Sandra Dee

Sandra Dee (born Alexandra Zuck; April 23, 1942 – February 20, 2005) was an American actress. Dee began her career as a child model, working first in commercials and then film in her teenage years. Best known for her portrayal of ingénues, Dee earned a Golden Globe Award as one of the year's most promising newcomers for her performance in Robert Wise's Until They Sail (1957). She became a teenage star for her performances in Imitation of Life, Gidget and A Summer Place (all released in 1959), which made her a household name. Dee's acting career waned in the late 1960s. In 1967, her highly publicized marriage to Bobby Darin ended in divorce and Universal Pictures dropped her contract. Dee appeared in the 1970 independent horror film The Dunwich Horror and occasionally in television productions throughout the 1970s and early 1980s. In later life, Dee sought help for depression, alcoholism, and faced traumas from her childhood, including sexual abuse by her stepfather. She died in 2005 of complications from kidney disease.