Doris Day has passed away

Actress Doris Day dead at 97, foundation says

I fucking knew the OP jinxed her with that thread yesterday, I knew it!

Beat OP by 1 minute

I hope she gets some real recognition. She could do it all and it seemed so effortless. A very talented woman.

Que Sera, Sera

Who knew she was alive?

She was very talented and supported animal rights. A great lady.

When was the last time we saw her out and about?

I guess now I can forgive her acting in MIDNIGHT LACE.

RIP Doris.

That makes one of us r9.

Another dead Republican.

Constance Wu and Felicity Huffman are glad.

She was a Repub? Well F her.

I know the name but had to google picture to remember her face. Not knowledgable of her discography but I remember seeing her in one or two movies on one of the classic movie channels ages ago. RIP

She was the biggest female box office star of all time.

R.I.P Ms. Day

Doris Day was the epitome of the 1950’s. I like her singing and thought she was most attractive. She would be a star today with some slight revisions to her singing style plus she could do what she couldn’t do in the 50’s -openly date black men.

This is the main thread

Her work on animal rights helps me forgive the political views. I wonder if that cause is who she leaves her estate to?

She wasn't a fanatical fundie Cheney Republican -- she was a genteel Eisenhower country club Republican

So sad

Sad news revealed on a phony Betty White death thread that I confirmed thinking somebody was just being an asshole. I guess she's taking that "Sentimental Journey" now.

R17: The irony of that song as that Doris still outlived George Michael.

Did she have a good personal life? Her husbands were stinkers. And her son died. Were there some good relationships? Or was she alone?

As = is

She seemed lovely

She sure stood by Rick Hudson.

Rest in Peace

She and Rock are together again. Fixing each other’s hair, gossiping about Jerry Wald, sharing remembrances about all the great men they shared. Woof.

“The more I study human beings,” she once said, “the more I love animals.”

Doris Day, a singer and actress who personified wholesome American womanhood in the 1950s and 1960s — memorably as the chaste but chased after love interest in sex farces with Rock Hudson and Cary Grant, died May 13 at her home in Carmel Valley, Calif. She was 97.

The Doris Day Animal Foundation announced her death, saying she had recently contracted pneumonia.

Despite Ms. Day’s perpetually sunny image, her life was marked by periods of physical, emotional and financial abuse. Her first husband beat her, her second couldn’t stomach her success and her third cheated her out of her hard-won fortune. By the time of her death, she had long retreated from show business and had gained renown for her work in animal welfare. In 2004, when she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, the award cited her influence as a performer and an activist.

A comely platinum blonde with a dramatic and slightly husky voice, Ms. Day had catapulted to fame as the armed forces’ sweetheart with her million-selling recording of “Sentimental Journey.” The song, released in 1945 and backed by Les Brown’s band, helped set the musical tone of homefront America during World War II.

“She was every bandleader’s dream, a vocalist who had natural talent, a keen regard for the lyrics and an attractive appearance,” Brown once said. “As a singer, Doris belongs in the company of Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra. And I’d say that next to Sinatra, Doris is the best in the business on selling a lyric.”

Her good looks and unwaveringly warm personality helped her transition to movies, even as she remained a top-ranked pop singer with hit ballads such as “It’s Magic,” “Secret Love” and “Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be),” the last of which became her theme song.

Betty White will be the third

Beyond her pop credentials, she possessed an unerring sense of delicate swing. She made excellent and far-more intimate recordings with pianist André Previn on the 1962 album “Duet” and continued to thrive several more years without compromising her style, despite changing musical tastes.

Her movie career, which included nearly 40 films over two decades, was far more checkered. While she showed promise in dramatic roles — she worked memorably with director Alfred Hitchcock — she was far more drawn to bland comedies and mediocre musicals that were within her comfort zone.

She initially became an audience favorite as a peppy and beautiful star of musicals such as “Romance on the High Seas” (1948), “Calamity Jane” (1953) and “The Pajama Game” (1957). She remained for several years one of the country’s top box-office draws.

