Doris Day, one of Hollywood’s most popular stars of the 1950s and ’60s who was Oscar-nommed for “Pillow Talk” and starred in her own TV show, has died. She was 97. The Doris Day Animal Foundation confirmed the legendary actress-singer died on Monday at her Carmel Valley, Calif. home. Though she was marketed as a wholesome girl-next-door type, the comedies for which she was most well-known were actually sexy and daring for their time, and her personal life was tumultuous, with four marriages and a notorious lawsuit. The vivacious blonde, who also had a successful singing career, teamed with Rock Hudson in “Pillow Talk” and other lighthearted romantic comedies including “Lover Come Back” and “Send Me No Flowers.” Her other significant screen roles included Alfred Hitchcock thriller “The Man Who Knew Too Much” (1956), co-starring James Stewart and featuring Day’s Oscar-winning song “Que Sera Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be”); and “The Pajama Game” (1957), based on the Broadway musical. After many successful films, she starred on CBS in “The Doris Day Show” for five years starting in 1968, and soon after retired to Carmel, Calif. She released 29 albums, most recently “My Heart,” which consisted of previously unreleased songs, in 2011. In her autobiography, “Doris Day: Her Own Story,” she caused something of a stir while promoting the book by rejecting the “girl next door” and “professional virgin” labels so often attached to her. In the 1975 book she remarked: “The succession of cheerful, period musicals I made, plus Oscar Levant’s highly publicized comment about my virginity (‘I knew Doris Day before she became a virgin’), contributed to what has been called my ‘image,’ which is a word that baffles me. There never was any intent on my part either in my acting or in my private life to create any such thing as an image.” But her rise in popularity coincided with World War II and the Korean War, and she quickly became a favorite with servicemen. Day leapt into the spotlight in 1945 with the release of her hit song “Sentimental Journey,” recorded with Les Brown and His Band of Renown; the song became symbolic for G.I.s returning from WWII to their families. She had also done early vocal work with the big bands of Barney Rapp and Bob Crosby. She had a second hit record with “My Dreams Are Getting Better All the Time.” After she separated from her second husband, George Weidler, in 1948, Day apparently intended to leave Los Angeles and return to her mother’s home in Cincinnati. Her agent, Al Levy, convinced her to attend a party at the home of composer Jule Styne. There she performed the song “Embraceable You,” impressing Styne and partner Sammy Cahn; they recommended her for a role in “Romance on the High Seas,” on which they were then working for Warner Bros. The main role was to be recast after Betty Hutton exited due to pregnancy, and Day got it. PHOTOS: Doris Day’s Life and Career in Pictures The Michael Curtiz-directed musical comedy, her debut feature film gig, provided her with another hit recording, the Oscar-nominated “It’s Magic.” Day starred in a number of Curtiz films in the early and mid-’50s, among them “Young Man With a Horn” with Kirk Douglas and Lauren Bacall. In the early ’50s she made a series of nostalgic period musicals for Warner Bros., including “Tea for Two,” “On Moonlight Bay” and “By the Light of the Silvery Moon,” for Warner Brothers. Attempting to cut loose from her dainty image, Day began accepting more nuanced parts, including her favorite role as Western tomboy Calamity Jane in director David Butler’s 1953 film of the same name. The New York Times called Day’s performance in the Hitchcock’s “The Man Who Knew Too Much,” in which she was well cast as a retired singer, “surprisingly effective.” Day was apparently not an immediate fan of “Que Sera Sera” and expressed doubts about the durability of the tune that would become her signature song. It was, however, used again in two more Day films — “Please Don’t Eat the Daisies” (1960) and, in a brief duet, in “The Glass Bottom Boat” (1966) — and was subsequently used as the theme song for her CBS TV show. Day also teamed with James Garner onscreen in 1963’s “The Thrill of It All” and “Move Over, Darling.” Her last film, 1968’s “With Six You Get Egg Roll,” in which she starred with Brian Keith, was released in the same year as the successful Lucille Ball-Henry Fonda comedy “Yours, Mine and Ours,” employing a very similar premise of two people with children from previous marriages coming together. It was also significant because of the ambiguity of certain scenes that could be interpreted as meaning that the central characters slept together before marriage — a first for a Day character and interesting at a time when comedians were calling her the world’s oldest virgin. She was offered the role of Mrs. Robinson in “The Graduate,” which could have gone a long way to modernizing what had become a square image, but turned it down because she thought the sexual relationship was exploitative. Born Doris Mary Kappelhoff in Evanston, Ohio, Day was initially interested in dancing but a car accident when she was 13 ended the possibility of such a career. She began singing as a teenager after joining a local dance band, which renamed her Doris Day in honor of her song “Day After Day.” Until her birth certificate surfaced in 2017, she was often reported as having been born in 1924. POPULAR THIS WEEK: Her first marriage was to trombonist Al Jorden in 1941, who she was said to have left because of his abusiveness. They had a son, Terry, who was adopted in 1951 by Day’s third husband, agent Marty Melcher, and later became a successful music producer in the 1960s and ’70s, working with the Beach Boys and Randy Newman. Day’s second marriage to Band of Renown saxophonist Weidler lasted only eight months.