Doris Day was an American actress, singer, and animal welfare activist. She began her career as a big band singer in 1939. Achieving commercial success in 1945 with two No. 1 recordings, “Sentimental Journey” and “My Dreams Are Getting Better All the Time.” From the bandstand to the recording studio, the big screen to the small screen, Doris‘ career has spanned more than six decades. Get the highlights.
POPULAR MOVIES
Her seven-year contract with Warner Bros. Studio produced brilliant triumphs. With James Cagney in “Love Me or Leave Me” and James Stewart in Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Man Who Knew Too Much.” After which, Day reinvented herself onscreen with a string of frothy sex comedies. Co-Starring Rock Hudson (“Pillow Talk,” “Lover Come Back”) and James Garner (“The Thrill of It All”). These movies made her the most popular film star in the world.
In these movies, Day was always playing a successful career woman. Whether an interior decorator (“Pillow Talk”) or advertising executive (“Lover Come Back”), she reveled in her job. She also sported a killer wardrobe, lived the high life in a football-stadium-size New York City apartment. Doris pointed the way forward for women who dreamed of their own careers. Women wanted to be her, and men wanted to both sleep with her and take her home to meet Mom. Said Garner, her two-time co-star: “She exuded sex but made you smile about it.”
CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
At her best, just as critic Molly Haskell suggested, Day really did embody a “home-grown existential female lifted into the modern world.” During an era in which workplace opportunities for women were severely limited. Doris functioned as a role model through whom thousands of women worldwide lived vicariously.
So astonishing was her status as the world’s biggest movie star that it tended to overshadow her brilliant achievements as a vocalist. Revered by singers as diverse as Paul McCartney, Sarah Vaughan and Tony Bennett, no style except rock ‘n’ roll was beyond her reach. Pop, jazz, ballads, big band, you name it and she sang it, often brilliantly. Over the course of 600-plus recordings, particularly the 16 concept albums she recorded for Columbia Records, such as “Show Time,” “Day By Night” and “Duet” (with André Previn), she explored the traditional American popular songbook with a breadth and depth surpassed only by Ella Fitzgerald.
DORIS DAY REMEMBERED
Doris Day embodied the all-encompassing, post-World War II American will to happiness. Forthright, independent and aggressive — yet utterly feminine. She is blessed with a beautiful, indeed soulful, singing voice that could deliver a total characterization in three minutes of song.
Doris Day will have no funeral or memorial service following her death, aged 97. The Hollywood legend passed away at her home in Carmel Valley, California, on Monday 5/13/2019. Doris left very clear instructions in her will that there will be no funeral and no headstone to mark her grave.
Her manager and close friend Bob Bashara revealed Doris’ wishes, admitting that he is unsure why she did not want her successful career to be remembered. He did, however, hint, it could be because she was “a very shy person”.
“She never let her celebrity affect her and who she was, and she was always the little girl from Cincinnati. Who was extraordinarily talented and went out in the world and did what she loved to do despite herself,” Bod told People. “She was guileless, and I had discussions with her about how popular she was, and she would say, ‘I don’t understand it’ about why she was so loved.”
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