Doris Day

American singer and actress
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Also known as: Doris von Kappelhoff
Quick Facts
Original name:
Doris Von Kappelhoff
Born:
April 3, 1922, Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.
Died:
May 13, 2019, Carmel Valley, California (aged 97)
Awards And Honors:
Grammy Award
Cecil B. DeMille Award (1989)
Golden Globe Award (1963): World Film Favorites
Golden Globe Award (1960): World Film Favorites
Golden Globe Award (1958): World Film Favorites
Grammy Award (2009): Lifetime Achievement Award
Married To:
Barry Comden (1976–1982)
Martin Melcher (1951–1968 [his death])
Albert Paul Jorden (1941–1943)
George Weidler (1946–1949)
Movies/Tv Shows (Acted In):
"Calamity Jane" (1953)
"Send Me No Flowers" (1964)
"By the Light of the Silvery Moon" (1953)
"Do Not Disturb" (1965)
"Move Over, Darling" (1963)
"Please Don't Eat the Daisies" (1960)
"Julie" (1956)
"Love Me or Leave Me" (1955)
"The Governor & J.J." (1970)
"On Moonlight Bay" (1951)
"April in Paris" (1952)
"Lucky Me" (1954)
"It's a Great Feeling" (1949)
"The Glass Bottom Boat" (1966)
"Where Were You When the Lights Went Out?" (1968)
"I'll See You in My Dreams" (1951)
"Billy Rose's Jumbo" (1962)
"Young Man with a Horn" (1950)
"Storm Warning" (1951)
"Lullaby of Broadway" (1951)
"The Man Who Knew Too Much" (1956)
"The Winning Team" (1952)
"Young at Heart" (1954)
"Lover Come Back" (1961)
"The West Point Story" (1950)
"Caprice" (1967)
"The Doris Day Show" (1968–1973)
"The Pajama Game" (1957)
"Pillow Talk" (1959)
"Tea for Two" (1950)
"That Touch of Mink" (1962)
"Teacher's Pet" (1958)
"Midnight Lace" (1960)
"It Happened to Jane" (1959)
"My Dream Is Yours" (1949)
"With Six You Get Eggroll" (1968)
"The Thrill of It All" (1963)
"The Ballad of Josie" (1967)
"Romance on the High Seas" (1948)
"Starlift" (1951)
"The Tunnel of Love" (1958)

Doris Day (born April 3, 1922, Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.—died May 13, 2019, Carmel Valley, California) was an American singer and motion-picture actress whose performances in movie musicals of the 1950s and sex comedies of the early 1960s made her a leading Hollywood star.

While still a teenager, she changed her last name to Day when she began singing on radio. She worked as a vocalist in the bands of Barney Rapp and Bob Crosby before joining Les Brown’s band in 1940 and making several popular recordings, among them “Sentimental Journey.” Day went solo in 1947 and achieved great success as a recording artist. Her singing was distinguished by crystal clear tone and the ability to convey great emotion without histrionics.

Day’s first major film role was in Romance on the High Seas (1948). From there she made a long series of musicals, including Calamity Jane (1953), Young at Heart (1954), Love Me or Leave Me (1955), and The Pajama Game (1957). Her screen persona, that of an intelligent, wholesome woman of unfailing optimism and understated strength of character, came to epitomize the ideal American woman of the 1950s. Day went on to star in a string of sophisticated sex comedies, notably Teacher’s Pet (1958), Pillow Talk (1959), Lover Come Back (1961), That Touch of Mink (1962), The Thrill of It All (1963), and Send Me No Flowers (1964). These comedies made her Hollywood’s leading box-office attraction. From 1968 to 1973 she starred in The Doris Day Show, a weekly television series.

American singer and political activist Joan Baez performing at the Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C., August 28, 1963. Photo by Rowland Scherman. See Content Notes.
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Who Said It? Women Musicians, Artists, and Writers

As her acting career neared its end, Day focused her attention on animals, cofounding Actors and Others for Animals. In 1978 she founded the Doris Day Pet Foundation, and nine years later she became a founding member and president of the Doris Day Animal League, a lobbying organization for laws regulating the treatment of animals.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Encyclopaedia Britannica.