sixth Sense Alice Martin Episode: "Through a Flame Darkly"
1974 Houston, We've Got a Problem Angie Cordell Television movie
1977–83 Fantasy Island Francesca Hamilton Television movie

Margaret Winslow Episode: "Eternal Flame/A Date with Burt"

1978 Police Woman Marie Quinn Episode: "Blind Terror"
1983 Lost Penny
1994 Frasier Connie (voice only) Episode: "The Botched Language of Cranes"

Box office rating

For a number of years, exhibitors voted Dee one of the most popular box office stars in the United States:[23]

  • 1959—16th
  • 1960—7th
  • 1961—6th
  • 1962—9th
  • 1963—8th

References

  1. ^ a b c Kashner & MacNair 2002, p. 268.
  2. ^ Biography of Sandra Dee, biography.com; accessed August 14, 2014.
  3. ^ Dee, Sandra (1991-03-18). "Learning to Live Again". People. Retrieved 2009-09-02. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  4. ^ a b c d Darin 1994, pp. 27–30.
  5. ^ a b c d Sandra Dee at Find a Grave; accessed July 4, 2015.
  6. ^ Oxnard Press-Courier interview, interactive.ancestry.com; accessed May 9, 2014.
  7. ^ a b c d Kashner & MacNair 2002, p. 269.
  8. ^ a b Lydia Lane, "Sandra Dee, Teen-age Beauty", The Palm Beach Post. p. 42.
  9. ^ a b Brennan, Carol. "Sandra Dee Biography". Encyclopedia of World Biography. Retrieved April 1, 2016.
  10. ^ "Sandra Dee". Golden Globes. Retrieved March 30, 2016.
  11. ^ Kashner & MacNair 2002, p. 270.
  12. ^ Kashner & MacNair 2002, p. 272.
  13. ^ Staggs 2010, p. 154.
  14. ^ Merkin, Daphne (December 25, 2005). "Gidget Doesn't Live Here Anymore". The New York Times. Retrieved April 1, 2016.
  15. ^ Ebert, Roger (November 5, 1967). "Beyond Miss Dee: Sandra Dee Grows Up". The Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved April 1, 2016.
  16. ^ Staggs 2010, p. 155.
  17. ^ a b Kashner & MacNair 2002, p. 274.
  18. ^ Kehr, Dave (February 20, 2005). "Sandra Dee, 'Gidget' Star and Teenage Idol, Dies at 62". The New York Times. Retrieved September 2, 2009.
  19. ^ Marla, Lehner (February 20, 2005). "Screen Star Sandra Dee Dies". people.com. Retrieved December 28, 2015.
  20. ^ Biography: Dodd Darin, imdb.com; accessed August 14, 2014.
  21. ^ Interview with Sandra Dee https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wotn99LbFbw
  22. ^ a b Son's book takes new look at Darin, Dee, articles.baltimoresun.com, December 14, 1997.
  23. ^ Quigley's Annual List of Box-Office Champions, 1932-1970 October 23, 2003 accessed July 9, 2012

Bibliography

  • Darin, Dodd (1994). Dream Lovers: The Magnificent Shattered Lives of Bobby Darin and Sandra Dee. Warner Books. ISBN 978-0-44651-768-3.
  • Kashner, Sam; MacNair, Jennifer (2002). The Bad & the Beautiful: Hollywood in the Fifties. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-39332-436-5.
  • Staggs, Sam (2010). "Pretty Baby". Born to Be Hurt: The Untold Story of Imitation of Life. St. Martin's Griffin. ISBN 978-0-31260-555-1.

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