Sandra Dee, the biggest female teen idol of ‘60s, died of complications Sunday morning from kidney disease at the Los Robles Hospital & Medical Center in Thousand Oaks. She was 62 and is survived by a son and two granddaughters.
Born Alexandra Zuck in Bayonne, New Jersey, Dee began her career as a model aged 12, and went on to become a huge success with her roles in teen movies such as “Gidget” (where she played a young girl who falls in love with a surfer) and “Tammy and the Doctor”.
With her girl-next-door charm, Universal Studios cast Dee mostly in teen movies such as “The Reluctant Debutante,” “The Restless Years,” “Tammy Tell Me True” and “Take Her, She's Mine.” Occasionally, she landed secondary roles in more mature films, such as “Imitation of Life,” “A Portrait In Black” and “Romanoff and Juliet.”
“When she was a big star in the pictures and a top five at the box office, she treated the grip the exact same way she treated the head of the studio,” said Steve Blauner, a close family friend of Dee.
Dee later made an independent film “Rosie!” in 1968, starring with Rosalind Russell, but she never recaptured the stardom of her teenage years. Her last film credit was for the 1983 movie “Lost.”
In 1960, Dee married Bobby Darin in Elizabeth, N.J., following a one-month courtship. A son, Dodd Mitchell, was born the following year.