In films such as “Teacher’s Pet” (1958), “Pillow Talk” (1959) and “That Touch of Mink” (1962), she cemented her persona onscreen: the modern working woman guarding her chastity against smooth-talking wolves — Clark Gable, Rock Hudson and Cary Grant, respectively.

Ms. Day in 1976. (AP) Her film choices gave Ms. Day her enduring reputation as a perpetual virgin — “the all-American middle-aged girl,” movie critic Pauline Kael wrote witheringly in 1963. The actress’s screen persona took on comic dimensions. Entertainers including Groucho Marx and Oscar Levant were variously credited with the much-repeated quip: “I’ve been around so long, I can remember Doris Day before she was a virgin.”

Ms. Day later wrote in a memoir, “There was never any intent on my part either in my acting or in my private life to create any such thing as an image, but I suppose that whatever there is of me that shines through on the screen looks wholesome and virgin-y.

“I don’t think anybody would have believed me if I had been cast in the role of the mistress whore Mildred in ‘Of Human Bondage.’ ”

She also said she rejected the part of the alcoholic seductress Mrs. Robinson in “The Graduate” (1967) because “it offended my sense of values.”

One of Ms. Day’s best performances was as troubled jazz-era singer Ruth Etting in “Love Me or Leave Me” (1955). James Cagney played her gangster boyfriend, Martin “The Gimp” Snyder.

The film’s producer sought Ms. Day for the role because he felt she would lend dignity to Etting, an otherwise vulgar character.

New York Times movie critic Bosley Crowther wrote that the two leads “do their jobs extremely well and make an uncommonly interesting and dramatic couple for a musical film. The proof is that, when Mr. Cagney finally slaps Miss Day in the face, the audience reacts to the shameful violence with genuine and audible gasps.”

Crowther noted Ms. Day’s skillful way with the period songs, including “Mean to Me” and “Ten Cents a Dance.” The soundtrack was released as an album and sold well.

Even *I* have to admit she had a good innings.

One of Ms. Day’s best performances was as troubled jazz-era singer Ruth Etting in “Love Me or Leave Me” (1955). James Cagney played her gangster boyfriend, Martin “The Gimp” Snyder.

The film’s producer sought Ms. Day for the role because he felt she would lend dignity to Etting, an otherwise vulgar character.

New York Times movie critic Bosley Crowther wrote that the two leads “do their jobs extremely well and make an uncommonly interesting and dramatic couple for a musical film. The proof is that, when Mr. Cagney finally slaps Miss Day in the face, the audience reacts to the shameful violence with genuine and audible gasps.”

Crowther noted Ms. Day’s skillful way with the period songs, including “Mean to Me” and “Ten Cents a Dance.” The soundtrack was released as an album and sold well.

Ms. Day also proved adept at playing the mother of a kidnapped child in Hitchcock’s “The Man Who Knew Too Much” (1956) with James Stewart as her husband. As a nod to her recording career, her character was made a singer, and a crucial moment in the film featured her performing “Que Sera, Sera.”

Ms. Day continued to take sporadic dramatic risks in films including “Julie” (1956) with Louis Jourdan and “Midnight Lace” (1960) with Rex Harrison. But she said she kept such roles to a minimum because fans disapproved, and being menaced onscreen reminded her of her abusive first husband.

Doris Mary Ann von Kappelhoff was born in Cincinnati on April 3, 1922. Her mother named her after silent-screen actress Doris Kenyon and encouraged her daughter’s interest in music and dance. Her parents’ marriage unraveled, she later said, because her father, a respected piano and choral teacher, was having an affair with her best friend’s mother.

Meanwhile, Doris was showing promise as an entertainer. At 13, she and a male partner won a $500 prize in a Cincinnati dance contest. Their plan to go to Hollywood ended when she injured her right leg in a car wreck.

During her 14-month recovery, she took singing lessons and modeled her voice on what she called the “casual yet clean” style of Ella Fitzgerald. A Cincinnati nightclub owner hired her and renamed her after she had sung the pop tune “Day After Day.”

