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Sandra Dee

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Sandra Dee
Dee in 1959
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.
Resting placeForest Lawn Memorial Park
Other namesSandra Douvan
EducationUniversity High School
Alma materProfessional Children's School
Occupations
  • Actress
  • model
Years active1957–1983
Known for
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1960; div. 1967)​
Children1

Sandra Dee (born Alexandra Cymboliak Zuck;[1] April 23, 1942 – February 20, 2005) was an American actress. Dee began her career as a child model, working first in commercials and then film in her teenage years. Best known for her portrayal of ingénues, 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 performances in Imitation of Life and Gidget (both 1959), which made her a household name.[2]

By the late 1960s, her career had started to decline and a highly publicized marriage to Bobby Darin ended in divorce. The year of her divorce, Dee's contract with Universal Pictures was dropped. She attempted a comeback with the 1970 independent horror film The Dunwich Horror, but rarely acted after this time, appearing only occasionally in television productions throughout the 1970s and early 1980s. The rest of the decade was marked by alcoholism, mental illness, and reclusiveness, particularly after her mother died in 1987. Dee sought medical and psychological help in the early 1990s and died in 2005 of complications from kidney disease.

Life and career

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1942–1951: Early life

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Dee was born Alexandra Zuck on April 23, 1942, in Bayonne, New Jersey,[3] the only child of John Zuck and Mary (née Cymboliak) Zuck, who met as teenagers at a Russian Orthodox Church dance. They married shortly afterward, but divorced before Dee was five years old.[4][5] She was of Carpatho-Rusyn ancestry [6] and raised in the Orthodox faith; her son, Dodd Darin, wrote in his biographical book about his parents titled Dream Lovers that Dee's mother Mary and her aunt Olga [later Olga Duda] "were first generation daughters of a working-class Russian Orthodox couple", and Dee recalled, "we belonged to a Russian Orthodox church, and there was dancing at the social events."[6] She soon adopted the name Sandra Dee, became a professional model by the age of four and progressed to television commercials.[7][page needed]

There has been debate as to Dee's actual birth year. According to her son's book, Dee was born in 1944, but she and her mother falsely inflated her age by two years to find more work modeling and acting, which she began at a very young age.[6] Legal records, including her California divorce record from Bobby Darin, as well as the Social Security Death Index and her own cryptstone 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 Darin, whom she wed three months later.[8]

Dee's parents divorced in 1950 and her mother married real estate executive Eugene "Gene" Douvan, who reportedly sexually abused Dee after he married her mother.[9]

1952–1956: Modeling career

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Producer Ross Hunter claimed to have discovered Dee on Park Avenue in New York City with her mother when she was 12 years old.[2] 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."[10]

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 lost weight, her body was unable to digest any food that she ate, and it took the help of a doctor to regain her health. According to Dee, she "could have killed [herself]" and "had to learn to eat all over again."[10]

Despite the damaging effects on her health, Dee earned $75,000 in 1956 (equivalent to $840,000 in 2023) working as a child model in New York, which she used to support herself and her mother after the death of her stepfather in 1956. According to sources, Dee's large modeling salary was more than what she would later earn as an actress.[9] While modeling in New York, she attended the Professional Children's School.[11]

1957–1958: Early films and Universal contract

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Ending her modeling career, Dee moved from New York to Hollywood in 1957. She graduated from University High School in Los Angeles in June 1958 at age 16. Her onscreen debut was in the 1957 MGM film Until They Sail, directed by Robert Wise.[11] To promote the film, Dee appeared in a December issue of Modern Screen in a column by Louella Parsons, who praised Dee and compared her appearance and talent to those of Shirley Temple.[9] Dee's performance made her one of that year's winners of the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actress.[12]

MGM cast Dee as the female lead in The Reluctant Debutante (1958), with John Saxon as her romantic costar. It was the first of several films in which Dee appeared with Saxon. She provided the voice of Gerda for the English dub of The Snow Queen (1957). The stress of her newfound success and the effects of sexual abuse, caused Dee to struggle with chronic anorexia nervosa, and her kidneys temporarily failed.[9]

In 1958, Dee signed with Universal Pictures and was one of the company's last contract players prior to the dissolution of the studio system.[13] She had a lead role in The Restless Years (1958) for producer Ross Hunter, opposite Saxon and Teresa Wright. She followed this with another film for Hunter, A Stranger in My Arms (1959).

