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Sandra Dee

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Sandra Dee (born Alexandra Zuck; 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 (1957). She became a teenage star for her performances in Imitation of Life, Gidget and A Summer Place (all released in 1959), which made her a household name.Template:Sfn

Dee's acting career waned in the late 1960s. In 1967, her highly publicized marriage to Bobby Darin ended in divorce and Universal Pictures was dropped her contract. Dee appeared in the 1970 independent horror film The Dunwich Horror and occasionally in television productions throughout the 1970s and early 1980s. In later life, Dee sought help for depression, alcoholism, and faced traumas from her childhood, including sexual abuse by her stepfather. She died in 2005 of complications from kidney disease.

Life and careerEdit

1942–1951: Early lifeEdit

Dee was born Alexandra Zuck on April 23, 1942, in Bayonne, New Jersey,Template:Sfn the only child of John Zuck and Mary (Template:Nee Cimboliak) Zuck, who met as teenagers at a Russian Orthodox Church dance. They married shortly afterward, but divorced before Dee was five years old.<ref>Biography of Sandra Dee, biography.com; accessed August 14, 2014.</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> She was of Carpatho-Rusyn ancestry Template:Sfn 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." She soon adopted the name Sandra Dee, became a professional model by the age of four and progressed to television commercials.Template:Sfn

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.Template:Sfn 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.<ref>Oxnard Press-Courier interview, interactive.ancestry.com; accessed May 9, 2014.</ref>

Dee's parents divorced in 1950 and, a year later, her mother married Russia-born Eugene Victor Douvan (1898–1956), who reportedly sexually abused Dee after he married her mother.Template:Sfn He died of heart ailments in 1956, aged 57, after being taken from NYC to Georgetown Hospital in Washington D.C. for treatment.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Douvan's application for citizenship reveals his history of immigrating to USA, aliases used (Eugene George Stewart and Frederick Von Bergner) and that he was living in Roosevelt, Nassau County New York at the time of the application.<ref>Other bio info is included and this document can be viewed at [1]</ref> Various ads which he placed in Bayonne newspapers advertised he was available for construction and real estate work. He had two sons by a previous marriage. He was living in Bayonne with his son Robert in the 1950s. His older son had lived in Chicago and Michigan.<ref>[2]</ref>

1952–1956: Modeling careerEdit

Producer Ross Hunter claimed to have discovered Dee on Park Avenue in New York City with her mother when she was 12 years old.Template:Sfn 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."<ref name="teenage">Lydia Lane, "Sandra Dee, Teen-age Beauty", The Palm Beach Post. p. 42.</ref>

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."<ref name="teenage"/> Despite the damaging effects on her health, Dee earned $75,000 in 1956 (Template:Inflation) 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.Template:Sfn While modeling in New York, she attended the Professional Children's School.<ref name="en"/>

1957–1958: Early films and Universal contractEdit

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.<ref name="en"/> 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.Template:Sfn Dee's performance made her one of that year's winners of the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actress.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

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.Template:Sfn

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.Template:Sfn 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: StardomEdit

Dee's third film for Hunter was of greater impact than the first two: Imitation of Life (1959), starring Lana Turner.Template:Sfn 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),Template:Sfn 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).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Universal next cast Dee as a tomboy opposite Audie Murphy in the Western romantic comedy The Wild and the Innocent (1959).<ref name="guardobit">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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.<ref name="BoxOffice" />

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.Template:Sfn Dee was listed as the nation's seventh-greatest star at the end of 1960.<ref name="BoxOffice" /> 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.Template:Sfn

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.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn On December 16, 1961, she gave birth to their son, her only child, Dodd Mitchell Darin (also known as Morgan Mitchell Darin).<ref>[https://www.imdb.com/{{#if: 1194245 

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In 1961, Dee, with three years remaining on her Universal contract, signed a new one for seven years.<ref>"Sandra Dee signs new contract at U-I", July 19, 1961, Los Angeles Times.</ref> 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,Template:Sfn 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.<ref name="BoxOffice" /> Dee appeared in I'd Rather Be Rich (1964),Template:Sfn 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).Template:Sfn

Dee was also a singer and recorded some singles in the early 1960s, including a cover version of "When I Fall in Love".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

1966–1983: Career decline and later rolesEdit

File:Dean Stockwell and Sandra Dee in The Dunwich Horror.jpg
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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> She rarely acted following her 1967 divorce from Darin.<ref>Template:YouTube</ref> 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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web

}}</ref>

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.Template:Sfn 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."<ref name=miller/> However, she refused to appear nude in the film's final sequence that had been written in the screenplay.<ref name=miller>Template:Cite news</ref>

Throughout the 1970s, Dee took sporadic guest-starring roles on episodes of several television series, such as Night Gallery, Fantasy IslandTemplate:Sfn and Police Woman. Her final film performance occurred in the low-budget drama Lost (1983).<ref name=cbs/> In her later years, Dee told a newspaper that she "felt like a has-been that never was."Template:Sfn