“I’m glad you didn’t catch me singing the Götterdämmerung,” she told the owner, referring to a Wagner opera.

Ms. Day was briefly a vocalist for Bob Crosby’s big band before settling into a long job with Les Brown’s band in 1940. She liked Brown’s paternal style and his low tolerance for drinkers and womanizing musicians.

With Brown, Ms. Day recorded such early favorites as “My Dreams Are Getting Better All the Time” and “You Won’t Be Satisfied (Until You Break My Heart).” She twice took absences from the band to marry.

Her first marriage, in 1941, was to Al Jorden, a talented trombonist but a jealous and “psychopathic sadist” who often beat her up, she later recalled. He once tried to force pills on her that would cause her to miscarry. She gave birth to their son, Terry, and they divorced soon after.

In 1946, she married saxophonist George Weidler, who converted her to Christian Science. She tried to live as a Los Angeles housewife before their amicable parting. Weidler had reservations about becoming “Mr. Doris Day,” and he was certain of her future stardom.

While continuing an active recording career at Columbia Records, Ms. Day flourished in movie musicals and appeared in supporting dramatic roles. She was the girlfriend of an alcoholic trumpeter played by Kirk Douglas in “Young Man With a Horn” (1950) and was the conflicted wife of a thuggish Klansman (Steve Cochran) in “Storm Warning” (1951), a film that drew admiring attention from Hitchcock.

Producer Ross Hunter gave audiences a taste of Ms. Day’s potential as a sex symbol when he gowned her in chic, form-fitting Jean Louis for “Pillow Talk.” The film, which brought her an Academy Award nomination, marked her Hollywood apex. Her career petered out in increasingly vacuous “Pillow Talk” rip-offs and other vapid comedies.

She ended her film career in the late 1960s with a cosmetics industry spy caper (“Caprice”) and a comedy about a blackout (“Where Were You When the Lights Went Out?”) -- films of such low quality that a critic with Saturday Review magazine noted in his assessment, “Doris Day’s fans, if there are any left . . . .”

In 1968, as she was winding down her career, her third husband, producer Martin Melcher, died unexpectedly at 52. She discovered that Melcher and her lawyer, Jerome Rosenthal, had squandered her entire fortune and left her $500,000 in debt.

Ms. Day won a $26 million civil suit against Rosenthal, but the two sides negotiated for 17 years to reach a $6 million settlement. Rosenthal was disbarred.

After Melcher’s death, Ms. Day spent five years in a CBS series, “The Doris Day Show,” to which Melcher had committed her without her knowledge; she and the critics hated it. She also married and divorced for the last time, to a restaurant greeter, Barry Comden.

Her son, Terry, a record producer who sang on the Beach Boys album “Pet Sounds,” died in 2004. A complete list of survivors was not immediately available.

Ms. Day settled in Carmel Valley, caring for many pets and starting animal welfare lobbying organizations, including the Doris Day Animal League and the Doris Day Animal Foundation. She successfully advocated a California law for mandatory counseling for people convicted of animal abuse.

“The more I study human beings,” she once said, “the more I love animals.”

[quote]That makes one of us

AUNT BEA! HEEELLLLLLP MEH!

Poor thing had shit taste in men.

[quote] I know the name but had to google picture to remember her face

Remind me of this when we have another one of those 'what makes you feel old' discussions

Doris liked black men? I’d heard rumors about her and baseball player Maury Wills...seems like some of Hollywood’s most iconic blondes - Lana Turner, Sonja Henie and our Doris all had a taste of the black pipe at one time or another.

In Memoriam

That’s a shame. ™

There were unconfirmed rumors Doris Day and Sly Stone dated back in the early 70s.

Sly and the Family Stone covered Que Sera Sera. That might have had something to do with the rumors...

The rumors come from the fact that her father married a black lady late in life.

Probably the biggest female star of all time, in terms of adjusted dollars.

r33 Who was first?

