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Movie People: Sandra Dee Sad and Sweet: Remembering Gidget and Tammy Although, Sandra Dee’s personal life was not all sweetness and light like many of her most memorable film roles, she will always be remembered as “America’s Sweetheart.” Dee starred in 27 films, but she is best known to boomers as the first Gidget, a role reprised for us on tv by Sally Fields. Gidget was the ultimate wholesome teen but full of spunk and fun. She also played Tammy in two films, the pretty, yet unrefined country gal who won hearts with her honesty and innocence. A little about Sandra Dee Dee’s first film role was in 1957’s “Until They Sail,” a movie about a family with four sisters living in wartime New Zealand. She starred as Gidget in1959 and as Tammy in “Tammy Tell Me True” (1961) and, later, in “Tammy and the Doctor” (1963). She also played serious roles in a number of films including two 1959 films, “Imitation of Life,” a heartbreaking drama about racism, jealousy and mother-daughter relationships, and “A Summer Place,” which tackles adultery and teen pregnancy. Yet, it is the romantic comedies for which she is best known including 1961’s “Come September” where she met teen idol Bobby Darin. The couple were married during the filming of the movie and had a son, Dodd, the next year. The marriage was volatile and ended in 1967. Darin died at age 37 from congestive heart failure in 1973. Dee continued to work very sporadically on films and made occasional television appearances until her last film “Lost” in 1983. Two things happened this year to bring Dee
back into the public eye. Sadly, she died this February of kidney
failure. Her marriage to Bobby Darin is a large part of a new
film released this year about Darin’s life, “Beyond
the Sea” with Kevin Spacey as Darin and Kate Bosworth
as Dee. The early reviews are good for this biopic but I think
I’ll remember by sitting down this weekend with a milkshake
and watching “Gidget” yet again. Check out our review of Beyond the Sea biopic of Bobby Darin |
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