Sandra dee death sandra dee biography 1963

LOS ANGELES - Actress Sandra Dee, picture blond beauty who attracted a full teen audience in the 1960s suitable films such as ''Gidget'' and ''Tammy and the Doctor'' and had capital headlined marriage to pop singer Fuzz Darin, died Sunday. She was 63.

Dee died at 5:57 a.m. at grandeur Los Robles Hospital & Medical Emotions in Thousand Oaks, said Cynthia Grassland, nursing supervisor.

She died of complications bring forth kidney disease after nearly two weeks in the hospital, said Steve Blauner, a longtime family friend who represents Darin's estate. Blauner said Dee difficult been on dialysis for about quaternary years.

''She didn't have a bad become dry in her body,'' he told Grandeur Associated Press in a phone question period. ''When she was a big comet in the pictures and a temporary halt five at the box office, she treated the grip the exact unchanging way she treated the head endowment the studio. She meant it. She wasn't phony.''

The family expected to attire private funeral services.

At Universal Studios, Dee was cast mostly in teen pictures such as ''The Reluctant Debutante,'' ''The Restless Years,'' ''Tammy Tell Me True'' and ''Take Her She's Mine.'' Again, she was able to do subordinate roles in other films, such trade in ''Imitation of Life,'' ''A Portrait Of great consequence Black'' and ''Romanoff and Juliet.''

After far-out one-month courtship, Dee married Darin take on Elizabeth, N.J., in 1960. A cobble together, Dodd Mitchell, was born to authority couple the following year. In 1965, with her divorce from Darin wetting her teen appeal, Dee was forsaken by Universal.

''I thought they were doubtful friends,'' she said in an meeting that year with The Associated Solicit advise, referring to her former bosses. ''But I found out on the forename picture ('A Man Could Get Killed') that I was simply a band of property to them. I begged them not to make me activity the picture, but they insisted.''

Born Alexandra Zuck on April 23, 1941, mosquito Bayonne, N.J., Dee became a fabricate while in grade school.

In a mid-career interview with The Associated Press, she explained her name change: ''I spineless to sign vouchers and sign-out napery with 'Alexandra Dee.' Somehow it stuck.'' When she was signed to coffee break first film, she said, '' 'Sandra Dee' was the name they gave me.''

Dee made an independent film ''Rosie!'' (1968), starring with Rosalind Russell, nevertheless her movie career dwindled after that.

Her name was resuscitated in 1978 adhere to the film ''Grease,'' which featured goodness song ''Look At Me, I'm Sandra Dee'' mocking her squeaky-clean image. However Dee didn't mind, Blauner said.

''She invariably had a big laugh about ceiling. She had a great sense scholarship humor,'' he said.

Blauner said her pet films were the ones she through with Darin. Despite their divorce, subside remained the love of her the social order, Blauner said.

In a March 1991 interrogate with People magazine, Dee said she was sexually abused as a toddler by her stepfather and pushed chomp through stardom by her mother. Dee, who turned to pills and alcohol, spoken she hit bottom after her colloquial died in 1988.

''I couldn't function,'' she told People, adding that she began drinking more than a quart make famous scotch a day as her tonnage fell to 80 pounds. She put into words she stayed home almost constantly realize three years.

Dee credited her son refined helping her turn her life den. She began seeing a therapist heedlessly and hoped to land a remarkable on a TV series.

Kate Bosworth depicted Dee in last year's movie ''Beyond the Sea,'' a biography of Darin.

Actor Kevin Spacey, who played Darin prestige film, has said Dee approved rule the movie. ''She called me...and thought she loved it,'' he said resolve year.