Doris Kenyon.....

I was thinking Peggy Lipton r47, although I guess she's not really in the same ballpark as those two

I remember seeing her in video with Rock Hudson who made a surprise appearance at a pet charity event she was doing around his Dynasty time/shortly before he died.

I thought she looked old, then; of course, we all get older and we'll all die.

It's hard to keep that in mind when dealing with the drudgery of day to day life, worrying about money, bills, loved ones, the future.

I wish I could appreciate it more. I'll try.

RIP, Doris Day.

One of my favorite DL posts ever was about one of you little queens stacking encyclopedias and practicing the spiral staircase thing from The Doris Day Show.

She sure had horrible taste in men! But I can't blame her for trusting her love of animals more than humans.

That 3rd husband lost $20million of her money. Was he a gambler or something?

She had a great ass, but she couldn't live forever.

here's the footage I saw; he does not look good; trying to keep up a brave front; looking back, she looked great. at the time, I hadn't seen her in a while and looked older; she looks great.

it's all relative; try to enjoy today, I guess.

R53 She really did have a great ass.

Aretha Franklin once said she thought Doris Day was underrated as a singer.

Scorsese’s New York, New York is based on Doris’s life, with Liza as the band singer who becomes a movie star And DeNiro as her crazy musician husband, who beats her up when she tells him she’s pregnant..

The older you get, the more deaths like this effect you. Of course, I never knew the lady, but when something or someone you grew up with goes away, a tiny piece of your life goes with them. Sad.

I don't blame her for liking animals more than people.

I loved her. She was a lesbian icon.

Romance on the High Seas was a smashing film debut. Her leading man was the supposedly bisexual Jack Carson.

Isn't there a scene in Love Me or Leave Me where Cagney starts beating her in their bedroom and she falls into the bed? They had to edit the scene because he continued to beat her in the bed and it was to brutal to watch. Pretty daring for the both of them.

She started suffering from panic attacks in the 1950's.

She has a grandson. Ryan Melcher.

Barry Gordy tried to sign Doris Day to Motown.

I'm surprised at how little coverage her death is getting. She was a HUGE star. She was a bigger star than Aretha Franklin and Aretha's death got 10s more coverage.

It feels like TV stars and music artists get a lot more coverage when they die than movie stars do.

My favorite song

Aretha's fans are still alive. Day's not so much--she's been out of the public eye for about 25-30 years.

One of my favorite DD songs....was so happy when it turned up in the soundtrack for Strictly Ballroom,

Covered but not equalled by Tracy Ullman

Doris was the Peggy Lipton of her day.

Judy Garland on phone to Doris: "Doris, could you please get us tickets for the Dodgers game tonight" Doris: "Why are you asking me for Dodgers tickets, Judy"? Judy: "Well, you're fucking Willy Mays, aren't you"?

Has Susan Dey offered her condolences yet? She needs to step up and do the right thing.

R70. That's fucking hysterical!

I can't believe that Angie Dickinson outlived her.

One of my favorites...

Peggy Lipton wasn't fit to change Do's Depends. She was one of the biggest box office stars of her time.

@KNXBaird

The man some call the “Ambassador” leaves a bouquet of flowers on one of two stars for #DorisDay on the #WalkofFame in #Hollywood.

I remember distinctly when I first watched The Man Who Knew Too Much this week. I was a kid. The film was on TV and I watched it with my parents. This is sad news.

Meant to write:

I remember distinctly when I first watched The Man Who Knew Too Much. I was a kid. The film was on TV and I watched it with my parents. This is sad news.

Years ago a DLer posted about his friendship with Doris. They were discussing the qualities to look for in a man and the DLer was listing things like kindness and integrity. Doris interrupted to say "Don't you think it's important that a man is well hung?"

Doris Day was before my time, but I've seen Pillow Talk and it was a delightful movie. She was a class act, unlike many modern actresses who are just trash piles.

Always au courant........

R76, why does she have 2 stars?