1959–1965: Stardom

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Dee's third film for Hunter was of greater impact than the first two: Imitation of Life (1959), starring Lana Turner.[2] The film became a box-office success, grossing more than $50 million. It was the highest-grossing film in Universal's history and made Dee a household name. She was lent to Columbia Pictures to play the title role in the teenage beach comedy Gidget (1959),[14] which was a solid hit, helping spawn the beach party genre and leading to two sequels, two television series and two television movies (although Dee did not appear in any of those).[15]

Universal next cast Dee as a tomboy opposite Audie Murphy in the Western romantic comedy The Wild and the Innocent (1959).[16] Warner Bros. borrowed her for another melodrama in the vein of Imitation of Life, A Summer Place (1959), opposite Troy Donahue as her romantic costar. The film was a massive hit, and that year American box office exhibitors voted Dee the 16th-most popular star in the country.[17]

Hunter reunited Dee with Turner and Saxon in Universal's Portrait in Black (1960), a thriller that was a financial success despite receiving harsh reviews.[18] Dee was listed as the nation's seventh-greatest star at the end of 1960.[17] Peter Ustinov cast her as the lead in the Cold War comedy Romanoff and Juliet (1961) with Universal's new heartthrob John Gavin, reuniting them from Imitation of Life.[19]

Dee and Gavin played together again in Hunter's popular Tammy Tell Me True (1961), in which Dee took the Tammy role originated by Debbie Reynolds.[19] In Come September (1961), she worked with Bobby Darin in his film debut (following a cameo in an earlier film). Dee and Darin married after filming on December 1, 1960.[20] On December 16, 1961, she gave birth to their son, her only child, Dodd Mitchell Darin (also known as Morgan Mitchell Darin).[21]

In 1961, Dee, with three years remaining on her Universal contract, signed a new one for seven years.[22] Dee and Darin appeared together in the Hunter romantic comedy If a Man Answers (1962). In 1963, she appeared in the final Tammy film, Tammy and the Doctor, and the hit comedy Take Her, She's Mine,[19] playing a character loosely based on Nora Ephron. That year, she was voted the eighth-greatest star in the country, but it was her last appearance in the top 10.[17] Dee appeared in I'd Rather Be Rich (1964),[19] a musical remake of It Started with Eve, once again for Hunter. She was reunited with Darin in That Funny Feeling (1965) before appearing in her last film at Universal under her contract with the spy comedy A Man Could Get Killed (1966).[19]

Dee was also a singer and recorded some singles in the early 1960s, including a cover version of "When I Fall in Love".[23]

1966–1983: Career decline and later roles

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Dee and Dean Stockwell in The Dunwich Horror (1970)

By the end of the 1960s, Dee's career had slowed significantly, and she was dropped by Universal Pictures.[24] She rarely acted following her 1967 divorce from Darin.[25] In a 1967 interview with Roger Ebert, she reflected on her experience in the studio system and on the ingénue 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.[26]

Dee appeared in the somewhat successful Doctor, You've Got to Be Kidding! in 1967. Hunter asked her to return to Universal in a co-starring role in Rosie! (1967), but the film was not a success. Dee was inactive in the film industry for several years before appearing in the 1970 American International Pictures occult horror film The Dunwich Horror—a loose adaptation of an H.P. Lovecraft story—as a college student who finds herself in the center of an occult ritual plot.[27] Dee later said, "The reason I decided to do Dunwich was because I couldn't put the script down once I started reading it. I had read so many that I had to plow through, just because I promised someone. Even if this movie turns out be a complete disaster, I guarantee it will change my image."[28] However, she refused to appear nude in the film's final sequence that had been written in the screenplay.[28]

Throughout the 1970s, Dee took sporadic guest-starring roles on episodes of several television series, such as Night Gallery, Fantasy Island[3] and Police Woman. Her final film performance occurred in the low-budget drama Lost (1983).[29] In her later years, Dee told a newspaper that she "felt like a has-been that never was."[30]

1984–2005: Later life and retirement

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Dee's years in the 1980s were marked by poor health, and she became a self-described recluse after retiring from acting.[30] At one point, she finally confronted her mother about the sexual abuse by her stepfather when she was a child, as well as her mother's obliviousness to it. She said:

One night I couldn't control the pressure any longer. My mother and I were at home with a few of her close friends, and she started eulogizing my stepfather. I was slowly getting more and more irate. Finally I said, "Mom, shut up. A saint he wasn't." My mother started defending him, and I said, "Well, guess what your saint did to me? He had sex with me." My mother was shocked, then angry. I knew I hurt her. I wanted to. I had so much anger toward her for not doing something to help me. But she ignored me, and the subject never came up again. I realize now that my mother erased the abuse from her own mind. It didn't exist, so she didn't have to feel guilty.[31]

