Liberty Lighthouse Journal: DOSSIER: SANDRA DEE

“I've always had a problem saying what I feel for fear of having someone dislike me.”

BORN: April 23^rd, 1942

DIED: February 20^th, 2005 (kidney disease)

BIRTH NAME: Alexandra Cymboliak Zuck

NICKNAMES: Sandy, Gidget

HEIGHT: 5' 4”

Sandra was born in Bayonne, New Jersey, the only child of John Zuck and Mary Zuck, who met as teenagers at a Russian Orthodox Church dance. They divorced before Sandra was five years old. She was raised in the Orthodox faith. She became a professional model at the age of 4 and progressed to television commercials when her name was changed to Sandra Dee. Her mother dated a man after divorce from Sandra's father who sexually abused Sandra and continued to do so after he married her mother.

When Dee was 12 years old, Ross Hunter, producer, discovered her on Park Avenue in New York City. In a 1959 interview, Dee stated she “grew up fast”, surrounded by mostly older people.

During her modeling career, Dee attempted to lose weight, but an improper diet ruined her skin, hair, nails, etc. A doctor helped her regain her health.

Dee earned $75,000 in 1956 working as a child model in New York, used to support herself and her mother after the death of her stepfather in 1956. While modeling in New York she attended the Professional Children's School.

Dee ended her modeling career and moved from New York to Hollywood. She graduated from University High School in Los Angeles in 1958. Her screen debut occurred in 1957 with the MGM film Until They Sail, directed by Robert Wise. Dee appeared in Modern Screen magazine December issue in a column written by Louella Parsons, who praised Dee and compared her to Shirley Temple.

Dee was the winner of the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actress for 1957.

In 1957, Dee provided the voice of Gerda in the English dub of The Snow Queen.

MGM cast her as the female lead in The Reluctant Debutante in 1958 with John Saxon. It would be the first of several films they made together. Dee continued to struggle with anorexia nervosa that led to her kidneys temporarily shutting down.

In 1958, Dee signed with Universal Pictures. She was the lead role in The Restless Years for producer Ross Hunter, with John Saxon and Teresa Wright. This was followed by A Stranger in My Arms in 1959, also a Ross Hunter film.

Dee's third film for Hunter was an impact on her career: Imitation of Life (1959) with Lana Turner. It was Universal Pictures' highest-grossing film in history. She was then loaned to Columbia Pictures to play in a teenage beach comedy Gidget (1959) that spawned the beach party film genre of the 1960s. It led to two sequels, two television series and two television movies; although Dee did not appear in any of them.

Universal then cast Dee opposite Audie Murphy in a Western romantic comedy, The Wild and the Innocent (1959) where she portrayed a tomboy.

Warner Bros. borrowed her for another drama in A Summer Place (1959) opposite Troy Donahue. The film and its soundtrack theme song was a massive hit and Dee was voted for the 16^th most popular star in the country.

Universal and Hunter reunited with Dee, Lana Turner, and John Saxon in Portrait in Black (1960). At the end of 1960, Dee became the nation's seventh biggest star.

In 1961, Peter Ustinov cast Dee in the lead role of a Cold War comedy Romanoff and Juliet. Dee was reunited with John Gavin. Dee and Gavin performed together again in Tammy Tell Me True in 1961, where Dee took the role originated by Debbie Reynolds.

It was more popular than Come September (1961), where she worked with Bobby Darin in his film debut. Dee and Darin married after filming on December 1^st, 1960. On December 16^th, 1961, she gave birth to their son, Dodd Mitchell Darin.

In 1961, Dee still had three years on her Universal contract and signed a new one for seven years. Dee and Darin appeared together in the Hunter romantic comedy If a Man Answers (1962).

Dee appeared in the final “Tammy” film, Tammy and the Doctor released in 1963. She then had another big comedy hit Take Her, She's Mine (1963). That year she was voted the 8^th biggest star in the country and would be her last appearance in the top 10.

In 1964, Dee was in I'd Rather Be Rich, once again produced by Ross Hunter.

