Sandra Dee, 'Gidget' Star and Teenage Idol, Dies at 62
[size=-1]By DAVE KEHR [/size]
Published: February 20, 2005
andra Dee, the perennially perky, blond-haired and blue-eyed actress who helped American teenagers of the late 1950's and early 1960's cope with the frustrations of adolescent romance and the temptations of premarital sex, died yesterday at the Los Robles Hospital and Medical Center in Thousand Oaks, Calif. She was 62.
The cause of the death was complications from kidney disease, said Steve Blauner, a family friend...
Ms. Dee was probably best remembered for her portrayal of Gidget, a tomboyish California teenager who discovered the joys of surfing and boys in Paul Wendkos's 1959 film of the same name. The bright, chirpy Ms. Dee defined a new kind of natural, sun-soaked innocence that America, and much of the rest of the world, quickly embraced as the radiantly healthy, outdoorsy essence of Southern California living.
In 1960 she married the singer Bobby Darin, her costar in the 1961 romantic comedy "Come September," after a whirlwind courtship. The story of her marriage to Darin, whom she divorced in 1967 and who himself died in 1973 at the age of 37, was chronicled in Kevin Spacey's recent theatrical film "Beyond the Sea," in which Mr. Spacey played Darin and Ms. Dee was played by Kate Bosworth.
Ms. Dee followed "Gidget" with Delmer Daves's film "A Summer Place" (1959), in which she was paired with Troy Donohue as teenage lovers whose innocent confusion about how far their relationship should go ran up against the hypocrisy of an adult world - a hypocrisy vividly embodied by their adulterous parents, played by Richard Egan and Dorothy McGuire. A tremendous commercial success, "A Summer Place" was among the earliest studio films to commodify youthful rebelliousness, though Ms. Dee was hardly an icon of adolescent revolt with her shiny helmet of flipped hair and color-coordinated outfits.
Born Alexandra Zuck on April 23, 1942, in Bayonne, N.J., she began modeling in New York at an early age. Appearances in television commercials led her to Hollywood, where she made her film debut in Robert Wise's 1957 "Until They Sail." Her first substantial role came in Vincent Minnelli's romantic comedy "The Reluctant Debutante" (1958), in which she played the American-raised daughter of the Londoners Rex Harrison and Kay Kendall.
Ms. Dee soon proved to be as at home in melodrama as in comedy. She moved to Universal for Helmut Kautner's "Restless Years," portraying the illegitimate daughter of a neurotic woman (Teresa Wright) trapped in a stifling small town. She remained at Universal for what was probably her finest sustained performance in certainly the most important of all her films, Douglas Sirk's grandly Brechtian soap opera "Imitation of Life" (1959).
Playing the neglected daughter of a driven, manipulative Broadway star (Lana Turner), Ms. Dee projected a genuinely touching fragility, and convincingly turned on her uncaring mother in one notable scene. "Imitation of Life" was Universal's biggest success of the 1950's, and prompted the studio to reunite Ms. Dee and Turner in the garish crime thriller "Portrait in Black."
Although Universal kept pushing her into teenage roles -as the barefoot, backwoods heroine of "Tammy, Tell Me True" (1961) and "Tammy and the Doctor" (1963, opposite an equally innocent young Peter Fonda) - her widely publicized marriage to Darin made her seem less acceptable as an adolescent. In addition to "Come September," Ms. Dee starred with her finger-snapping husband as a jealous young wife in "If a Man Answers" (1962) and as a maid posing as a successful publisher in "That Funny Feeling" (1965). In between, however, Ms. Dee returned to teenage roles, playing James Stewart's peacenik daughter in "Take Her, She's Mine" (1963).
After her troubled marriage to Darin came to an end, Ms. Dee seemed to lose interest in her acting career. Growing too old to play the perfect teenager (as she did again in the 1967 "Rosie!"), she failed to make a convincing transition to adult roles, and soon she was appearing in small parts on television series. Her last starring role was in the low-budget film "The Dunwich Horror" (1970).
Ms. Dee is survived by her son, Dodd Darin, and two granddaughters. In 1994, Mr. Darin published, with Maxine Paetro, "Dream Lovers: The Magnificent Shattered Lives of Bobby Darin and Sandra Dee," an account of his parents' relationship.