1984–2005: Later life and retirementEdit

Dee's years in the 1980s were marked by poor health, and she became a self-described recluse after retiring from acting.Template:Sfn 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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web

}}</ref>

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 Template:Convert. 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 being diagnosed with kidney failure in 2000, which was attributed to years of heavy drinking and smoking.<ref name="en">Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref>

In 1994's Dream Lovers: The Magnificent Shattered Lives of Bobby Darin and Sandra Dee,Template:Sfn 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.<ref name="articles.baltimoresun.com">Template:Cite news</ref> The same year, Dee's final acting credit occurred with a voice-only appearance on an episode of Frasier.

DeathEdit

File:Sandra Dee Grave.jpg
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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> She is interred in a crypt at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in the Hollywood Hills.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

FilmographyEdit

FilmEdit

Year Title Role Notes Template:Abbr
1957 Until They Sail Evelyn Leslie <ref name=afi>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation CitationClass=web

}}</ref>

1957 The Snow Queen Gerda Voice: 1959 English version <ref name=afi/>
1958 The Reluctant Debutante Jane Broadbent <ref name=afi/>
1958 The Restless Years Melinda Grant Alternative title: The Wonderful Years <ref name=afi/>
1959 A Stranger in My Arms Pat Beasley Alternative title: And Ride a Tiger <ref name=afi/>
1959 Gidget Gidget (Frances Lawrence) <ref name=afi/>
1959 Imitation of Life Susie, age 16 <ref name=afi/>
1959 The Wild and the Innocent Rosalie Stocker <ref name=afi/>
1959 A Summer Place Molly Jorgenson <ref name=afi/>
1960 Portrait in Black Cathy Cabot <ref name=afi/>
1961 Romanoff and Juliet Juliet Moulsworth Alternative title: Dig That Juliet <ref name=afi/>
1961 Tammy Tell Me True Tambrey "Tammy" Tyree <ref name=afi/>
1961 Come September Sandy Stevens <ref name=afi/>
1962 If a Man Answers Chantal Stacy <ref name=afi/>
1963 Tammy and the Doctor Tambrey "Tammy" Tyree <ref name=afi/>
1963 Take Her, She's Mine Mollie Michaelson <ref name=afi/>
1964 I'd Rather Be Rich Cynthia Dulaine <ref name=afi/>
1965 That Funny Feeling Joan Howell <ref name=afi/>
1966 A Man Could Get Killed Amy Franklin Alternative title: Welcome, Mr. Beddoes <ref name=afi/>
1967 Doctor, You've Got to Be Kidding! Heather Halloran <ref name=afi/>
1967 Rosie! Daphne Shaw <ref name=afi/>
1970 The Dunwich Horror Nancy Wagner <ref name=afi/>
1972 The Manhunter Mara Bocock Television film Template:Sfn
1972 The Daughters of Joshua Cabe Ada Television film Template:Sfn
1974 Houston, We've Got a Problem Angie Cordell Television film Template:Sfn
1977 Fantasy Island Francesca Hamilton Television film Template:Sfn
1983 Lost Penny Morrison Final film role <ref name=cbs>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation CitationClass=web

}}</ref>

TelevisionEdit

Year Title Role Notes Template:Abbr
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"

AccoladesEdit

Award Category Year Nominated work Result Template:Abbr
Golden Globe Award Most Promising Newcomer - Female 1958 Until They Sail Template:Won <ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation CitationClass=web

}}</ref>

Laurel Award Top Female New Personality 1959 Template:Em dash Template:Won
Top Female Comedy Performance 1960 Gidget Template:Won Template:Sfn
Top Female Star Template:Em dash Template:Won
1961 Template:Em dash Template:Won
1962 Template:Em dash Template:Won
Top Female Comedy Performance 1963 If a Man Answers Template:Won
Top Female Star Template:Em dash Template:Won
Top Female Comedy Performance 1964 Take Her, She's Mine Template:Won
Top Female Star Template:Em dash Template:Won
1965 Template:Em dash Template:Won
1966 Template:Em dash Template:Won
1967 Template:Em dash Template:Won

Box-office rankingEdit

In the following years, exhibitors voted Dee one of the most popular box-office stars in the United States:<ref name=BoxOffice>Quigley's Annual List of Box-Office Champions, 1932-1970 October 23, 2003 accessed July 9, 2012</ref>

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

In popular cultureEdit

Dee is referred to in the song "Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee", from the 1971 musical Grease and its 1978 film adaptation.<ref name="guardobit"/> In American Graffiti, Terry the Toad gets the attention of the blonde Debbie by telling her she looks like Connie Stevens. She says she thinks of herself as looking like Sandra Dee.

ReferencesEdit

Template:Reflist

SourcesEdit

External linksEdit

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