Dee battled anorexia nervosa, depression, and alcoholism for many years, hitting a low point after her mother died of lung cancer on December 27, 1987, at age 63. Dee stated that for months she became a recluse living on soup, crackers and Scotch, with her body weight falling to only 80 pounds. After she began to vomit blood, her son compelled her to seek medical and psychiatric treatment. Her mental and physical condition improved, and she expressed a desire to appear in a television situation comedy, partly in order to belong to a family. She stopped drinking altogether after she was diagnosed with kidney failure in 2000, which was attributed to years of heavy drinking and smoking.[11]

In 1994's Dream Lovers: The Magnificent Shattered Lives of Bobby Darin and Sandra Dee,[7] Dodd Darin chronicled his mother's anorexia and drug and alcohol problems, stating that she had been sexually abused as a child by her stepfather Eugene Douvan.[32] The same year, Dee's final acting credit occurred with a voice-only appearance on an episode of Frasier.

Death

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Crypt of Sandra Dee at Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles

After requiring kidney dialysis for the last four years of her life, Dee died of complications from kidney disease on February 20, 2005, at the Los Robles Hospital & Medical Center in Thousand Oaks, California, at the age of 62.[33][34] She is interred in a crypt at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in the Hollywood Hills.[35]

Filmography

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Film

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Year Title Role Notes Ref.
1957 Until They Sail Evelyn Leslie [36]
1957 The Snow Queen Gerda Voice: 1959 English version [36]
1958 The Reluctant Debutante Jane Broadbent [36]
1958 The Restless Years Melinda Grant Alternative title: The Wonderful Years [36]
1959 A Stranger in My Arms Pat Beasley Alternative title: And Ride a Tiger [36]
1959 Gidget Gidget (Frances Lawrence) [36]
1959 Imitation of Life Susie, age 16 [36]
1959 The Wild and the Innocent Rosalie Stocker [36]
1959 A Summer Place Molly Jorgenson [36]
1960 Portrait in Black Cathy Cabot [36]
1961 Romanoff and Juliet Juliet Moulsworth Alternative title: Dig That Juliet [36]
1961 Tammy Tell Me True Tambrey "Tammy" Tyree [36]
1961 Come September Sandy Stevens [36]
1962 If a Man Answers Chantal Stacy [36]
1963 Tammy and the Doctor Tambrey "Tammy" Tyree [36]
1963 Take Her, She's Mine Mollie Michaelson [36]
1964 I'd Rather Be Rich Cynthia Dulaine [36]
1965 That Funny Feeling Joan Howell [36]
1966 A Man Could Get Killed Amy Franklin Alternative title: Welcome, Mr. Beddoes [36]
1967 Doctor, You've Got to Be Kidding! Heather Halloran [36]
1967 Rosie! Daphne Shaw [36]
1970 The Dunwich Horror Nancy Wagner [36]
1972 The Manhunter Mara Bocock Television film [19]
1972 The Daughters of Joshua Cabe Ada Television film [19]
1974 Houston, We've Got a Problem Angie Cordell Television film [19]
1977 Fantasy Island Francesca Hamilton Television film [19]
1983 Lost Penny Morrison Final film role [29]

Television

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Year Title Role Notes Ref.
1971–1972 Night Gallery Ann Bolt / Millicent/Marion Hardy 2 episodes
1972 Love, American Style Bonnie Galloway Segment: "Love and the Sensuous Twin"
1972 The Sixth Sense Alice Martin Episode: "Through a Flame Darkly"
1978 Police Woman Marie Quinn Episode: "Blind Terror"
1983 Fantasy Island Margaret Winslow Episode: "Eternal Flame/A Date with Burt"
1994 Frasier Connie (voice only) Episode: "The Botched Language of Cranes"

Accolades

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Award Category Year Nominated work Result Ref.
Golden Globe Award Most Promising Newcomer - Female 1958 Until They Sail Won [37]
Laurel Award Top Female New Personality 1959 — Won
Top Female Comedy Performance 1960 Gidget 5th place [38]
Top Female Star — 14th place
1961 — 5th place
1962 — 11th place
Top Female Comedy Performance 1963 If a Man Answers 4th place
Top Female Star — 6th place
Top Female Comedy Performance 1964 Take Her, She's Mine 4th place
Top Female Star — 7th place
1965 — 9th place
1966 — 10th place
1967 — 14th place

Box-office ranking

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For a number of years, exhibitors voted Dee one of the most popular box-office stars in the United States:[17]

