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Doris Day
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Biography from Leonard Maltin's Movie Encyclopedia:
At one time the country's top female movie star and a best-selling recording star, this vivacious blonde has always made what she does look easy. First a fresh-faced leading lady in Hollywood musicals, then the distaff star in candy-coated sex farces (most often opposite Rock Hudson), she also proved herself a capable dramatic actress in such films as Young Man With a Horn (a thinly disguised 1950 biopic of jazz great Bix Biederbecke), Storm Warning (a 1951 melodrama), Love Me or Leave Me (a 1955 biopic of troubled songbird Ruth Etting), The Man Who Knew Too Much (a 1956 Hitchcock thriller in which she introduced the Oscarwinning song "Que Sera Sera"), and Midnight Lace (a 1960 thriller that had her targeted for murder).
A band singer and recording star who performed on stage and radio with the Bob Crosby and Les Brown orchestras, Day appeared with Brown in a pair of 1941 "soundies" shorts, but didn't make her first feature until 1948, signing with Warner Bros. and debuting in Romance on the High Seas She subsequently appeared in many tune-filled frolics for that studio, including It's a Great Feeling, My Dream Is Yours (both 1949), Tea for Two, The West Point Story (both 1950), Lullaby of Broadway, On Moonlight Bay (both 1951), April in Paris, I'll See You in My Dreams (both 1952), By the Light of the Silvery Moon (1953), Lucky Me (1954), and Young at Heart (1955), among others. Calamity Jane (1953) broke the mold with a feisty, original script, casting Day as the Wild West's leading tomboy (who introduced the Oscar-winning hit song "Secret Love"); it remains her favorite part. The Pajama Game (1957) gave her another plum, the lead in a vibrant adaptation of the Broadway hit, brimming with great songs.
After a pair of enjoyable comedies, Teacher's Pet and Tunnel of Love (both 1958), Day's film career shifted gears with Pillow Talk (1959), the first of her fast-moving sex comedies with Rock Hudson. Handsomely produced and cleverly written, it offered audiences plenty of wit and a smidgen of suggestiveness; Day earned an Oscar nomination for her performance, and the film steered her career in a new direction with even greater success. In the 1960s she reigned as America's top box-office attraction, in a series of saucy comedies: Please Don't Eat the Daisies (1960), Lover Come Back, That Touch of Mink (both 1962), Move Over, Darling, The Thrill of It All (both 1963), Send Me No Flowers (1964), Do Not Disturb (1965), and The Glass Bottom Boat (1966). (Her lone musical during this period was the ill-fated 1962 Billy Rose's Jumbo This winning streak was broken by The Ballad of Josie, Caprice (both 1967), Where Were You When the Lights Went Out? and With Six You Get Eggroll (both 1968); these clumsy vehicles seemed out of fashion, and Day fared much better on television, starring in "The Doris Day Show" (1968-73).
The star's 1975 autobiography, "Doris Day: Her Own Story," described a troubled life much at variance with the cheery image she presented on-screen. Among other things, she reported that longtime husband Martin Melcher, who died in 1968 shortly after committing her to the TV series without consulting her, had wiped out her personal fortune. (She later regained much of it by suing her former lawyer, who had colluded in the mismanagement, for damages.) An indefatigable animal-rights activist, Day has concentrated her efforts in that arena for many years now, and has resisted offers to return to performing. |  |