In 1965, Dee reunited with her husband in That Funny Feeling.

In 1966, Dee appeared in her last film at Universal with the spy comedy A Man Could Get Killed. Dee was also a singer and recorded some singles in the early 1960s, including “When I Fall in Love”.

At the end of the 1960s, Universal Pictures dropped Dee. She rarely acted following her 1967 divorce from Bobby Darin. Dee was upset with the studio system that restricted her. She smoked and the studio press agents were pulling cigarettes out of her hand and covering her cocktail drink with a napkin whenever her picture was taken.

In 1967, she was cast in Doctor, You've Got to Be Kidding! It was a mild success. Ross Hunter asked her to come back in a co-starring role in Rose! (1967). The film was a success.

Dee would then became inactive in the film industry until her American International Pictures horror film The Dunwich Horror in 1970. Sandra stated:

“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 to be a complete disaster, I guarantee it will change my image.”

In the screenplay, it was written that she appear in the nude, and she refused. She wasn't going to change her image that drastically.

Throughout the 1970s, Dee took roles periodically on episodes of several television series – Night Gallery, Fantasy Island, and Police Woman.

Dee's final film performance would be in Lost (1983).

In the 1980s, Dee's health declined and she became reclusive. During that time she finally confronted her mother about her stepfather's sexual abuse as well as pointing out that her mother was oblivious to it. Dee stated:

“One night I couldn't control the pressure any longer. My mother and I were at home with a few 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 feel guilty.”

Dee battled anorexia nervosa, depression, and alcoholism for many years, the lowest point being in 1988 when her mother died of lung cancer. Dee stated that for months she a recluse living on soup, crackers and scotch and her body weight dropped to 80 pounds. When she began to vomit blood, her son made her go to the hospital and seek psychiatric treatment. Afterwards, her mental and physical condition improved and she desired to be in a TV sitcom. She quit drinking altogether after being diagnosed with kidney failure in 2000.

After needing kidney dialysis for four years, Dee died at the Los Robles Hospital & Medical Center in Thousand Oaks, California at the age of 62. She was interred in a crypt at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Hollywood Hills.

TRIVIA

Gave birth to her only child at age 19 – Dodd Mitchell Cossotto (aka Dodd Darin) on December 16^th, 1961.
In 1965, she was the last major star still under an exclusive contract and last actress under contract with Universal Studios.
Dee made her modeling debut in Girl Scouts magazine.
He son, Dodd, wrote a book about his parents, “Dream Lovers: The Magnificent Shattered Lives of Bobby Darin and Sandra Dee” published in 1994.
Diagnosed with throat cancer and kidney failure in 2000.
Had two granddaughters: Alexa and Olivia Darin – daughters of Dodd and Aubrey Tannenbaum (Darin).
Dee was one of the most successful teenage movie stars of the 20^th century.
She was immortalized in the popular song “Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee” from the movie Grease (1978).
Dee received attention after the release of the movie Beyond the Sea (2004), about her late husband Bobby Darin. Despite its painful aspects, she reportedly approved the project. Dee was portrayed by Kate Bosworth in the film.
Dee's biography is in “The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives”. Volume 7, 2003-2005, pages 135-136. Published in 2007 by Thomson Gale.
John Saxon appeared in three Sandra Dee films: The Restless Years (1958), The Reluctant Debutante (1958) and Portrait in Black (1960.
Dee appeared with husband Bobby Darin in three films: Come September (1961), If a Man Answers (1962) and That Funny Feeling (1965).
Dee appeared with John Gavin in three films: Imitation of Life (1959), Tammy Tell Me True (1961, and Romanoff and Juliet (1961).
In 1991, Sandra Dee, then 49, did her last interview with Sally Jessy Raphael. At the end of the show there were surprise reunions with James Darren and John Saxon. Also, Shelley Fabares appeared because she was a fan of Dee's.
A shy person, Dee never wanted to be either a model nor an actress, but she was “bullied” by her mother.