  • 1959—16th
  • 1960—7th
  • 1961—6th
  • 1962—9th
  • 1963—8th
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Dee is referenced in the song "Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee" from the 1971 musical Grease and its 1978 film adaptation.[16]

References

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  1. ^ Dictionary of Pseudonyms: 13,000 Assumed Names and Their Origins (Fifth ed.). Jefferson and London: McFarland and Company. 2010. p. 138. ISBN 978-0-7864-4373-4.
  2. ^ a b c Kashner & MacNair 2002, p. 268.
  3. ^ a b Monush 2003, p. 158.
  4. ^ Biography of Sandra Dee, biography.com; accessed August 14, 2014.
  5. ^ Dee, Sandra (1991-03-18). "Learning to Live Again". People. Archived from the original on 2018-09-19. Retrieved 2009-09-02.
  6. ^ a b c Darin 1994, pp. 27–30.
  7. ^ a b Darin 1994.
  8. ^ Oxnard Press-Courier interview, interactive.ancestry.com; accessed May 9, 2014.
  9. ^ a b c d Kashner & MacNair 2002, p. 269.
  10. ^ a b Lydia Lane, "Sandra Dee, Teen-age Beauty", The Palm Beach Post. p. 42.
  11. ^ a b c Brennan, Carol. "Sandra Dee Biography". Encyclopedia of World Biography. Retrieved April 1, 2016.
  12. ^ "Sandra Dee". Golden Globes. Retrieved March 30, 2016.
  13. ^ Kashner & MacNair 2002, p. 270.
  14. ^ Kashner & MacNair 2002, pp. 267, 272.
  15. ^ "Summer in 'cember: Gidget gets a sequel (or two)". The Motion Pictures. 25 December 2012. Retrieved 2023-10-07.
  16. ^ a b Bergan, Ronald (February 22, 2005). "Obituary: Sandra Dee". The Guardian. London, England. Retrieved November 13, 2019.
  17. ^ a b c d Quigley's Annual List of Box-Office Champions, 1932-1970 October 23, 2003 accessed July 9, 2012
  18. ^ Wayne 2003, p. 187.
  19. ^ a b c d e f g h i Monush 2003, p. 185.
  20. ^ Staggs 2010, p. 154.
  21. ^ Biography for Dodd Darin at IMDb
  22. ^ "Sandra Dee signs new contract at U-I", July 19, 1961, Los Angeles Times.
  23. ^ "When I Fall in Love by Sandra Dee". SecondHandSongs. Retrieved 2023-10-07.
  24. ^ Merkin, Daphne (December 25, 2005). "Gidget Doesn't Live Here Anymore". The New York Times Magazine. Retrieved April 1, 2016.
  25. ^ Sandra Dee's Last Interview Pt 2/3 discusses Bobby Darin, her alcoholism, etc plus guest James Darren on YouTube
  26. ^ Ebert, Roger (November 5, 1967). "Beyond Miss Dee: Sandra Dee Grows Up". The Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved April 1, 2016.
  27. ^ Craig 2019, p. 138.
  28. ^ a b Miller, Jeanne (April 18, 1969). "Rosemary Is Expecting Again, in Mendocino". The San Francisco Examiner. San Francisco, California. p. 26 – via Newspapers.com.
  29. ^ a b "Sandra Dee Dead at 62". CBS News. February 21, 2005. Archived from the original on November 13, 2019.
  30. ^ a b Kashner & MacNair 2002, p. 274.
  31. ^ Dee, Sandra (March 18, 1991). "Learning to Live Again". People Magazine. Archived from the original on 2012-05-10. Retrieved July 20, 2021.
  32. ^ Rice, Lynette (December 14, 1994). "Son's book takes new look at Darin, Dee". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved February 2, 2019.
  33. ^ Kehr, Dave (February 20, 2005). "Sandra Dee, 'Gidget' Star and Teenage Idol, Dies at 62". The New York Times. Retrieved September 2, 2009.
  34. ^ Marla, Lehner (February 20, 2005). "Screen Star Sandra Dee Dies". people.com. Retrieved December 28, 2015.
  35. ^ Kemp, Joe; Goldsmith, Samuel (July 7, 2009). "He'll be buried among Tinseltown's legends". Daily News. New York. p. 4.
  36. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v "Sandra Dee". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. Los Angeles, California: American Film Institute. Archived from the original on August 10, 2019.
  37. ^ "Sandra Dee". Golden Globe Awards. Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Archived from the original on July 12, 2018.
  38. ^ Lisanti 2017, p. 37.

Sources

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sandra Dee.
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