[size=-1]By DAVE KEHR [/size]
Published: February 20, 2005
andra Dee, the perennially perky, blond-haired and blue-eyed actress who helped American teenagers of the late 1950's and early 1960's cope with the frustrations of adolescent romance and the temptations of premarital sex, died yesterday at the Los Robles Hospital and Medical Center in Thousand Oaks, Calif. She was 62. The cause of the death was complications from kidney disease, said Steve Blauner, a family friend...
Ms. Dee was probably best remembered for her portrayal of Gidget, a tomboyish California teenager who discovered the joys of surfing and boys in Paul Wendkos's 1959 film of the same name. The bright, chirpy Ms. Dee defined a new kind of natural, sun-soaked innocence that America, and much of the rest of the world, quickly embraced as the radiantly healthy, outdoorsy essence of Southern California living.
In 1960 she married the singer Bobby Darin, her costar in the 1961 romantic comedy "Come September," after a whirlwind courtship. The story of her marriage to Darin, whom she divorced in 1967 and who himself died in 1973 at the age of 37, was chronicled in Kevin Spacey's recent theatrical film "Beyond the Sea," in which Mr. Spacey played Darin and Ms. Dee was played by Kate Bosworth.
Ms. Dee followed "Gidget" with Delmer Daves's film "A Summer Place" (1959), in which she was paired with Troy Donohue as teenage lovers whose innocent confusion about how far their relationship should go ran up against the hypocrisy of an adult world - a hypocrisy vividly embodied by their adulterous parents, played by Richard Egan and Dorothy McGuire. A tremendous commercial success, "A Summer Place" was among the earliest studio films to commodify youthful rebelliousness, though Ms. Dee was hardly an icon of adolescent revolt with her shiny helmet of flipped hair and color-coordinated outfits.
Born Alexandra Zuck on April 23, 1942, in Bayonne, N.J., she began modeling in New York at an early age. Appearances in television commercials led her to Hollywood, where she made her film debut in Robert Wise's 1957 "Until They Sail." Her first substantial role came in Vincent Minnelli's romantic comedy "The Reluctant Debutante" (1958), in which she played the American-raised daughter of the Londoners Rex Harrison and Kay Kendall.
Ms. Dee soon proved to be as at home in melodrama as in comedy. She moved to Universal for Helmut Kautner's "Restless Years," portraying the illegitimate daughter of a neurotic woman (Teresa Wright) trapped in a stifling small town. She remained at Universal for what was probably her finest sustained performance in certainly the most important of all her films, Douglas Sirk's grandly Brechtian soap opera "Imitation of Life" (1959).
Playing the neglected daughter of a driven, manipulative Broadway star (Lana Turner), Ms. Dee projected a genuinely touching fragility, and convincingly turned on her uncaring mother in one notable scene. "Imitation of Life" was Universal's biggest success of the 1950's, and prompted the studio to reunite Ms. Dee and Turner in the garish crime thriller "Portrait in Black."
Although Universal kept pushing her into teenage roles -as the barefoot, backwoods heroine of "Tammy, Tell Me True" (1961) and "Tammy and the Doctor" (1963, opposite an equally innocent young Peter Fonda) - her widely publicized marriage to Darin made her seem less acceptable as an adolescent. In addition to "Come September," Ms. Dee starred with her finger-snapping husband as a jealous young wife in "If a Man Answers" (1962) and as a maid posing as a successful publisher in "That Funny Feeling" (1965). In between, however, Ms. Dee returned to teenage roles, playing James Stewart's peacenik daughter in "Take Her, She's Mine" (1963).
After her troubled marriage to Darin came to an end, Ms. Dee seemed to lose interest in her acting career. Growing too old to play the perfect teenager (as she did again in the 1967 "Rosie!"), she failed to make a convincing transition to adult roles, and soon she was appearing in small parts on television series. Her last starring role was in the low-budget film "The Dunwich Horror" (1970).
Ms. Dee is survived by her son, Dodd Darin, and two granddaughters. In 1994, Mr. Darin published, with Maxine Paetro, "Dream Lovers: The Magnificent Shattered Lives of Bobby Darin and Sandra Dee," an account of his parents' relationship.
:heart 