<doc-sep>Doris Day, the beloved actress and singer who rose to superstardom in the 1940s, died on Monday at the age of 97. The prolific performer embodied an era of American entertainment, having dominated both the box office and music charts in her expansive career. Her death was confirmed by the Doris Day Animal Foundation, which issued a statement explaining that Day "had been in excellent physical health for her age, until recently contracting a serious case of pneumonia." Known for her innocent and wholesome persona, Day began her career as a big band singer before moving into film. She balanced two successful careers, with over 650 recordings and five number one singles in the U.S. while also starring in film classics like Calamity Jane and Move Over Darling. Following the finish of her film career in 1968, Day moved onto television, starring in The Doris Day Show on CBS for five years. As her career developed, though, it was her saccharine celebrity persona that cemented her place in Hollywood. But even with that reputation, Day's personal life was more complicated and candid than her exterior suggested. As the AP reported, she once noted in her book Doris Day: Her Own Story, "I have the unfortunate reputation of being Miss Goody Two-Shoes, America's Virgin, and all that, so I'm afraid it's going to shock some people for me to say this, but I staunchly believe no two people should get married until they have lived together." Day's legacy remains one of the most memorable in Hollywood. Pillow Talk, the first of three romantic comedies she would do with Rock Hudson, was a pioneer in the genre and earned her an Academy Award nomination. Day's music career, which often overlapped with her film work, produced massive hits including "Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)" featured in The Man Who Knew Too Much. Though she never won a competitive Grammy, she did receive three different Grammy Hall of Fame Awards in 1998, 1999 and 2012. Day founded the Doris Day Animal Foundation in 1978, and she continued to oversee the organization late into her life. Driven by her deep love of animals, her advocacy work was one Day's greatest passions. Though her foundation's statement also included that there be "no funeral or memorial service and no grave marker," Day's imprint on Hollywood will not be soon forgotten. In a time of reality television fame and singing competitions, Day represents an era of celebrity glamour that perhaps (perhaps, perhaps) will never be seen again. Justin Kirkland Justin Kirkland is a writer for Esquire, where he focuses on entertainment, television, and pop culture. This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io<doc-sep>A mural of George Floyd is shown in the intersection of 38th St & Chicago Ave on March 31, 2021 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Community members continue preparations during the third day in the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who is charged with multiple counts of murder in the death of George Floyd. 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(Photo by CARLOS OSORIO / POOL / AFP) (Photo by CARLOS OSORIO/POOL/AFP via Getty Images) 'Never seen levels like this': Union president on airline passenger misconduct Memorial Day weekend will bring rain and cool air for much of the East (CNN) — Doris Day, the box-office queen and singing star whose wholesome, all-American image belied an often-turbulent personal life, has died, her foundation announced Monday. She was 97. The actress passed away early Monday surrounded by a few close friends at her Carmel Valley home in California, according to the Doris Day Animal Foundation. She had just celebrated her 97th birthday last month with nearly 300 fans who gathered in Carmel. Day recently contracted a serious case of pneumonia that resulted in her death, the foundation said. Day was arguably the top female box-office star in Hollywood history, with a No. 1 ranking in 1960, 1962, 1963 and 1964. She had her first hit as a big-band vocalist during World War II before making nearly 40 movies in the next two decades, reigning supreme at a time when her contemporaries included Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor. Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images Doris Day teamed up with Rock Hudson in three romantic comedies in the late '50s and early '60s. Sex comedies such as “Pillow Talk,” “Lover Come Back” and “That Touch of Mink” established her as a sunny but slightly uptight career woman who fought off men’s advances. “My public image is unshakably that of America’s wholesome virgin, the girl next door, carefree and brimming with happiness. An image, I can assure you, more make-believe than any film part I ever played,” Day told A.E. Hotchner in her memoir, “Doris Day: Her Own Story.” Or as one-time co-star Oscar Levant famously joked, “I knew Doris Day before she was a virgin.” The chaste screen persona seemed at odds with her private life. She married four times and had a child before she was 20. She described her first husband as a “psychopathic sadist” who beat her. Her second husband told her by letter that he was leaving her after eight months. Husband No. 3 