Doris will never get her honorary Oscar now. I doubt the Oscars will even do anything special for her next year. She'll get a 2 second spot during the "In Memorium" segment while Kristen Chenoweth sings "Have I Stayed Too Long at the Fair" and that's about it. Same thing happened with Elizabeth Taylor.

I hope R79 is kidding.

She lived a VERY long life, and she got to do almost everything she wanted to do. I can't be that sad she's dead given her age.

But I did really love her. What a voice! What an ass! What legs!

And no one--NO ONE--was better in comedies at playing pissed off.

[quote] Doris will never get her honorary Oscar now.

gee, do ya think??

I wasn't kidding. I remember the post well because I was a young, naive DLer who was shocked to discover Doris was a size queen.

[quote]Doris was the Peggy Lipton of her day.

Please. Doris was thousands of times more important than Lipton.

r70 Even a non-sports-loving queen like me knows that Willie (not "Willy) Mays never played for the Dodgers. And the rumor about Doris was that she slept with Maury Wills, who WAS a Dodger.

Shorpy pays tribute to Doris.

I could see a drug addled Judy mixing up Maury Wills and Willie Mays.

Love me or Leave Me and The Man Who Know Too Much are excellent grown up films

Pillow Talk, not so much

Above Doris Day should have played the lead role in the film South Pacific. Sad that she did not.

Doris owns a hotel and restaurant in Carmel, and dogs are always welcome, so it is a great place to take one's King Charles Spaniel, who will be meeting other quality dogs like himself at lunch.

Doris used to be seen around Carmel, and one thing I noticed is that every time you thought to look you would see a blond woman with a straight bob, light blue denim button down shirt, khaki pants, white keds (tennis shoes) and a cute fluffy dog on a leash. Not Doris, but just the typical Carmel lady in the typical Carmel style. It used to be that all the men who could get away with it dressed like Clint Eastwood, the former mayor of Carmel.

I'm sure Doris will happily haunt the streets of Carmel, petting dogs and passing out biscuits, and then walking to watch the sunset at the shore.

I assume one for film (movie camera) and one for her recording career (record), r82.

Does her son still run the Cypress Inn in Carmel?

Well stated R.38!

r73 Angie Dickinson is one star I could imagine living to 100!

Perhaps he haunts the Cypress Inn. Terry Melcher died in 2004.

And still, Olivia lives!

R93, thanks for reminding me. I used to love having a drink in the bar. Some of the screens are on continuous loop with her movies. A lovely, gracious, relaxing bar with the fireplace going. She was one of a kind. RIP.

Are gay guests allowed to take tricks back to their rooms at Doris's hotel?

They are at mine, r101!

Zombie Beverly Garland sighting at R102!

Are you sure, r103?

My favorite.

[quote] I wasn't kidding. I remember the post well because I was a young, naive DLer who was shocked to discover Doris was a size queen.

That could explain the marriage to Marty Melcher

The "Don't you think it's important that a man is well hung?" story appeared in David Kaufman's biography of Doris Day.

The DLer who told the story might have lifted it from the book. Alternatively, the same person might have repeated the conversation in both places. Either way, it's been documented that she discussed cock size with her gay friends.

Just another fucking Republican that won't be voting for Trump, hope they all die.

She got to star with both Rock Hudson and Clint Walker in Send Me No Flowers at the height of their hunkieness!! how lucky can a girl get?!??!!!

Don't forget me!

Liza Minnelli calls Doris Day on her birthday every year. Doris does not know why.

"Happy Birthday, Doris. It's Liza!"

Rumor has it that Susan Dey and Doris Day are distantly related, but Susan changed the spelling of her last name because she wanted to make it on her own. The Partridge Family speaks for itself.

But has Susan offered her condolences yet? Why is she remaining silent. Doris was one of our most enduring stars...and a distant relative!

Just watched her in THE PAJAMA GAME, in which she sports a dykey ducktail (at back) and flufy bouffant on top.

