Sandra Dee (April 23, 1942 – February 20, 2005) was an American actress. Dee began her career as a model and progressed to film. Best known for her portrayal of ingenues, Dee won a Golden Globe Award in 1959 as one of the year's most promising newcomers, and over several years her films were popular. 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 of complications from kidney disease in 2005.

 

Birth and background

Dee was born Alexandra Zuck in Bayonne, New Jersey. Her parents, Mary (née Cymboliak) and John Zuck, met as teenagers at a Russian Orthodox church dance. They married shortly after, but divorced before she was five. She was of Polish and Carpatho-Rusyn ancestry and was raised in the Russian Orthodox Church. Her son Dodd Darin wrote in his biographical book about his parents, Dream Lovers, that Dee's mother, Mary, and her sister Olga "were first generation daughters of a working class Russian Orthodox couple." Dee herself recalled, "we belonged to a Russian Orthodox Church, and there was dancing at the social events." Alexandra would soon take the name Sandra Dee. She became a professional model by the age of four and subsequently progressed to television commercials.

There has been some confusion as to Dee's actual birth year, with evidence pointing to both 1942 and 1944. According to her son's book, Dee was born in 1944, but, having begun modeling and acting at a very young age, she and her mother falsely inflated her age by two years so she could find more work. Therefore, 1942 was listed as her birth year in official studio press releases, leading to that year's being considered truthful in verifiable sources. After having studied at Hollywood Professional School, she graduated from University High, Los Angeles, in June 1958. 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."

During her modeling career, Dee attempted to lose weight to "be as skinny as the high fashion models", though 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."

Career

 

Ending her modeling career, Dee moved from New York to Hollywood in 1957. There, she made her first film, Until They Sail, in 1957. The following year, she won a Golden Globe Award for New Star Of The Year - Actress, along with Carolyn Jones and Diane Varsi.

In Imitation of Life trailer (1959)

She became known for her wholesome ingenue roles in such films as The Reluctant Debutante, Gidget, Imitation of Life, and A Summer Place. She later played "Tammy" in two Universal sequels to Tammy and the Bachelor, in the role created by Debbie Reynolds. During the 1970s, Dee took very few acting jobs but made occasional television appearances.

Personal life

Dee's marriage to Bobby Darin in 1960 kept her in the public eye for much of the decade. They met while making the film Come September (released in 1961) together. 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). She and Darin divorced in 1967 and Darin died in 1973.

In 1994, Dee's son 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 she had been sexually abused as a child by her stepfather, Eugene Douvan.

Illness and death

Dee's adult years were marked by poor health. She battled anorexia nervosa, depression and alcoholism for many years. Complications from kidney disease led to her death on February 20, 2005 at the Los Robles Hospital & Medical Center in Thousand Oaks, California. She is interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Hollywood Hills, not far from her mother, Mary C. Douvan, who died on December 27, 1987. She was survived by her son, her daughter-in-law and two granddaughters.

In popular culture

• One of the popular songs of the Broadway musical and 1978 movie Grease is "Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee", in which the rebellious Rizzo satirizes new girl Sandy's clean cut image, likened to Sandra Dee's.
• Dee's life with Bobby Darin was dramatized in the 2004 film Beyond the Sea, in which Kevin Spacey played Darin and Dee was played by Kate Bosworth.

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, 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 Ad est di Marsa Matruh     1971–1972 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 Fantasy Island Francesca Hamilton Television movie 1978 Police Woman Marie Quinn Episode: "Blind Terror" 1983 Lost Penny   1983 Fantasy Island Margaret Winslow Episode: "Eternal Flame/A Date with Burt" 1994 Frasier Connie (Voice) 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 US:

• 1960 - 7th
• 1961 - 6th
• 1962 - 9th
• 1963 - 8th