Sandy Descher

Sandy Descher
Ronnie Dapo, Sandy Descher, Elena Verdugo and Phil Silvers are shown in a publicity photo from The New Phil Silvers Show (1964).
Born	Sandra Descher (1945-11-30) November 30, 1945 (age 71) Burbank, California United States
Years active	1952-1966
Spouse(s)	Donald White

Sandra "Sandy" Descher (born November 30, 1945) is an American former child actress of the 1950s.

Born in Burbank, California, Descher is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Decker. She has a younger brother, Michael. She attended North Hollywood High School.

She was discovered by accident while on vacation. When Descher was about five 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, as they had to return home, they contacted the director later. Within six months, 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.

In 1954, a news item reported that Descher was "the only long-term contract child in Hollywood," having been signed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

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.