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| Birth Name(s) : Doris Mary Ann Von Kappelhoff |
Date of Birth: April 3, 1924 |
| Status:
Single
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Partner:
N/A |
| Profession:
Actor |
Official Site
Go to the Doris Day Official Homepage |
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Full Doris Day Biography
Doris was born to German Catholic parents in 1924. She had a brother Richard, who died before she was born and Paul, a few years older than her. Her father and mother split when she was about eight.
At twelve, she had a dance act with a boy called Jerry Doherty, with whom - after winning $500 in a talent contest - she went to Hollywood. On returning to Cincinatti, aged fourteen, Doris was in a terrible car crash which almost ended her dancing career.
At the age of sixteen, Doris then discovered that she could sing and began touring with the Les Brown Band, where she met Al Jorden, who she later married. Al turned out to be a violent man and soon after the birth of her son Terry in 1942, she initiated divorce proceedings.
In 1946, after entertaining the troops for a couple of years, she met and married George Weidler this liason lasted only eight months. In 1948 she made her first film, Romance on the High Seas (1948).
Whilst filming for Warner Brothers, she met Marty Melcher who became her agent and later on her 27th birthday her husband. In 1958 her brother Paul died and it was around this time that Marty started to make her sign to do films that she did not want to. This eventually led to Doris becoming ill from nervous exhaustion. By the time that Marty died in 1968, Doris was bankrupt and owed thousands of dollars, but she was eventually awarded $22 million by the Courts. She married for the fourth time in 1976 and since her divorce in 1980 has devoted her life to animals. |
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Additional Doris Day Biography
Day was born in the Cincinnati, Ohio, neighborhood of Evanston to Alma Sophia Welz and William/Wilhelm Kappelhoff; all four of her grandparents were German immigrants. The youngest of three children, she had two brothers, Richard, who died before she was born and Paul, a few years older. She was named after silent movie actress Doris Kenyon, whom her mother admired. Her family was Roman Catholic and her parents were known to have divorced. She later embraced Christian Science.
The success of Romance on the High Seas established her as a talented (and popular) performer. In 1950, US servicemen in Korea voted her their favorite star. Early publicity saddled her with such unflattering nicknames as "The Tomboy with a Voice" and "The Golden Tonsil." She continued to make saccharine and somewhat low-level musicals such as Starlift, By the Light of the Silvery Moon, and Tea For Two for Warner Bros., but 1953 found Day as pistol-packin' Calamity Jane in what has become one of Hollywood's most enduring musicals, winning the Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Secret Love."
According to Day's autobiography as-told-to A.E. Hotchner, the usually athletic and healthy Melcher had an enlarged heart. Another factor in Melcher's death may be that he converted to the Christian Science religion during his relationship with Day, and his newfound religious beliefs -- which include a doctrine that illness is illusory -- led him to put off going to the doctor for some time.
From 1968 to 1973, Day starred in The Doris Day Show, a situation comedy which had "Que Sera, Sera" as its theme song. Day grudgingly continued with the show, but only as long as she needed the work to help pay off her debts. By the end of the series in 1973, Day was nearing 50, and public tastes had changed to such a degree that her firmly established wholesome persona was now completely out of fashion. Day essentially retired from acting when The Doris Day Show ended.
The revelations contained in the book about Day's private life, and the testimony of many of her friends and colleagues about aspects of her life and career (most were scathing with regard to husband number three Marty Melcher) helped to make the book a bestseller. In promoting the book, Day also caused a stir by rejecting the "girl next door - virgin" label so often attached to her. Notably, in an interview with Barbara Walters, she commented "I don't know where that label came from. Maybe it's the way I look. Do I look like a virgin?" In later interviews, Day went on to say that she believed that people should live together prior to marriage, something that she herself would do if the opportunity arose again. Her candor won her some admiration among book reviewers and interviewers, and possibly contributed to the book's success.
At the conclusion of her book tour, Day largely retired from show business, though film and TV offers continued. She seemed content to focus on her charity work and business interests (In 1985, she became part-owner of the Cypress Inn in Carmel, California.)
In 2004, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom but refused to attend the ceremony because of a fear of flying. She has turned down an honorary Academy Award and one of the Kennedy Center Honors for similar reasons. Liz Smith, a long time entertainment gossip columnist, has mounted a campaign for several years trying to drum up support for an honorary Oscar for Day.
In 2001, she was mentioned in the lyrics to De Phazz's Death By Chocolate album in the song Something Special.
In the song "Mirror Door" from The Who's 2006 album Endless Wire, Pete Townshend's lyrics mention a number of music icons, all of whom, with the exception of Doris Day, are dead. Only after the song was recorded and the album mass produced did Townshend discover that Doris Day was still alive. When questioned about it, he suggested asking her to appear in a possible music video for the song.
You're My Thrill (1949) · Young Man with a Horn (1950) · Tea for Two (1950) · Lullaby of Broadway (1951) · On Moonlight Bay (1951) · I'll See You in My Dreams (1951) · By the Light of the Silvery Moon (1953) · Calamity Jane (1953) · Young at Heart (1954) · Love Me or Leave Me (1955) · Day Dreams (1955) · Day by Day (1956) · The Pajama Game (1957) · Day by Night (1957) · Hooray for Hollywood (1958; 1959) · Cuttin' Capers (1959) · What Every Girl Should Know (1960) · Show Time (1960) · Bright and Shiny (1961) · I Have Dreamed (1961) · Duet (1962) · You'll Never Walk Alone (1962) · Billy Rose's Jumbo (1962) · Annie Get Your Gun (1963) · Love Him (1963) · The Doris Day Christmas Album (1964) · With a Smile and a Song (1964) · Latin for Lovers (1965) · Doris Day's Sentimental Journey (1965) · The Love Album (1994) |
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Doris Day Quote(s)
| Gratitude is riches. Complaint is poverty. |
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