Biography of Doris Day

Doris Day, born April 3, 1924, was born as Doris Mary Ann von Kappelhoff in Evanston, Ohio to German immigrants. She was named after the famous silent movie actress Doris Kenyon. She was the youngest of her parents two children and embraced her families Catholic values.

Doris started out her career as a dancer with her partner Jerry Doherty, winning a contract, and moving to Hollywood in 1936 but turned to singing after a auto accident injured her leg in 1937. She sang with many popular artists like Bob Crosby until she set out on her own in the late 1940s.

Her name 'Day' came in use after her successful song Day after Day was part of her repertoire.

After her success in the music industry with such songs as Secret Love and Sentimental Journey, Doris began her acting career in the musical by Alfred Hitchcock, The Man Who Knew Too Much. With this she became best known for her song Que Será, Será and was covered by Sly & the Family Stone in 1973.

Her best known performance came in Calamity Jane in which she played a tomboy in love. She also had many other films with artists like Clark Gable, David Niven, Cary Grant and James Cagney while her most successful performance came with Rock Hudson in Pillow Talk which she won an Academy Award for Best Actress.

As Day's career went on her career began to spiral downward. After her third husband, Marty Melcher, she began working in poor films with his insistence. He turned down many successful films for her, like Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate, which later went to Anne Bancroft and became a huge success.

In 1972, Day found herself a part in the musical Grease as Sandra Dee, an overly sentimental and righteous person.

Thirteen-years after, she started her own talk-show dubbed Doris Day's Best Friends which received unexpected quality press reviews after her first episode included her long-time friend, Rock Hudson. Soon after, she found that Hudson was dying of AIDS and stood by his side.

In the coming years, Day opened the Doris Day Animal League and wrote a best-selling auto-biography titled Doris Day: My Own Story.

Doris Day received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2004, but did not attend the ceremony due to her fear of flying.

Also check out Doris Day quotes