I'll have a memorial this evening watching THAT TOUCH OF MINK (62) on Kanopy.

Liza's next to go R111.

Doris loved the gays, and made one of the early gay songs famous.

Her "dark" movies: MY DREAM IS YOURS (49); YOUNG MAN WITH A HORN (50); STORM WARNING (50); LOVE ME OR LEAVE ME (55); THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (56); MIDNIGHT LACE (60).

All of them worth a look. Her co-star in the second, Kirk Douglas, is still alive.

Doris had an affair with Mickey Mantle. And from this photo it looks like Cary Grant may have had one with Roger Maris.

Oh man that's sad. She's done so much for for animals.

I hope Doris pulled up to the Pearly Gates in a flashy 1960s convertible, and parked right in front.

Judy and Doris were the same age.

Well, she had an amazing career. She was one of the Hollywood greats. She was one of the few who could do it all; sing, dance, act. It always made me made that she was never given an honorary Oscar, but I heard that if she was given one she would not have shown up to accept it. If she had I think the audience would have stood up and applauded for her at least five minutes. She was a true star.

Heres a link to the full movie of Pillow Talk...there are also links on the page for numerous other Doris Day movies....enjoy.

What are people talking about Doris as if she was some sort of red hat wearing alt-right hillbilly?

I actually know republicans who voted for Hillary, and more than a few who sat it out because she couldn't stand her or Trump but are saying they would vote for Biden in a split second. Not all Republicans are the same.

"Oh, you ... you ... MAN you!"

she cant have been too republican the way she supported and love Rock Hudson

And animals too, R125.

[quote]Are gay guests allowed to take tricks back to their rooms at Doris's hotel?

Only if they're staying in the Rock Hudson Suite.

You have to remember, Doris started her identification with the Republican party when it was the party of Nelson Rockefeller. Its been decades since3then that it has moved so crazily to the right.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DORISH! IT'SH LIZHA!

WHAT?! SHE'SH DESHEASHED???

[quote]She was a bigger star than Aretha Franklin

She wasn't afraid to be....A VITAL...DARING DAY!

My now-82-year-old mother loved her and used to go around singing Que Sera, Sera while cleaning house. Pretty sure my parents had some Doris Day albums.

At 97, I doubt DD followed politics too keenly any more, let alone involved herself in Trump supporting.

[quote] This is the main thread

As a side note, what is with the sad motherfuckers who can't stand it if somebody else's thread proves more popular than their own? Who cares?

I guess Dell had other casting ideas.....

My mother had a Doris Day album that I listened to as a child, loved her.

I stayed at the Cypress Inn in 2006. It was wonderful but staff said they hadn't seen her in years.

She was usually very bad at drama--she tended to overact, as in "The Man Who Knew Too Much" and "Midnight Lace." I think the only serious drama she was good in was "Love Me or Leave Me" (although I have yet to see "Storm Warning" and "Young Man with a Trumpet").

She was so terrific in comedy though.

She was good in that movie with Frank Sinatra.

Really good in Storm Warning....playing a young wife married to Steve COCK-ran.

She was one of the first recording artists to have a million dollar contract with Columbia records. She made a LOT of albums for them. She always had the orchestra tracks laid down first and came in and did her singing at her own pace.

When she finished singing "Let the Little Girl Limbo", she took the headphones off and said: "Call me when they start writing songs again."

After that she recorded mostly her movie title tunes.....

Jack Carson was bisexual? I'm intrigued....

I guess Olivia, Vera Miles, Tippi Hedren and Buffy Marie-Saint are the only Old Hollywood legends still with us.

Once they go, we'll need to shift focus to the 60s=70s legends like Streisand, Dunaway and Fonda.

[quote]I guess Olivia, Vera Miles, Tippi Hedren and Buffy Marie-Saint are the only Old Hollywood legends

Oh, dear!

I greatly admired Doris's work for animal welfare. She was a lovely person with a good heart.

Do and Rock kick back.

r115 What makes you think Liza Minnellis demise is so imminent? 😲

I've stayed at her hotel too. Very nice- you could order room service for your dog.

