Doris Day
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Doris Day 1922 - 2019
Doris Day was born on April 3, 1922 in Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Ohio United States. She was in a relationship with Al Jorden, and had a child Terrence "Terry" Melcher. Doris Day died at age 97 years old on May 13, 2019 in Carmel Valley, Monterey County, CA, and was buried at She was cremated and her ashes scattered in her beloved Carmel, California.
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Doris Day's History: 1922 - 2019
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Doris Day was an American actress, singer, and animal welfare activist who was born on April 3, 1922, in Cincinnati, Ohio. She began her career as a big band singer in the 1940s, and went on to star in over 40 films during the 1950s and 1960s, including popular musicals such as "Calamity Jane," "The Pajama Game," and "Pillow Talk." Her wholesome, girl-next-door image and sunny disposition made her a beloved figure in American popular culture. In addition to her acting and singing career, Day was a passionate animal rights activist and founded the Doris Day Animal Foundation in 1978, which focused on animal welfare education and supporting animal rescue organizations. She passed away on May 13, 2019, leaving behind a legacy as an iconic entertainer and dedicated animal advocate.
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04/31922April 3, 1922BirthdateCincinnati, Hamilton County, Ohio United StatesBirthplaceADVERTISEMENT BY
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Doris Day was born Doris Mary Ann Kappelhoff to parents Alma Sophia Welz and William Joseph Kappelhoff. Her mother was of German descent, while her father had German and Irish ancestry. Day's parents divorced when she was young, and she was raised primarily by her mother and maternal grandparents. Growing up, Day's family faced financial struggles during the Great Depression, and she began working as a singer at a young age to help support them.
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She was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and spent her early years there. In 1937, her family moved to the nearby town of Evanston, where she attended high school. After Day began her singing career, she moved to Hollywood, California, where she lived for many years. She owned several homes in the Los Angeles area, including a mansion in Beverly Hills and a beachfront home in Malibu. Later in life, Day moved to Carmel-by-the-Sea, a small coastal town in Northern California. She fell in love with the area during a visit in the 1960s and eventually settled there permanently. Day was known for her love of animals, and her home in Carmel had a large animal-friendly yard and garden. Despite living in different locations throughout her life, Day was always connected to her roots in Ohio. She often visited her hometown of Cincinnati and remained proud of her Midwestern upbringing.
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Doris Day's education was cut short due to financial difficulties in her family. She attended a Catholic school in Cincinnati until the age of 12 when her parents divorced. After the divorce, she moved with her mother and brother to a new town, where she attended a public school. However, Day's interest in music and singing began to take over, and she began performing at local clubs and on the radio.
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During World War II, Doris Day was a supporter of the United States military and participated in various activities to boost morale among the troops. In 1944, Day traveled to Europe to entertain American troops as part of a USO tour. She performed at military bases in England, France, and Belgium, and her performances were well-received by the troops. Day's brother, who was serving in the Army at the time, was able to attend one of her shows in Europe. After returning to the United States, Day continued to support the military through her work with the Hollywood Canteen. The canteen was a club for servicemen and women that was run by Hollywood celebrities, and Day volunteered at the club, serving food and entertaining the troops. In addition to her work with the USO and the Hollywood Canteen, Day recorded several songs that were popular with servicemen and women. Her hit song "Sentimental Journey" became an anthem for soldiers who were returning home from the war. Day's involvement with the military earned her the respect and admiration of many servicemen and women, and she remained a supporter of veterans throughout her life. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2004 in recognition of her contributions to American culture and her dedication to animal welfare and veterans' issues.
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Doris Day had a multifaceted career that spanned over several decades, including as a singer, actress, and animal welfare activist. Day began her career as a big band singer in the 1940s and quickly gained popularity with hits such as "Sentimental Journey" and "My Dreams Are Getting Better All the Time." She continued to have success as a solo artist throughout the 1950s and 1960s, with chart-topping hits such as "Secret Love," "Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)," and "Everybody Loves a Lover." In addition to her singing career, Day became a popular actress in Hollywood during the 1950s and 1960s, starring in over 40 films. Her most notable films include musicals such as "Calamity Jane," "The Pajama Game," and "Bells Are Ringing," as well as romantic comedies like "Pillow Talk," "Lover Come Back," and "That Touch of Mink." Day's wholesome, girl-next-door image and bubbly personality made her a beloved figure in American popular culture. She was known for her comedic timing and musical talent, as well as her beauty and charm. Later in life, Day became a passionate animal welfare activist and founded the Doris Day Animal Foundation in 1978. The foundation focused on animal welfare education and supporting animal rescue organizations. Throughout her career, Day received numerous accolades, including a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, a Presidential Medal of Freedom, and a Golden Globe for Lifetime Achievement in Motion Pictures. She passed away on May 13, 2019, at the age of 97, leaving behind a legacy as an iconic entertainer and dedicated animal advocate.
