Sandy Descher

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Sandra Descher, known professionally as Sandy, was an American child actress in the 1950s. Although born in Burbank, California on November 30, 1945, she was discovered by accident while on vacation. When Sandy was about 5 years old, her family had travelled across country to New York City where the girl fell in love with the theater after seeing "The Red Shoes" ballet on Broadway. On the way home, they stopped at Jackson Hole, Wyoming where coincidentally a film was being shot. The director saw her, and needing a child for the film, approached her parents. However, they had to return home. They later contacted the director, and six months later Sandy appeared in her first movie, "It Grows on Trees", which was released in 1952.

Next she appeared in a brief, but key role in the classic science-fiction film, Them! (1954). She played a catatonic child whose parents have been killed by gigantic ants. Unable to speak, she can only scream "Them", giving the film its title. The movie's cast included Edmund Gwenn, James Arness and James Whitmore.

That same year, she appeared in her favorite film, "The Last Time I Saw Paris". Based on F. Scott Fitzgerald's famous short story "Babylon Revisited", she played Vicky, the daughter of Van Johnson and Elizabeth Taylor. After her mother dies, Vicky is adopted by her mother's sister, played by Donna Reed. The movie called on her to speak French and to dance ballet. In 1954, she also played a crippled child in a Martin and Lewis film.

Then in 1955 she was in "The Prodigal" with Lana Turner and then played Gregory Peck's ten-year old daughter in "The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit". She also at Van Johnson's request appeared in another movie with him that year, "The Bottom of the Bottle" (1956).

Her last movie at about age 12, was the cult favorite "Space Children" (1958), wearing, to her embarrassment, a bathing suit. She then, in the 1960s, went into television work, appearing on many of Loretta Young's shows and as a regular in "The New Phil Silvers Show", as well as many other programs.

Her memories of her acting years are almost all pleasant, except she did receive a number of kidnapping threats, and even interviewed by the F.B.I. after one obsessed woman stalker became convinced she was her long-lost daughter.

[edit] Bibliography

Parla, Paul; Charles P. Mitchell (2000). "Sandy Descher: Child Star and Space Child", Screen Sirens Scream! Interviews with 20 Actresses from Science Fiction, Horror, Film Noir and Mystery Movies, 1930s to 1960s. Jefferson, N.C. and London: McFarland, pp. 41-57. ISBN 0-7864-0701-8.