Doris Day: 10 Things You Didn't Know
Doris Day was one of Hollywood's legendary leading ladies, a top box office star who also happened to be a talented dancer and one of the greatest singers of the 20th century.
There was much more to Day, who died in 2019 at the age of 97, than what we saw on the silver screen. Here's a look inside her life.
1. One of America’s most prolific actors, Doris Day was born Doris Mary Ann Kappelhoff on April 3, 1922, in Cincinnati, to Alma Sophia (Welz), a housewife, and William Joseph Kappelhoff, a music teacher and choir master. Her parents divorced when she was a child. Day lived with her mother.
2. While performing for a local radio station, she was approached by band leader Barney Rapp who felt her last name, Kappelhoff, was clumsy and unappealing. Rapp convinced her to change her name to Day after one of the songs in her playlist, “Day by Day.”
Doris Day starred with Howard Keel in David Butler's 1953 musical, 'Calamity Jane.'
Photo by Movie Poster Image Art/Getty Images
3. Day cited Calamity Jane (1953), where she plays the hard-riding, boastful, and handy with a gun Wild West heroine, as her personal favorite of the 39 movies she appeared in. Day sang "Secret Love" in the movie, a song that became a No. 1 hit for her.
4. Married four times, Day briefly dated Ronald Reagan – who she co-starred with in Storm Warning (1951) and The Winning Team (1952) – shortly after his divorce from Jane Wyman.
Doris Day and Ronald Reagan posing in a promotional portrait for the film 'The Winning Team', 1952.
Warner Brothers/Getty Images
5. She hated to fly. Her fear took root while touring with Bob Hope in the 1940s after several close calls in winter weather.
6. Day co-starred with Rock Hudson and Tony Randall in three films: Pillow Talk (1959), Lover Come Back (1961) and Send Me No Flowers (1964). In all three, Day and Hudson played love interests while Randall played Hudson’s close friend. Hudson feared the "daring" Pillow Talk would ruin their careers because the movie's plot, he said, "involved nothing more than me trying to seduce Doris for eight reels." Instead, Day received her only Academy Award nomination for the film.
Doris Day co-starred with Rock Hudson in three films and became lifelong friends.
Image courtesy of Heritage Auctions
7. Hudson called Day “Eunice” because he said that whenever he thought of her as Eunice it made him laugh. Of Hudson, Day once said, “If there is a Heaven, I’m sure Rock Hudson is there because he was such a kind person.”
Doris Day and Rock Hudson (1925-1985), photographed here in 1960, were great friends. 'I call him Ernie," Day once said of Hudson, "because he's certainly no Rock.'
Photo by Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images
8. She turned down the role of Maria in The Sound of Music (1965) saying: “I’m too American to play a nun from Austria.” Day also famously turned down the role of Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate (1967), a role that went to Anne Bancroft.
9. Helping animals was a lifelong passion of hers. “They give us unconditional love and ask very little in return,” Day said. “I’ve never met an animal I didn’t like, and I can’t say the same thing about people.”
Doris Day founded The Doris Day Animal Foundation to help her beloved friends.
Photo courtesy of Paul Harris/Getty Images
10. As per her last wishes, there was no funeral or graveside service when Doris Day died. She was cremated and her ashes scattered in her beloved Carmel, California.
Related Content: A Look Inside Doris Day's Home
After appearing in 39 films from 1948 to 1968, Doris Day left Hollywood near the height of her career for the beauty and privacy of her home in Carmel, California.
Image courtesy of Julien's Auctions
