Birth name Doris Mary Kappelhoff NationalityUSA Birth 3 april 1922 at Cincinnati (USA) Death 13 may 2019 (at 97 years) Awards Presidential Medal of Freedom, Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
Doris Day (born Doris Mary Ann Kappelhoff; April 3, 1922 or 1924) is an American actress, singer, and animal rights activist.
Day began her career as a big band singer in 1939. Her popularity began to rise after her first hit recording "Sentimental Journey", in 1945. After leaving Les Brown & His Band of Renown to embark on a solo career, Day started her long-lasting partnership with Columbia Records, which remained her only recording label. The contract lasted from 1947 to 1967 and included more than 650 recordings, making Day one of the most popular and acclaimed singers of the 20th century. In 1948, after being persuaded by songwriters Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne and by Al Levy, her agent at the time, she auditioned for film director Michael Curtiz, which led to her being cast as the female lead in Romance on the High Seas.
Over the course of her career, Day appeared in 39 films. She was ranked the biggest box-office star, the only woman appearing on that list in the era, for four years (1960, 1962, 1963 and 1964), ranking in the top 10 for ten years (1951–1952 and 1959–1966). She became the top-ranking female box-office star of all time and is currently ranked sixth among the top 10 box office performers (male and female), as of 2012. Day received an Academy Award nomination for her performance in Pillow Talk, won three Henrietta Awards (World Film Favorite), received the Los Angeles Film Critics Association's Career Achievement Award and in 1989, she received the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement in motion pictures. She made her last film in 1968.
She received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and a Legend Award from the Society of Singers. In 2011, she released her 29th studio album, My Heart, which debuted at No. 9 on the UK Top 40 charts. As of January 2014, Day is the oldest living artist to score a UK Top 10 with an album featuring new material.
Her strong commitment to animal welfare began in 1971, when she co-founded "Actors and Others for Animals". She started her own non-profit organization in the late 1970s, the Doris Day Animal Foundation and, later, the Doris Day Animal League (DDAL). Establishing the annual observance Spay Day USA in 1994, the Doris Day Animal League now partners with The Humane Society of the United States and continues to be a leading advocacy organization. In 2004, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George W. Bush in recognition of her distinguished service to the country. Day is retired from acting and performing, but has continued her work in animal rights causes and animal welfare.
Biography
Since her retirement from films, Day has lived in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. She has many pets and adopts stray animals.
Day is a Republican. Her only child, music producer and songwriter Terry Melcher, who had a hit in the 1960s with "Hey Little Cobra" under the name The Rip Chords, died of melanoma in 2004, about five months after Day had received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She owns a hotel in Carmel-by-the-Sea, the Cypress Inn, which Melcher had co-owned with Day.
Day became an ordained minister with the Universal Life Church in order to officiate at weddings.
Marriages
In 1975, Day published her autobiography, Doris Day: Her Own Story, an "as-told-to" work with A. E. Hotchner. The book detailed her first three marriages:
To Al Jorden, a trombonist whom she first met in Barney Rapp's Band, from March 1941 to 1943. Her only child, son Terrence Paul Jorden (later known as Terry Melcher), resulted from this marriage. Husband Jorden, who was reportedly physically abusive to Day, committed suicide in 1967 by gunshot.
To George Weidler (a saxophonist), from March 30, 1946 to May 31, 1949. Weidler, the brother of actress Virginia Weidler, and Day met again several years later. During a brief reconciliation, he helped introduce her to Christian Science.
To Martin Melcher, whom she married on April 3, 1951. This marriage lasted until Melcher's death in 1968. Melcher adopted Day's son Terry, who, with the name Terry Melcher, became a successful musician and record producer. Martin Melcher produced many of Day's movies. She and Melcher were both practicing Christian Scientists, resulting in her not seeing a doctor for some time after symptoms that suggested cancer. This distressing period ended when, finally consulting a physician, and thereby finding the lump was benign, she fully recovered. After publishing her autobiography, Day married one last time.
Her fourth and latest marriage was to Barry Comden (March 30, 1935 – May 25, 2009), who was roughly a decade younger, from April 14, 1976, until 1981. Comden was the maître d'hôtel at one of Day's favorite restaurants. Knowing of her great love of dogs, Comden endeared himself to Day by giving her a bag of meat scraps and bones on her way out of the restaurant. When this marriage unraveled, Comden complained that Day cared more for her "animal friends" than she did for him.
, 1h33 Directed byRaoul Peck OriginFrance GenresDocumentary ActorsSamuel L. Jackson, Harry Belafonte, Dick Cavett, Bob Dylan, Sidney Poitier, Doris Day Roles Various Roles (archive footage) Rating78% À travers les propos et les écrits de l’écrivain noir américain James Baldwin, Raoul Peck propose un film qui revisite les luttes sociales et politiques des Afro-Américains au cours de ces dernières décennies.