was agent Martin Melcher, who mismanaged her fortune and left her in debt when he died. Her fourth, restaurateur Barry Comden, complained to the press that she kicked him out of bed for her pets. Day also suffered from panic attacks in the early ‘50s, what she later described as “tantamount to a nervous breakdown.” As singer, one of ‘the best in the business’ She was born Doris Mary Ann von Kappelhoff on April 3, 1922, in Cincinnati. She dreamed of a career as a dancer until she injured her right leg in a car accident as a teenager. During a long convalescence, she immersed herself in the big-band sounds of Tommy Dorsey and the vocals of Ella Fitzgerald. She soon became a performer on local radio and then joined a swing band. The bandleader feared that her last name, Kappelhoff (“von” had been dropped), was too long for a marquee, so he dubbed her Doris Day after a song of hers, “Day After Day.” “But I never did like it. Still don’t. I think it’s a phony name,” Day said more than 30 years later. Her blonde good looks and smooth, velvety voice ensured that she quickly moved up the musical ranks.<doc-sep>Doris Day, who has died aged 97, was a singer who came out of the big-band boom of the 1940s to become one of Hollywood’s top box-office stars throughout the 50s and 60s. She had a honey voice, short, buttercup-coloured hair, a sunny smile – and as many scruples as freckles. If Marilyn Monroe was the “girl downtown” at 20th Century Fox, Day was the archetypal “girl next door” at Warners. Day was first seen as a spunky but naive showgirl in more than a dozen candyfloss Warner Bros musicals between 1948 and 1955. Then, from 1959 until her retirement from the big screen in 1968, she became a sophisticated urban woman defending her honour and independence in a series of glossy, sex-battle romantic comedies for Universal Studios. During this crowning period of her film career, she showed a real flair for comedy. Wearing dotty hats and stylish Jean Louis gowns, she played a series of women determined not to sacrifice their independence for the sake of a man or, at least, without a fight. This was best displayed in the three entertaining romantic comedies she made opposite Rock Hudson: Pillow Talk (1959), which earned her an Oscar nomination as best actress, Lover Come Back (1961) and Send Me No Flowers (1964), in which the pair were rivals-cum-lovers, she a decent working girl, he an amorous rogue. At one stage in Lover Come Back, someone compares Hudson to a bad cold. Day replies: “There are two ways to handle a cold. You can fight it or you can give in and go to bed with it.” Day played variations of the same character in That Touch of Mink (1962), with Cary Grant; Move Over, Darling and The Thrill of It All (both 1963), with James Garner; and Do Not Disturb (1965) and The Glass Bottom Boat (1966), with Rod Taylor, but none of these later leading men provided the chemistry she had had with Hudson. Of her film persona in the 60s, the critics Jane Clarke and Diana Simmonds wrote that Day “confronts the male and forces him to modify his attitudes and behaviour. Moreover, saying no to manipulative sexual situations is not the same as clinging to one’s virginity.” Day might have lived a charmed existence in many of her movies, but her life was not all sunshine and roses. She was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, of German ancestry and when she was eight years old, her parents – William Kappelhoff, a music teacher, and Alma (nee Welz) – split up. When Doris was 15, her promising career as a dancer was halted by a car accident. She had a lengthy recovery, during which her mother encouraged her to start singing after hearing her daughter joining in with singers including Ella Fitzgerald on the radio. “There was a quality to Ella’s voice that fascinated me, and I’d sing along with her, trying to catch the subtle ways she shaded her voice, the casual yet clean way she sang the words,” Day recalled. She began a career as a vocalist with Barney Rapp’s band in 1939. It was Rapp who got her to change her name to Doris Day after hearing her sing Day After Day. Initially, she thought the name sounded “phoney”, but she gradually accepted that Kappelhoff was a little too long for the marquee outside the theatre. Doris Day as the wild west heroine in Calamity Jane, 1953. Photograph: Allstar/Warner Bros While on the road with the band in 1941, aged 19, she married the trombonist Al Jorden, with whom she had a son, Terry. Jorden turned out to be a jealous wife-beater. They divorced in 1943. At the same time, Day was making an impression with Les Brown and His Band of Renown. In 1945, she had a hit with their recording of Sentimental Journey, which coincided with the end of the second world war in Europe and became an unofficial homecoming theme for many veterans. After a second unhappy marriage, to the saxophonist George Weidler, ended in divorce in 1949, luck was on her side when Betty Hutton got pregnant just before the shooting of Romance on the High Seas (1948) at Warners. Day was given top billing in her first feature by the film’s producer-director, Michael Curtiz, after she delivered an emotional version of George and Ira Gershwin’s Embraceable You at the audition. Impressed by her voice and wholesome good looks, Curtiz signed her to a film contract, although she had never acted before. Day’s debut movie, which had her singing five songs, including the Oscar-nominated It’s Magic (the film’s title in the UK), was the first of a series of lightweight Warners