{"id":214299,"date":"2019-05-14T04:53:17","date_gmt":"2019-05-14T08:53:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=214299"},"modified":"2019-05-14T04:53:17","modified_gmt":"2019-05-14T08:53:17","slug":"doris-day-actress-who-honed-wholesome-image-dies-at-97","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/05\/14\/doris-day-actress-who-honed-wholesome-image-dies-at-97\/","title":{"rendered":"Doris Day, actress who honed wholesome image, dies at 97"},"content":{"rendered":"
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FILE: Doris Day singing “I’m in Love” in Romance on the High Seas (1948), her film debut. (Photo By Trailer ScreenshotUploaded by Wool Mintons at en.wikipedia – Romance on the High Seas trailerTransferred from en.wikipedia by SreeBot, Public Domain<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Day \u201chad been in excellent physical health for her age\u201d but had recently contracted pneumonia, the foundation said in a statement. She requested that no memorial services be held and no grave marker erected.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cPillow Talk\u201d and \u201cThat Touch of Mink,\u201d as well as songs like \u201cWhatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)\u201d from the Alfred Hitchcock film \u201cThe Man Who Knew Too Much.\u201d<\/p>\n

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 \u201cbefore she was a virgin.\u201d<\/p>\n

Day herself was no Doris Day, by choice and by hard luck. Her 1976 tell-all book, \u201cDoris Day: Her Own Story,\u201d chronicled her money troubles and three failed marriages.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n

A.E. Hotchner, who collaborated with Day on her memoir, said she had a \u201csweet and sour\u201d existence and never let her personal difficulties \u201cchange her attitude toward people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was such a positive, absolutely enchanting woman,\u201d he told The Associated Press on Monday. \u201cAnd she was so loved.\u201d<\/p>\n

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, \u201cMy Heart,\u201d hit the top 10 in the United Kingdom. The same year, she received a lifetime achievement honour from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

In 1987, Day \u201cfounded one of the first national animal protection organizations dedicated to legislative remedies for the worst animal abuse,\u201d said the league’s executive director, Sara Amundson. Her foresight \u201cled to dozens of bills, final rules and policies on the federal level,\u201d which helped end abusive videos, protect chimpanzees from invasive research and regulate the online sale of puppies.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is an icon in the animal protection world and will be sorely missed for her singular advocacy,\u201d Amundson said.<\/p>\n

Paul McCartney, a friend, called Day \u201ca true star in more ways than one.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cVisiting her in her Californian home was like going to an animal sanctuary where her many dogs were taken care of in splendid style,\u201d he said in a statement. \u201cShe had a heart of gold and was a very funny lady who I shared many laughs with.\u201d<\/p>\n

He cited films like \u201cCalamity Jane,\u201d \u201cMove Over, Darling\u201d and others and said he would \u201calways remember her twinkling smile and infectious laugh.\u201d<\/p>\n

Day \u201cwas kind and decent, onscreen and off; she maintained her friendship with Rock Hudson after his AIDS diagnosis, in a climate of fear and abandonment \u2014 one of his last appearances was on a TV show with her,\u201d playwright Paul Rudnick tweeted.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cDay after Day\u201d to fit it on a marquee.<\/p>\n

A marriage at 17 to trombonist Al Jorden ended when, she said, he beat her when she was eight months’ pregnant. She gave birth to her son, Terry, in early 1942. Her second marriage also was short-lived. She returned to Les Brown’s band after the first marriage broke up.<\/p>\n

Her Hollywood career began after she sang at a Hollywood party in 1947. After early stardom as a band singer and a stint at Warner Bros., Day won the best notices of her career with 1955’s \u201cLove Me or Leave Me,\u201d the story of songstress Ruth Etting and her gangster husband-manager. She followed with \u201cThe Man Who Knew Too Much,\u201d starring with James Stewart as an innocent couple ensnared in an international assassination plot. She sang \u201cQue Sera, Sera\u201d just as the story reached its climax.<\/p>\n

But she found her greatest success in slick, stylish sex comedies, beginning with 1959’s Oscar-nominated \u201cPillow Talk,\u201d in which she and Hudson played two New Yorkers who shared a telephone party line. It was the first of three films with Hudson.<\/p>\n

In \u201cThat Touch of Mink,\u201d she turned back advances from Grant and in \u201cThe Thrill of It All\u201d played a housewife who gains fame as a TV pitchwoman to the chagrin of obstetrician husband James Garner.<\/p>\n

The nation’s theatre owners voted her the top moneymaking star in 1960, 1962, 1963 and 1964.<\/p>\n

Her first singing hit was the 1945 smash \u201cSentimental Journey,\u201d when she was barely in her 20s. Among the other songs she made famous were \u201cEverybody Loves a Lover,\u201d \u201cSecret Love,\u201d and \u201cIt’s Magic,\u201d a song from her first film, \u201cRomance on the High Seas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Critic Gary Giddins called her \u201cthe coolest and sexiest female singer of slow-ballads in movie history.\u201d<\/p>\n

Day was cast in \u201cRomance on the High Seas\u201d after Judy Garland and Betty Hutton bowed out. Warner Bros. cashed in on its new star with a series of musicals, including \u201cMy Dream Is Yours,\u201d \u201cTea for Two\u201d and \u201cLullaby of Broadway.\u201d Her dramas included \u201cYoung Man with a Horn\u201d and \u201cStorm Warning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her last film was \u201cWith Six You Get Eggroll,\u201d a 1968 comedy about a widow and a widower who blend families.<\/p>\n

In the 1960s, Day discovered that failed investments by her third husband, Martin Melcher, left her deeply in debt. She eventually won a multimillion-dollar judgment against their lawyer.<\/p>\n

With movies trending toward more explicit sex, she turned to television to recoup her finances. \u201cThe Doris Day Show\u201d was a moderate success in its 1968-1973 run on CBS.<\/p>\n

Day had married Melcher in 1951. He became her manager, and her son took his name. In most of the films following \u201cPillow Talk,\u201d Melcher was listed as co-producer. He died in 1969.<\/p>\n

In her autobiography, Day recalled her son telling her the $20 million she had earned had vanished and she owed around $450,000, mostly for taxes. Terry Melcher, who died in 2004, became a songwriter and record producer, working with such stars as the Beach Boys. He was also famous for an aspiring musician he turned down, Charles Manson. When Manson and his followers embarked on their murderous rampage in 1969, they headed for a house once owned by Melcher and instead came upon actress Sharon Tate and some visitors, all of whom were killed.<\/p>\n

Day married a fourth time at age 52, to businessman Barry Comden in 1976.<\/p>\n

Her wholesome image was referenced in the song \u201cI’m Sandra Dee\u201d in the 1971 musical \u201cGrease,\u201d which included the lyrics: \u201cWatch it, hey, I’m Doris Day\/ I was not brought up that way\/ Won’t come across\/ Even Rock Hudson lost\/ His heart to Doris Day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n

The late Associated Press writer Bob Thomas in Los Angeles and AP writer Shawn Marsh in Trenton, New Jersey, contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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