'Gidget' Actress Sandra Dee Dies at 62
By BOB THOMAS, Associated Press Writer
LOS ANGELES - Actress Sandra Dee, the blond beauty who attracted a large teen audience in the 1960s with films such as "Gidget" and "Tammy and the Doctor" and had a headlined marriage to pop singer Bobby Darin, died Sunday. She was 62.
Dee died at 5:57 a.m. at the Los Robles Hospital & Medical Center in Thousand Oaks, said Cynthia Mead, nursing supervisor.
Mead said Dee's family requested that no other details be released. CNN reported that Dee had been undergoing treatment at the hospital for two weeks for complications of kidney disease and pneumonia.
At Universal Studio, Dee was cast mostly in teen movies such as "The Reluctant Debutante," "The Restless Years," "Tammy Tell Me True" and "Take Her She's Mine."
Occasionally, she was able to do secondary roles in other films, such as "Imitation of Life," "A Portrait In Black" and "Romanoff and Juliet."
After a one-month courtship, Dee married Darin in Elizabeth, N.J., in 1960. A son, Dodd Mitchell, was born to the couple the following year.
In 1965, with her divorce from Darin dampening her teen appeal, Dee was dropped by Universal.
"I thought they were my friends," she said in an interview that year with The Associated Press, referring to her former bosses. "But I found out on the last picture ('A Man Could Get Killed') that I was simply a piece of property to them. I begged them not to make me do the picture, but they insisted."
Born Alexandra Zuck in Bayonne, N.J., Dee became a model while in grade school.
In a mid-career interview with The Associated Press, she explained her name change: "I used to sign vouchers and sign-out sheets with 'Alexandra Dee.' Somehow it stuck." When she was signed to her first film, she said, "'Sandra Dee' was the name they gave me."
Dee made an independent film "Rosie!" (1968 ), starring with Rosalind Russell, but her movie career dwindled after that.
In a March 1991 interview with People magazine, Dee said she was sexually abused as a child by her stepfather and pushed into stardom by her mother. Dee, who turned to pills and alcohol, said she hit bottom after her mother died in 1988.
"I couldn't function," she told People, adding that she began drinking more than a quart of scotch a day as her weight fell to 80 pounds. She said she stayed home almost constantly for three years.
Dee credited her son with helping her turn her life around. She began seeing a therapist regularly and hoped to land a job on a TV series.
Kate Bosworth portrayed Dee in last year's movie "Beyond the Sea," a biography of Darin.
Actor Kevin Spacey, who played Darin the film, has said Dee, who was living as a virtual recluse in Los Angeles, approved of the film. "She called me...and said she loved it," he said last year.
By BOB THOMAS, Associated Press Writer
LOS ANGELES - Actress Sandra Dee, the blond beauty who attracted a large teen audience in the 1960s with films such as "Gidget" and "Tammy and the Doctor" and had a headlined marriage to pop singer Bobby Darin, died Sunday. She was 62.
Dee died at 5:57 a.m. at the Los Robles Hospital & Medical Center in Thousand Oaks, said Cynthia Mead, nursing supervisor.
Mead said Dee's family requested that no other details be released. CNN reported that Dee had been undergoing treatment at the hospital for two weeks for complications of kidney disease and pneumonia.
At Universal Studio, Dee was cast mostly in teen movies such as "The Reluctant Debutante," "The Restless Years," "Tammy Tell Me True" and "Take Her She's Mine."
Occasionally, she was able to do secondary roles in other films, such as "Imitation of Life," "A Portrait In Black" and "Romanoff and Juliet."
After a one-month courtship, Dee married Darin in Elizabeth, N.J., in 1960. A son, Dodd Mitchell, was born to the couple the following year.
In 1965, with her divorce from Darin dampening her teen appeal, Dee was dropped by Universal.
"I thought they were my friends," she said in an interview that year with The Associated Press, referring to her former bosses. "But I found out on the last picture ('A Man Could Get Killed') that I was simply a piece of property to them. I begged them not to make me do the picture, but they insisted."
Born Alexandra Zuck in Bayonne, N.J., Dee became a model while in grade school.
In a mid-career interview with The Associated Press, she explained her name change: "I used to sign vouchers and sign-out sheets with 'Alexandra Dee.' Somehow it stuck." When she was signed to her first film, she said, "'Sandra Dee' was the name they gave me."
Dee made an independent film "Rosie!" (1968 ), starring with Rosalind Russell, but her movie career dwindled after that.
In a March 1991 interview with People magazine, Dee said she was sexually abused as a child by her stepfather and pushed into stardom by her mother. Dee, who turned to pills and alcohol, said she hit bottom after her mother died in 1988.
"I couldn't function," she told People, adding that she began drinking more than a quart of scotch a day as her weight fell to 80 pounds. She said she stayed home almost constantly for three years.
Dee credited her son with helping her turn her life around. She began seeing a therapist regularly and hoped to land a job on a TV series.
Kate Bosworth portrayed Dee in last year's movie "Beyond the Sea," a biography of Darin.
Actor Kevin Spacey, who played Darin the film, has said Dee, who was living as a virtual recluse in Los Angeles, approved of the film. "She called me...and said she loved it," he said last year.
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