Sandra Dee

'Gidget' Actress Sandra Dee Dies at 63

LOS ANGELES (AP) - 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 63.

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 Bobby 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.


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