- 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 ...
- Actress Sandra Dee became a teen sensation in the late 1950s, but her career couldn’t withstand adulthood, and neither could her marriage to teen idol Bobby Darin.
Sandra Dee
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Sandra Dee | |
|---|---|
Dee in 1961
|
|
| Born | Alexandra Zuck April 23, 1942 Bayonne, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Died | February 20, 2005 (aged 62) Thousand Oaks, California, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Kidney failure |
| Resting place | Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Hollywood Hills, California, U.S. |
| Other names | Sandra Douvan |
| Education | Hollywood Professional School |
| Occupation | Actress, model |
| Years active | 1957–1983 |
| Spouse(s) | Bobby Darin (m. 1960–67); divorced; 1 child |
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.
Contents
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 then married 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]MGM cast her as the female lead in The Reluctant Debutante (1958), supporting Rex Harrison and Kay Kendall; her romantic co-star was John Saxon, with whom she would make several films. She provided the voice for The Snow Queen (1957).
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)
Universal
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) for producer Ross Hunter, opposite Saxon and Teresa Wright. She followed this with another for Hunter, A Stranger in My Arms (1959), flirting with Jeff Chandler, although the female star was June Allyson.Stardom
Her third film for Hunter had the biggest impact: 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]Columbia Pictures borrowed her to play the titular role in the teenage beach comedy Gidget (1959), which was a solid hit, helping spawn the beach party genre and leading to two sequels, two TV series and two TV movies - none of which Dee appeared in.
For a complete change of pace, Universal cast her opposite Audie Murphy in the Western romantic comedy, The Wild and the Innocent (1959), playing a tom boy. It was not particularly popular. However another melodrama in the vein of Imitation of Life, A Summer Place (1959) made at Warners, was a massive hit. Dee starred opposite Troy Donahue, Dorothy McGuire and Richard Egan. That year, US box office exhibitors voted her the 16th most popular star in the country.
Hunter reunited her with Lana Turner and John Saxon in Universal's Portrait in Black (1960), a reasonably popular thriller. Dee was the 7th biggest star at the end of 1960. Peter Ustinov used her as the lead in the Cold War comedy Romanoff and Juliet (1961); her romantic co star was Universal's new heart-throb John Gavin. Gavin played opposite her in Tammy Tell Me True (1961) for Hunter, where Dee took over the role originated by Debbie Reynolds. It was popular; even more so was Come September (1961), with Rock Hudson, Gina Lollabrigida and Bobby Darin. She and Darin married after filming on December 1, 1960.[12]
Newly married, Dee and Darin appeared in the romantic comedy If a Man Answers together for Ross Hunter. There was another "Tammy" film, Tammy and the Doctor (1963), opposite Peter Fonda; the series ended. She had another big hit as the daughter of James Stewart in Take Her, She's Mine (1963), playing a character loosely based on Nora Ephron. That year she was voted the 8th biggest star in the country - it would be her last appearance in the top ten.
I'd Rather Be Rich (1964) was a musical remake of It Happened to Eve with Robert Goulet for Ross Hunter. She was reunited with Darin in That Funny Feeling (1965), then wound up her contract at Universal with a spy comedy, 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.[13] 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.[14]She made a comedy at MGM, Doctor, You've Got to Be Kidding! (1967) which was a mild success. Ross Hunter asked her back at Universal to support Rosalind Russell in Rosie! (1968) but it was not a success.
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.[15] 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."[16]
Illness and death
Grave of Sandra Dee, at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills
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.[17][18] She is buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Hollywood Hills.[5] Dee was survived by her son, her daughter-in-law, and two granddaughters.[citation needed]
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).[19] She and Darin divorced in 1965 but continued to live together.[20] Bobby Darin died at age 37 in 1973.[21] 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.[21]
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. According to a family friend, Dee "always had a big laugh about it."[citation needed]
- 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.
- She is referenced in the Rodney Crowell song "I Ain't Living Long Like This" ("I live with Angel she's a roadhouse queen, makes Texas Ruby look like Sandra Dee")
- She is also referenced in the Badly Drawn Boy song "One Last Dance" ("To this day I'm lovin' you, we know what we wanna do. I am your Troy Donahue and you are my Sandra Dee")
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:[22]- 1959—16th
- 1960—7th
- 1961—6th
- 1962—9th
- 1963—8th
References
- 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.
External links
 |
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sandra Dee. |
- Sandra Dee – The Carpathian Connection
- Sandra Dee at the Internet Movie Database
- Sandra Dee at the TCM Movie Database
- Merkin, Daphne (December 25, 2005). "Gidget Doesn't Live Here Anymore". The New York Times. Retrieved May 23, 2010.
- Sandra Dee (March 18, 1991). "Learning to Live Again: A Former Teen Queen Shakes Free of Her Humiliating Past to End Years of Self-Hate and Loneliness". People Magazine. 35 (10). Retrieved August 16, 2012.
- Profile of Sandra Dee; accessed March 24, 2014.
Categories:
- 1942 births
- 2005 deaths
- 20th-century American actresses
- Actresses from Los Angeles
- Actresses from New Jersey
- University High School (Los Angeles, California) alumni
- American child actresses
- American film actresses
- American television actresses
- Deaths from renal failure
- Disease-related deaths in California
- Actors from Bayonne, New Jersey
- American people of Rusyn descent
- Russian Orthodox Christians from the United States
- Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills)
- American child models
- New Star of the Year (Actress) Golden Globe winners
No comments:
Post a Comment