Age, Biography and Wiki
Who is it? | Actress |
Birth Day | May 20, 1927 |
Birth Place | Port Angeles, Washington, United States |
Age | 96 YEARS OLD |
Birth Sign | Gemini |
First appearance | Gidget, The Little Girl With Big Ideas (1957) |
Last appearance | The New Gidget: "Make Waves, Not War" (1988) |
Created by | Frederick Kohner |
Portrayed by | Sandra Dee Deborah Walley Cindy Carol Sally Field Karen Valentine Monie Ellis Kathy Gori (voice) Caryn Richman Sabrina Kramnich (stage) |
Full name | Franziska Hofer (novels) Frances Elizabeth Lawrence (TV and film) |
Nickname(s) | Franzie Gidget |
Gender | female |
Occupation | Student. Also waitress (Cher Papa), teacher (Gidget in Love and Gidget Gets Married), fashion model (Gidget Goes Parisienne), tour guide (Gidget Goes New York and Gidget Grows Up) and travel agent (Gidget's Summer Reunion and The New Gidget). |
Family | Professor Russell Lawrence (father) Anne Cooper (sister) John Cooper (brother-in-law) |
Spouse(s) | Jeff "Moondoggie" Griffin (by the 1980s) |
Relatives | Danielle "Dani" Collins-Griffin (niece) |
Net worth: $9 Million (2024)
Gidget, the well-known actress in the United States, has an estimated net worth of $9 million in 2024. With her exceptional talent and captivating performances, she has gained considerable success and recognition in the entertainment industry. Throughout her career, Gidget has been able to secure various roles in movies and television shows, showcasing her versatility and skill as an actress. Her net worth is a testament to her hard work and dedication, as she continues to make waves and leave a mark in the entertainment world.
Famous Quotes:
"It's Franzie," I said. "From Franziska. It's a German name. After my grandmother."
Biography/Timeline
Kohner, a Czechoslovakian Jew, worked in the German film industry as a Screenwriter until 1933 when he emigrated to Hollywood after the Nazis started removing Jewish credits from films. Over the coming decades Kohner and his wife Franzie raised their two daughters by the beach while he toiled as a Screenwriter for Columbia Pictures. As his children grew into American teenagers he noticed that his daughter Kathy in particular was drawn into a very specific, regional, contemporary slice of American teenage culture – the surf culture.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the character Gidget (the prototypical beach bunny) was adapted for three films, all directed by Paul Wendkos and released by Columbia Pictures:
The original Gidget was created by Frederick Kohner in his 1957 novel Gidget, The Little Girl with Big Ideas (reprinted numerous times under the shortened title Gidget, by which it is more widely known), written in the first person and based on the accounts of his daughter Kathy (now Kathy Kohner-Zuckerman) of the surf culture of Malibu Point. Kohner, a prolific Screenwriter with one Academy Award nomination, published seven sequels to this novel, five of them original novels:
She does not give us her last name. In subsequent novels, her name is Franzie Hofer. In the films in which she appears, her name is changed to a more English sounding Frances Lawrence, and the names of some other characters are changed as well. In the 1960s television series (episode 16, "Now There's a Face"), Gidget gives her full name as Frances Elizabeth Lawrence.
In 1965, the character was adapted for television in the Screen Gems sitcom series Gidget, starring Sally Field. The series reintroduced Larue, a timid, awkward girl who often accompanied Gidget on her zany escapades, and an older married sister Anne Cooper ("Ann Cooper" in the novels), both of whom appear in the original 1957 novel but are absent from the motion pictures. Gidget's brother-in-law, who appeared in the novels as Larry Cooper, an intelligent but condescending child Psychiatrist was reinvented in the television series as John Cooper, an obtuse but lovable psychology student. In the television series, Gidget regarded both her sister and brother-in-law as clueless squares. The pilot episode ("Dear Diary - et al.") explains that Gidget's boyfriend Moondoggie is sent east to Princeton University with the convenient understanding that both were free to date others while separated, thus opening plots to a variety of complications and guest stars. In the sitcom, Gidget's mother is deceased (not true in the novels or the motion pictures), and the series focuses on the father-daughter relationship with Gidget receiving moral instruction from her father at episode's end and growing a little wiser from it. The sitcom ran for only one season, but spawned a devoted cult following.
In 1969, Karen Valentine starred as Gidget in the telemovie Gidget Grows Up, freely adapted from the 1968 novel Gidget Goes New York, but also functioning as a sequel to the 1965 sitcom series.
In 1972, another telemovie was made titled Gidget Gets Married, in which Gidget finally married longtime boyfriend Moondoggie. Monie Ellis played the title role. This incarnation of Gidget is unique in that it gives Moondoggie's real name as "Jeff Stevens." In the novels, the other telemovies and The New Gidget he is "Geoffrey H. Griffin" (the middle initial is mentioned only in the first novel); in the Hollywood films and the sitcom Gidget he is "Jeffrey Matthews." Later that year, Hanna-Barbera produced a 60-minute animated feature for television, Gidget Makes the Wrong Connection, with Kathy Gori as the voice of Gidget. It was broadcast as part of the Saturday morning series The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie.
In 1985, a follow-up of the 1965 sitcom series was launched with the telemovie Gidget's Summer Reunion, starring Caryn Richman as a grown version of the character played by Sally Field. This was followed by a sitcom series The New Gidget, which ran for two seasons, 1986–1988.
In 2007, Terry McCabe and Marissa McKown adapted a stage play Gidget from Kohner's 1957 novel. It was performed at City Lit Theater in Chicago in May and June 2007, directed by Marissa McKown and starred Sabrina Kramnich as Gidget.