Sandra
Dee (born April 23, 1942; died February 20, 2005) was
an American film actress.
Sandra DeeBorn Alexandra Zuck of Rusyn ancestry in
Bayonne, New Jersey, Dee was a professional model
by the age of four. She progressed to television commercials
and then 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 1959).
Her marriage in 1960 to singer and actor Bobby Darin
kept her in the public eye for much of the decade.
She was contracted to Universal Studios, who tried
to develop Dee as a mature actress, and the films
she made as an adult--including a few with Darin--were
moderately successful. They had one son together,
who took the name Dodd Mitchell Darin, but in 1967
she and Darin were divorced.
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 Broadway musical Grease. The song later reappeared
in the 1978 film version of the play.
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, she reported that she had been diagnosed
with throat cancer and kidney failure. Complications
from the latter condition, combined with a bout of
pneumonia, led to her death at the age of 62 in Thousand
Oaks, California.
Her life with Bobby Darin has been
told in the 2004 film Beyond the Sea, in which she
was played by Kate Bosworth.
Filmography
The Snow Queen (1957) (voice in 1958 English-dubbed
version)
Until They Sail (1957)
The Reluctant Debutante (1958)
The Restless Years (1958)
A Stranger in My Arms (1959)
Gidget (1959)
Imitation of Life (1959)
The Wild and the Innocent (1959)
A Summer Place (1959)
Portrait in Black (1960)
Romanoff and Juliet (1961)
Tammy Tell Me True (1961)
Come September (1961)
If a Man Answers (1962)
Tammy and the Doctor (1963)
Take Her, She's Mine (1963)
I'd Rather Be Rich (1964)
That Funny Feeling (1965)
A Man Could Get Killed (1966)
Doctor, You've Got to Be Kidding (1967)
Rosie! (1967)
The Dunwich Horror (1970)
East of Marsa Matruh (1971)
Lost (1983)
TV Work
The Manhunter (1972)
The Daughters of Joshua Cabe (1972)
Houston, We Have a Problem (1974)
Fantasy Island (1977) (pilot for series)
source from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki
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