, 1h47 Directed byNicholas Meyer OriginUSA GenresComedy ActorsTom Hanks, John Candy, Rita Wilson, Tim Thomerson, Gedde Watanabe, Allan Arbus Roles Self (archive footage) (uncredited) Rating55% Lawrence Bourne III (Tom Hanks), is a spoiled rich kid who just graduated from Yale ("A College") Class of 1962; with a $28,000 gambling debt. After his father, Lawrence Bourne Jr. (George Plimpton), refuses to pay his son's debt, Lawrence escapes his angry creditors by trading places with his college roommate Kent (Xander Berkeley) and jumping on a Peace Corps flight to Thailand.
, 1h29 Directed byHy Averback OriginUSA GenresComedy ActorsDoris Day, Patrick O'Neal, Robert Morse, Terry-Thomas, Steve Allen, Lola Albright Roles Margaret Garrison Rating58% November 9, 1965: Margaret Garrison (Doris Day) is a stage actress who has spent her career starring in virginal roles, although she would relish the opportunity to play someone less savory, such as an Italian prostitute, at least once before she retires. When a blackout shutters her current Broadway play for the night, she returns home unexpectedly and discovers her architect husband Peter (Patrick O'Neal) being overly attentive to attractive reporter Roberta Lane (Lola Albright). Infuriated, she heads to the couple's weekend house in Connecticut and takes a concoction to fall asleep.
, 1h35 Directed byHoward Morris OriginUSA GenresComedy, Romance ThemesFilms about families ActorsDoris Day, Brian Keith, Barbara Hershey, Pat Carroll, George Carlin, Alice Ghostley Roles Abby McClure Rating63% Abby McClure (Doris Day) is a widow with three sons who runs the lumberyard her husband owned. Her matchmaking sister Maxine (Pat Carroll) tricks her into calling widower Jake Iverson (Brian Keith) and inviting him to the business dinner party Abby is having later that night. Not interested in the trouble his sexy, adultery-minded neighbor Cleo (Elaine Devry) is trying to get him into, Jake arrives at Abby’s, only to be bored by all of the matchmaking dialogue. Jake makes up an excuse to leave, but later runs into Abby at an all-night supermarket. Embarrassed by being caught in a fib, Jake meets Abby at a local drive-in run by the wise-cracking Herbie (George Carlin) and the two stay out until 2am. A romance develops, much to the chagrin of Jake’s teenage daughter, Stacey (Barbara Hershey); and Abby’s three sons, Flip, Mitch and Jason (John Findlater, Jimmy Bracken, and Richard Steele). The children make certain that neither Jake nor Abby can be comfortable at the other’s home, so the pair wind up more than once at the drive-in, before finally falling in love. Getting fed up with the situation, they elope, not telling their children that they have married until the next day after being discovered in bed together.
, 1h42 Directed byGeorge Marshall, Ralph Levy OriginUSA GenresComedy, Romantic comedy, Romance ThemesThéâtre, Films based on plays, Children's films ActorsDoris Day, Rod Taylor, Hermione Baddeley, Sergio Fantoni, Reginald Gardiner, Leon Askin Roles Janet Harper Rating58% American couple Mike and Janet Harper (Rod Taylor and Doris Day) move to England for Mike's work, his company which deals in wool textiles and wool fashions. Despite Mike's want for them to live in a flat in the heart of London, Janet, who is not a big city girl, ignores his want and instead finds them a house to rent thirty miles outside of London in Kent, which means that Mike has to commute into town by train. This commute is not ideal for Mike, who often for convenience stays in one of the company's flats in town rather than go home. This commuting situation makes Janet feel even more neglected than she already did previously.
, 1h48 Directed byNorman Jewison OriginUSA GenresComedy, Romantic comedy, Romance ThemesFilms about television ActorsDoris Day, James Garner, Arlene Francis, Edward Andrews, Reginald Owen, Zasu Pitts Roles Beverly Boyer Rating68% The story centers around suburban housewife Beverly Boyer (Doris Day) and her husband, a successful obstetrician and devoted family man, Gerald (James Garner). Beverly is offered the opportunity to star in a television commercial advertising soap. After a shaky start, she gets a contract for nearly $80,000 per year to appear in weekly TV commercials. Soon the TV studio places greater and greater demands on the unlikely TV star. Gerald resents the fact that the appearances are taking up an increasing amount of her time, and becomes jealous of the level of attention that her new-found stardom has brought her. Their relationship slowly deteriorates until she decides to return as a housewife.