Obit
Doris Day Dies At Age 97
For fans of Hollywood’s Golden Age, the news from California this Monday morning hit hard, like the sudden loss of a treasured longtime friend (or for many that “girlfriend next door”).
Here’s how E! Online reported her passing:
Hollywood has lost a beloved legend.
Doris Day, the actress and singer who personified classic Hollywood in the ’50s and ’60s, has died, the Doris Day Animal Foundation announced on Monday. According to the foundation, Day died at her Carmel Valley, Calif. home early Monday while surrounded by a few close friends.
“Day had been in excellent physical health for her age, until recently contracting a serious case of pneumonia, resulting in her death,” the foundation said in a public statement. Day was 97 years old, recently celebrating her birthday on April 3.
For 20 years, 1948 to 1968, Ms. Day was a staple of movie theatres. A few years ago I included her in my list (at #8) of “Funny Ladies of the Movies”. Here’s that overview of her comedy work:
And now you’re thinking, “The ‘Que Sara Sara’ singer? Huh?”. Yes, she is a very popular singer, but Ms. Day is a very prolific film actress. She’s done many dramas and thrillers (she worked with Hitchcock!), but the films that made her the number one female box office draw from 1960 to 64 were comedies. Sure she was ably assisted by the aforementioned Ms. Ritter and the great Tony Randall, but “America’s sweetheart” generated lots of laughs (many at the expense of her film persona). When Warner Brothers signed the freckled-faced blonde to a contract in the late 40’s she was the love interest to Jack Carson and Dennis Morgan in crowd-pleasers like ROMANCE ON THE HIGH SEAS, MY DREAM IS YOURS, and IT’S A GREAT FEELING. Several frothy music flicks followed until Day finally got to show her comic gifts as CALAMITY JANE. After her WB contract ended, she had her biggest success opposite “Mr. Beefcake” Rock Hudson in PILLOW TALK (she got an Oscar nom, too). They reteamed twice more for LOVER COME BACK and SEND ME NO FLOWERS. But Day also had wonderful comic chemistry with an amazing variety of the era’s charismatic leading men. There were stars of the golden age like Clark Gable (TEACHER’S PET) and Cary Grant (THAT TOUCH OF MINK) along with rising stars like Jack Lemmon (IT HAPPENED TO JANE), Rod Taylor (THE GLASS BOTTOM BOAT and DO NOT DISTURB), Richard Harris (CAPRICE), and the superb James Garner (MOVE OVER DARLING and the Carl Reiner scripted THE THRILL OF IT ALL). While starring on TV in the sitcom “The Doris Day Show”, Ms. Day wrapped up her feature film career opposite George Carlin and Brian Keith in WITH SIX YOU GET EGGROLL in 1968.
Oh, but Miss Day was a versatile actress, who regularly ventured into dramatic fare. Just a couple of years into her film career she co-starred YOUNG MAN WITH A HORN as the devoted girlfriend of trumpeter Kirk Douglas. Soon after she was the wife of a Klansman (!) in STORM WARNING. Day was another devoted wife, this time to real-life St. Louis Cardinals’ pitcher Grover Cleveland Alexander, played by future president Ronald Reagan! She even worked with the “master of suspense” Alfred Hitchcock on his remake of THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH, co-starring James Stewart and introduced the tune that would become her “signature song” “Que Sara Sara” (it nabbed an Oscar). Another thriller followed when Day was menaced by a deranged Louis Jordan as the title character in JULIE. Four years later she was threatened again in the London-based (cue the fog) MIDNIGHT LACE.
Here’s one of her last audio interviews with TCM host, the late Robert Osburne:
Speaking of that wonderful cable channel, here’s the info on their tribute to her (set the DVR):
TCM Remembers Doris Day – Sunday June 9
6:00 a.m. Romance on the High Seas (1948) – A singer on a Caribbean cruise gets mixed up in a series of romantic problems.
8:00 a.m. My Dream Is Yours (1949) – A talent scout turns a young unknown into a radio singing star.
10:00 a.m. Tea For Two (1950) – An heiress has to say no to every question for 24 hours if she wants to star on Broadway.
11:45 a.m. On Moonlight Bay (1951)– A small-town tomboy falls for the boy-next-door in the years before World War I.
1:30 p.m. Carson on TCM: Doris Day (1976)– Doris Day joined Johnny to discuss why she decided to set the record straight about her life and write her autobiography. She shot down her screen image as a virgin (which she found boring), revealed why she never wanted to be an actress, and why she thought that couples should live together before marriage.
1:45 p.m. Love Me or Leave Me (1955)– True story of torch singer Ruth Etting’s struggle to escape the gangster who made her a star.
4:00 p.m. Calamity Jane (1953)– The Wild West heroine helps bring a star attraction to Deadwood and finds love.
6:00 p.m. Please Don’t Eat the Daisies (1960) – A drama critic and his family try to adjust to life in the country.
8:00 p.m. Pillow Talk (1959) – A man and woman carry their feud over the telephone line they share into their real lives.
10:00 p.m. Lover Come Back (1961) – An ad exec in disguise courts his pretty female competitor.
12:00 a.m. Move Over Darling (1963) – Five years after a woman disappeared in the sea after a plane crash, her husband remarries and sets off to be with the new wife only to be confronted by the woman he had pronounced legally dead.
2:00 a.m. The Glass Bottom Boat (1966) – A woman writing a scientist’s biography is mistaken for a spy.
4:00 a.m. Julie (1956)– A stewardess is stalked by her psychotic estranged husband.
And so, another shining star is added to the heavens. Doris could make any day much brighter, thanks to her sunny smile and titanic talent. Speaking of which, let’s leave you with her stunning song stylings (she sold tons of movie tickets and records). Doris Day will continue to delight audiences for many years to come. But for now, as her song states, “What will be, will be”.
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