Kim Novak is in her 80s now.

As to Liza, few people as old as Doris Day are in perfect health. Nice that she called her

"Hello, Buffy? Buffy Shainte-Marie? It'sh me, Liza! Happy Birthday!"

Why are you including Buffy Sainte-Marie among these iconic women?

Because he meant Eva Marie Saint

Love the songs (and anecdotes) posted here. But you guys forgot this camp gem!

"Doris Day? I knew her before she was a virgin!"

R136: You're right, she was laughable in "Midnight Lace" and overacted in "The Man Who Knew Too Much", although the part was written to be a bit too melodramatic. "Love Me or Leave Me" was close to her real life, sans the substance abuse which may be why she was so much better there.

Oh Oscar, you're getting cigarette burns and liquor all over my grand piano!

[quote]I guess Olivia, Vera Miles, Tippi Hedren and Buffy Marie-Saint are the only Old Hollywood legends still with us

Olivia is the only one of that group that qualifies as an "old Hollywood legend." I'd add Jane Powell (and maybe Janis Paige?) to the group. And of course Kirk Douglas.

My money is on Kirk Douglas being next.

R19 fuck Mr. Dead to me. Lame ass bitch.

Speaking of Janis Paige, I just watched The Pajama Game in honor of Day's passing (Paige played Day's role in the Broadway show).

Holds up well, and John Raitt is a hunk (and God what a voice). Day also sings far better than Paige did judging by the Original Cast CD.

The subjects' expressions in R1's photo: Doris has finally spotted the closest exit; Frank takes advantage of a random photo op, again; and Betty's on her third martini within an hour's time.

Rhonda Fleming is still alive at 95.

Paige got Pajama Game after it had been turned down by Dolores Gray.

Are there any Doris Day biography's out there?

R144, because she started selling off her things this past year, plus she moved her mom's remains to LA so they could all be together underground.

That and the fact that Minelli's been in terrible shape for at least 10 years suggests she's heading over the rainbow soon...

R161, have you heard of this cool new thing called GOOGLE?

Rock Hudson pretends he's gay in this clip.

If anyone belonged in the 'She's had great work done' thread, it was Doris Day. In R164's clip -- she looks about 50 years old. Here she is THIRTY years later...

I'm surprised no one pointed to think, where Doris was showing major headlights:

pointed to "this link" -- not "think"

Doris Day Has passed away, She could not live another day, Although she really did want to stay. What will be, will be.

Johnny trying to stay focused and not stare at her big titties

Oops, I didn't see r166...I guess we both had her titties on our mind at the same time

I think that other woman is Carol Wayne, who died mysteriously in Mexico, where she had gone with the same guy who,was with Diane Linkletter shortly before her death, IIRC.

I can't believe nobody has yet mentioned "Julie."

Just watched Move Over, Darling- followed by the aborted Marilyn version. Do was the best, James Garner hot as hell, and Thelma Ritter!

Did Doris ever smoke?

So Doris was a real sizemologist! Maury Wills, Mickey Mantle, etc. We'd wager that she and her dear sister/fellow sizemologist Rock Hudson compared notes on that subject! And screamed and carried on while doing it!

Doris smoked like a chimney for years, I'm not sure when she eventually quit.

I'm surprised her death hasn't received more attention. Yes, she was old and out of the public eye for a while, but DL has a lot of oldsters, plus people that are fans of movie history.

This notion of what political party you are/were... you know, for most of my years, it really didn't matter. And often you didn't know. Our country has somehow gotten it into our little heads that R=bad, and D=good (or others may believe the reverse), that because you may be a member of a party somehow means you always vote that way, and that as a member of a party means you are in lock-step with every position that party holds. People are so much more complex than that. I don't know if Doris was Republican, but I do know she stood by Rock Hudson and gays everywhere during the AIDS epidemic, and did more for animal welfare than most of us put together. She sounded like a wonderful, decent person, and the world is a little bit worse today now that she has left it.