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Doris Day was married four times and had one child. Her first marriage was to trombonist Al Jorden in 1941, and the couple had a son named Terry Melcher in 1944. Day and Jorden divorced in 1943, and Day was granted full custody of their son. Day's second marriage was to saxophonist George Weidler in 1946, but the marriage only lasted a year. She then married agent and producer Martin Melcher in 1951, who became her manager and produced several of her films. Day and Melcher adopted a son named Terry Melcher, and Melcher adopted Day's son from her first marriage. Melcher passed away in 1968, and Day discovered after his death that he had mismanaged her finances, leaving her in debt. Day's fourth and final marriage was to Barry Comden in 1976, but the couple divorced in 1981. Despite her success in show business, Day was known for her private nature and rarely discussed her personal life in public. She was a devoted mother to her son Terry Melcher, who became a successful music producer before his death in 2004. In addition to her family, Day was known for her love of animals and was a passionate animal welfare activist. She owned several pets throughout her life and founded the Doris Day Animal Foundation in 1978 to support animal welfare education and rescue organizations.
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05/132019May 13, 2019Death dateUnknownCarmel Valley, Monterey County, California 93924, United StatesCause of deathDeath locationADVERTISEMENT BY
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mm/dd/yyyyFuneral dateShe was cremated and her ashes scattered in her beloved Carmel, CaliforniaBurial location
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Doris Day, Movie Star Who Charmed America, Dies at 97 May 13, 2019 Doris Day, the freckle-faced movie actress whose irrepressible personality and golden voice made her America’s top box-office star in the early 1960s, died on Monday at her home in Carmel Valley, Calif. She was 97. The Doris Day Animal Foundation announced her death. Ms. Day began her career as a big-band vocalist, and she was successful almost from the start: One of her first records, “Sentimental Journey,” released in 1945, sold more than a million copies, and she went on to have numerous other hits. The bandleader Les Brown, with whom she sang for several years, once said, “As a singer Doris belongs in the company of Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra.” But it was the movies that made her a star. Between “Romance on the High Seas” in 1948 and “With Six You Get Eggroll” in 1968, she starred in nearly 40 movies. On the screen she turned from the perky girl next door in the 1950s to the woman next door in a series of 1960s sex comedies that brought her four first-place rankings in the yearly popularity poll of theater owners, an accomplishment equaled by no other actress except Shirley Temple. In the 1950s she starred, and most often sang, in comedies (“Teacher’s Pet,” “The Tunnel of Love”), musicals (“Calamity Jane,” “April in Paris,” “The Pajama Game”) and melodramas (“Young Man With a Horn,” the Alfred Hitchcock thriller “The Man Who Knew Too Much,” “Love Me or Leave Me”). James Cagney, her co-star in “Love Me or Leave Me,” said Ms. Day had “the ability to project the simple, direct statement of a simple, direct idea without cluttering it.” He compared her performance to Laurette Taylor’s in “The Glass Menagerie” on Broadway in 1945, widely hailed as one of the greatest performances ever given by an American actor. She went on to appear in “Pillow Talk” (1959), “Lover Come Back” (1961) and “That Touch of Mink” (1962), fast-paced comedies in which she fended off the advances of Rock Hudson (in the first two films) and Cary Grant (in the third). Those movies, often derided today as examples of the repressed sexuality of the ’50s, were considered daring at the time. “I suppose she was so clean-cut, with perfect uncapped teeth, freckles and turned-up nose, that people just thought she fitted the concept of a virgin,” Mr. Hudson once said of Ms. Day. “But when we began ‘Pillow Talk’ we thought we’d ruin our careers because the script was pretty daring stuff.” The movie’s plot, he said, “involved nothing more than me trying to seduce Doris for eight reels.” Following “Pillow Talk,” which won Ms. Day her sole Academy Award nomination, she was called on to defend her virtue for the rest of her career in similar but lesser movies, while Hollywood turned to more honest and graphic screen sex to keep up with the revolution sweeping the world after the introduction of the birth control pill. Doris Day in 1965. Between 1948 and 1968, she starred in nearly 40 movies. Ms. Day in fact was one of the few actresses of the 1950s and ’60s to play women who had a real profession, and her characters were often more passionate about their career than about their co-stars. “My public image is unshakably that of America’s wholesome virgin, the girl next door, carefree