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SEE CORRECTION APPENDED; Festival site--An obituary for actress, writer and producer Deborah Walley in Monday's editions of The Times incorrectly spelled the name of a Portuguese festival where one of her works was honored. It was the Algarve International Video Festival.
Deborah Walley, the perky young actress who succeeded Sandra Dee as the "girl midget" in the first "Gidget" sequel, starred in several of the 1960s beach frolic movies and became a writer and producer aiding children and Native Americans, has died. She was 57.
Walley died Thursday in Sedona, Ariz., of esophageal cancer.
The petite, red-haired ingenue's 15 motion pictures in the 1960s and 1970s ranged from her debut in "Gidget Goes Hawaiian" through similar cotton candy features for Columbia and Disney with such titles as "Bon Voyage!," "Summer Magic," "Beach Blanket Bingo" and "Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine."
A fan favorite from the beginning, she was chosen Photoplay Magazine's Most Popular Actress in 1961, the year her "Gidget" was released.
Neither the typecast image of the 5-foot-2, 95-pound Walley as a bouncy, libidinous but virginal teenager nor even her appearances with Elvis Presley in "Spinout" or with the popular canine in "Benji" completely defined the multifaceted entertainer.
"When I was discovered, I was doing Chekhov. I was in 'The Three Sisters' off-Broadway, and I went from...