musicals tailored for her, for which her singing was the raison d’être. Most of her numbers were performed in nightclubs or in stage shows; they seldom advanced the plot, although they sometimes reflected the state of mind of the innocent character she was playing. Doris Day with Frank Sinatra in Young at Heart , 1954. He was all scowls, she all smiles. Photograph: Allstar/Warner Bros The freshness and vitality of her singing and personality blew the cobwebs off the plots of My Dream Is Yours (1949), Tea for Two (1950), Lullaby of Broadway (1951), I’ll See You in My Dreams (1951) and April in Paris (1952), all named after the hit songs featured in the films. Far better were two charming, small-town period idylls, co-starring the clean-cut, handsome baritone Gordon MacRae: On Moonlight Bay (1951) and By the Light of the Silvery Moon (1953). Her pairing with Frank Sinatra in Young at Heart (1954) was more interesting as he was all scowls, she all smiles. It was a period during which she was voted by servicemen in Korea as “the girl we would most like to take a slow boat back to the States with”. Day also handled a few dramatic roles with ease.<doc-sep>
Doris Day, the sunny blond actress and singer whose frothy comedic roles opposite the likes of Rock Hudson and Cary Grant made her one of Hollywood's biggest stars in the 1950s and '60s and a symbol of wholesome American womanhood, died Monday. She was 97. In more recent years, Day had been an animal rights advocate. Her Doris Day Animal Foundation confirmed her death at her Carmel Valley, California, home. Day "had been in excellent physical health for her age" but had recently contracted pneumonia, the foundation said in a statement. She requested that no memorial services be held and no grave marker erected. With her lilting contralto, fresh-faced beauty and glowing smile, Day was a top box-office draw and recording artist known for comedies such as "Pillow Talk" and "That Touch of Mink," as well as songs like "Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)" from the Alfred Hitchcock film "The Man Who Knew Too Much." Over time, she became more than a name above the title. Right down to her cheerful, alliterative stage name, she stood for the era's ideal of innocence and G-rated love, a parallel world to her contemporary Marilyn Monroe. The running joke, attributed to both Groucho Marx and actor-composer Oscar Levant, was that they had known Day "before she was a virgin." Day herself was no Doris Day, by choice and by hard luck. Her 1976 tell-all book, "Doris Day: Her Own Story," chronicled her money troubles and three failed marriages. "I have the unfortunate reputation of being Miss Goody Two-Shoes, America's Virgin, and all that, so I'm afraid it's going to shock some people for me to say this, but I staunchly believe no two people should get married until they have lived together," she wrote. A.E. Hotchner, who collaborated with Day on her memoir, said she had a "sweet and sour" existence and never let her personal difficulties "change her attitude toward people." "She was such a positive, absolutely enchanting woman," he told The Associated Press on Monday. "And she was so loved." Day received a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2004. Although mostly retired from show business since the 1980s, she still had enough of a following that a 2011 collection of previously unreleased songs, "My Heart," hit the top 10 in the United Kingdom. The same year, she received a lifetime achievement honour from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. The Humane Society of the United States, of which The Doris Day Animal League is an affiliate, praised Day as a pioneer in animal protection. In 1987, Day "founded one of the first national animal protection organizations dedicated to legislative remedies for the worst animal abuse," said the league's executive director, Sara Amundson. Her foresight "led to dozens of bills, final rules and policies on the federal level," which helped end abusive videos, protect chimpanzees from invasive research and regulate the online sale of puppies. "She is an icon in the animal protection world and will be sorely missed for her singular advocacy," Amundson said. Paul McCartney, a friend, called Day "a true star in more ways than one." "Visiting her in her Californian home was like going to an animal sanctuary where her many dogs were taken care of in splendid style," he said in a statement. "She had a heart of gold and was a very funny lady who I shared many laughs with." He cited films like "Calamity Jane," "Move Over, Darling" and others and said he would "always remember her twinkling smile and infectious laugh." Day "was kind and decent, onscreen and off; she maintained her friendship with Rock Hudson after his AIDS diagnosis, in a climate of fear and abandonment -- one of his last appearances was on a TV show with her," playwright Paul Rudnick tweeted. Born to a music teacher and a housewife in Cincinnati, Day dreamed of a dance career but at age 12 broke her leg badly when a car in which she was travelling was hit by a train. Listening to the radio while recuperating, she began singing along with Ella Fitzgerald, studying the singer and the subtleties of her voice. Day began singing at a Cincinnati radio station, then a nightclub, then in New York. A bandleader changed her name to Day after the song "Day after Day" to fit it on a marquee. A marriage at 17 to trombonist Al Jorden ended when, she said, he beat her when she was eight months' pregnant.