and brimming with happiness,” she said in “Doris Day: Her Own Story,” a 1976 book by A. E. Hotchner based on a series of interviews he conducted with Ms. Day. “An image, I can assure you, more make-believe than any film part I ever played. But I am Miss Chastity Belt, and that’s all there is to it.” An Aspiring Dancer Doris Day was born Doris Mary Anne Kappelhoff in Cincinnati on April 3, 1922. (For years most sources gave her birth year as 1924, and so did she. But shortly before her birthday in 2017, The Associated Press obtained a copy of her birth certificate from the Ohio Office of Vital Statistics and established that she had been born two years earlier. After Ms. Day was shown the evidence, she said in a statement, “I’ve always said that age is just a number and I have never paid much attention to birthdays, but it’s great to finally know how old I really am.”) She was the second child of Frederick William von Kappelhoff, a choral master and piano teacher who later managed restaurants and taverns in Cincinnati, and Alma Sophia (Welz) Kappelhoff. Her parents separated when she was a child. Ms. Day told Mr. Hotchner that another important thing happened during her year of recuperation: She was given a small dog. “It was the start of what was, for me, a lifelong love affair with the dog,” she said. That first dog, Tiny, was killed by a car when Ms. Day, still on crutches, took him for a walk without a leash. Nearly 40 years later she spoke of how she had betrayed him. During the last decades of her life, through her foundation, Ms. Day spent much of her time rescuing and finding homes for stray dogs, even personally checking out the backyards and fencing of people who wanted to adopt, and she worked to end the use of animals in cosmetic and household-products research. Singing was just something to do until she married. ”From the time I was a little girl,” she told Mr. Hotchner, “my only true ambition in life was to get married and tend house and have a family.”ADVERTISEMENT BYLooking for more information?
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27 Memories, Stories & Photos about Doris
Amanda S. Stevenson
16.8k+ favorites
05/13/2019
Doris Day
Amanda S. Stevenson
I gatecrashed her movie set in Times Square when I was about 14. I said, "Tell them I'm your cousin." So she put her arm around me and told the security guard, "She's my cousin, and we want to be alone." And since she was in-between takes, she gave me her undivided attention for about half an hour. I never met her again but years later I was an extra in "Where Were You When The Lights Went Out?" and was actually interviewed fo Film Daily. I championed her with MGM brass - in writing but they decided she was too old the same year she was voted THE MOST POPULAR MOVIE STAR IN THE WORLD! So MGM went broke and lost their studio but still didn't change their minds!!!! I will love her until the day I die. I have lots of great photos of Doris Day and all her CD's too. A photo of Doris Day with Terry Melcher, her son.
I gatecrashed her movie set in Times Square when I was about 14. I said, "Tell them I'm your cousin." So she put her arm around me and told the security guard, "She's my cousin, and we want to be alone." And since she was in-between takes, she gave me her undivided attention for about half an hour. I never met her again but years later I was an extra in "Where Were You When The Lights Went Out?" and was actually interviewed fo Film Daily. I championed her with MGM brass - in writing but they decided she was too old the same year she was voted THE MOST POPULAR MOVIE STAR IN THE WORLD! So MGM went broke and lost their studio but still didn't change their minds!!!! I will love her until the day I die. I have lots of great photos of Doris Day and all her CD's too. A photo of Doris Day with Terry Melcher, her son.
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Amanda S. Stevenson
16.8k+ favorites
09/16/2021
Doris Day helped make him a major star.
Doris Day and Rock Hudson.
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Amanda S. Stevenson
16.8k+ favorites
04/13/2021
With Doris Day in Jumbo.
He was extremely popular with directors.
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Amanda S. Stevenson
16.8k+ favorites
04/03/2021
Patrick O'Neal and Doris Day.
They were in 'Where Were You When the Light Went Out. I was an extra in it.
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Amanda S. Stevenson
16.8k+ favorites
10/27/2020
Jack Carson
Jack Carson and Doris Day.
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Other Biographies
Other Doris Day Biographies
Other Day Family Biographies
Day, Edith (Born Jan 11, 1897)
Day, Mildred (Born Jan 29, 1909)
Day, Caroline (Born Feb 8, 1840)
Day(bryant-Barry), Cora (Born Oct 17, 1865)
Day, William (Born Aug 11, 1821)
Day, George (Born Jun 12, 1860)
Day, Fran (Born Aug 7, 1863)
Day(lyon), Ida (Born Nov 1, 1872)
Day, John (Born Sep 29, 1868)
Day, David (Born Mar 15, 1876)
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