Our Daily Dead

LA Times
Sandra Dee, the blond all-American girl next door whose star turns as “Gidget” and “Tammy” made her a teen idol in the 1960s, a status reinforced by her Hollywood marriage to pop singer Bobby Darin, died Sunday. She was 62.

Dee died at Los Robles Hospital and Medical Center in Thousand Oaks, said nursing supervisor Cynthia Mead. The actress had been hospitalized for the last two weeks for treatment of kidney disease, and had developed pneumonia, said Steve Blauner, a spokesman for Dee’s son, Dodd Mitchell Darin.

The demure yet sensual Dee tugged America’s heartstrings as the girl plus midget — Gidget — in the seminal film of that name in 1959. Teens and their parents alike hoped that she would make the right coming-of-age decisions between the rough-cut surfer played by Cliff Robertson and Moondoggie, played by James Darren. Somehow they knew the boys would always treat her with proper respect. She simply inspired that.

Unlike Darren, Dee never made the “Gidget” sequels. And when the charming teens-meet-surf, sand and each other story was translated to television in 1965, it was Sally Field in the title role. Nevertheless, when members of a certain generation remember Gidget and her innocent beach bonfires, to this day, they think of Dee.

Dream Lovers: The Magnificent Shattered Lives of Bobby Darin and Sandra Dee
Sandra Dee memorabilia at eBay.com

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