Sandra Dee
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Sandra_Dee".

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Sandra Dee

from the Imitation of Life trailer (1959)
Born Alexandra Cymboliak Zuck
April 23, 1942(1942-04-23)
Bayonne, New Jersey, United States
Died February 20, 2005 (aged 62)
Thousand Oaks, California
Occupation actress, model
Years active 1957-1994
Spouse(s) Bobby Darin (1960-1967)
Official website

Sandra Dee (April 23, 1942 - February 20, 2005) was an American film actress best known for her portrayal of ingenues.

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Birth and background

Born Alexandra Cymboliak Zuck to John and Mary (née Cymboliak) Zuck in Bayonne, New Jersey, who later divorced. Her mother was of Rusyn ancestry. Abbreviated as "Sandra", she became a professional model by the age of four and subsequently progressed to television commercials.

There was some confusion as to her actual birth year, with evidence pointing to both 1942 and 1944, however Intelius indicates 1942 (see Intelius search).

Career

Sandra Dee made her first film, Until They Sail, in 1957. In 1958 she won a Golden Globe Award for "Most Promising Newcomer" (along with Carolyn Jones and Diane Varsi). Her film career flourished, and she became known for her wholesome ingenue roles in such films as Imitation of Life, Gidget and A Summer Place, all in 1959. She later played the virtuous bayou lass "Tammy" in two Universal sequels to Tammy and the Bachelor in the role created by Debbie Reynolds.

During the 1970s she took very few acting roles, but made occasional television appearances. Her 1950s persona was the inspiration for the song "Look At Me, I'm Sandra Dee", featured in the 1972 Broadway musical Grease, and the 1978 film version.

Personal life

Her marriage in 1960, at the age of 18, to Bobby Darin kept her in the public eye for much of the decade. 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. They had one son together, Dodd Mitchell Darin (also known as Morgan Mitchell Darin) but she and Darin divorced in 1967.

Dee's adult years were marked by ill health. She admitted that for most of her life she battled anorexia nervosa, depression and alcoholism. In 2000, it was reported that she had been diagnosed with several ailments, including throat cancer and kidney disease. The cancer scare was apparently unfounded. Complications of kidney failure, combined with pneumonia, led to her death on February 20, 2005, at the Los Robles Hospital & Medical Center in Thousand Oaks, California. She was 62 years old, although some reports at the time indicated she was 60.

Sandra Dee 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.

Dee is survived by her son Dodd, her daughter-in-law and two granddaughters, Alexa and Olivia.

Dodd Darin's book

In 1994, Dodd wrote 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.

Her life with Bobby Darin was dramatized in the 2004 film Beyond the Sea, in which Kevin Spacey played Bobby Darin and Dee was played by Kate Bosworth.

Filmography

TV Work

  • The Manhunter (1972)
  • Night Gallery (1972) - "Spectre in Tap-Shoes" episode
  • The Daughters of Joshua Cabe (1972)
  • Houston, We Have a Problem (1974)
  • Fantasy Island (1977) (pilot for series)
  • Frasier (1994) - "The Botched Language of Cranes" episode (voice only as caller "Connie")


External links

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