RIP.

Back in the 70s, you would always see Doris riding her bike around Beverly Hills- even to the grocery store.

The Reagans were very friendly with Rock Hudson for decades. When Patty noticed that Rock never brought a fish to the parties, etc,. she asked her father why. "Mr. Hudson is a homosexual, dear, he prefers the company of men" was the answer.

I did at r131, r172.

[quote] I'm surprised her death hasn't received more attention.

Her obituary is on the front page of today's NY Times.

[quote]Her obituary is on the front page of today's NY Times.

I wasn't clear - I meant I was surprised it hasn't gotten more attention on DL. It was definitely in yesterday's news cycle.

From CBS Sunday Morning 2008.

R130, DD absolutely was a bigger star than Aretha Franklin. Seriously, you don't know that? Aretha was never, EVER the biggest star in America, but DD was for the early to mid 1960s.

[quote]I'm surprised her death hasn't received more attention. Yes, she was old and out of the public eye for a while,

A half century is more than a while though, and she was basically a hermit for much of that time, so I think she's getting about the attention you'd expect.

She died as she lived, completely cordoned off.

I was a little kid, but at the time I remember Doris Day movies were a big deal.

Pleas add Marsha Hunt, Arlene Dahl and Leslie Caron to the Golden Age survivors. And Jane Withers, is she still with us?

[quote] And Jane Withers, is she still with us?

At age 93, apparently so!

Also Norman Lloyd, Glynis Johns and June Lockhart...

Is Jane's supertalented niece Bernadette still with us?

Being a major star be at the box office for films like Pillow Talk is a mixed blessing

Jane was a doll....

Shirley MacLaine wrote about the first time she saw her in My Lucky Stars. Something about her being odd looking. Having a large head.....

I think if she'd died younger, she would have gotten more attention. Over 70, mild concern. Over 80, so what. Over 90, it's about time!

Come to think of it, Elizabeth Taylor really didnt receive much high profile attention either.....yes, it was talked about, but you would think they would have made a big deal out of it...ala Michael Jackson, Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, etc (yes, they were extreme narcissists and attention whores) etc.....DD is probably happy...she didnt want a big deal...and no funeral., but still....

Maybe it's because I live in CA and have a lot of nostalgia buff friends, but everyone was watching her movies last night. My Vudu crashed trying to watch a DD movie.

I mean I'm not sure what kind of attention people are looking for in DD's death. She was 97, after all, and led a full and rich life.

The celeb deaths that get the most attention are, of course, the ones who die before their time, meaning before the age of 70 or so.

[quote] I think if she'd died younger, she would have gotten more attention. Over 70, mild concern. Over 80, so what. Over 90, it's about time!

Agreed. By the time a celebrity reaches 90, if she's not still working all the time a la Betty White, I think lots of people assume she's already dead.

Doris Day would be known today if only she had been a judge on "American Idol" or looked for husband number five on "The Bachelorette".

Authorized biography - Doris Day: Her Own Story by A. E. Hotchner.

Doris hated her costumes in most of her Warner Bros. pictures......"There was always a sweetheart neckline and rickrack around the sleeves and hem......

She also loved the makeup dept. at MGM when she did LOVE ME OR LEAVE ME......she called the makeup people at Warner Bros. "embalmers...."

Oh.....that book was published in 1975 so it leaves out what followed.......there are a couple of others more recent.....

David Kaufman's might be the best of those....The Untold Story of the Girl Next Door...

It's so hard to say goodbye to Doris Day.

Watch it hey, I'm Doris Day. I was not brought up that way. Won't come across--even Rock Hudson lost his heart to Doris Day!

[quote]Doris Day would be known today if only she had been a judge on "American Idol" or looked for husband number five on "The Bachelorette".

Back in the old days, you had to get by on being incredibly talented.

"I knew Doris Day before she was a virgin."

Is this the thread for celebrities who received little attention with their death?

I wonder why she was so unlucky in love? Here husbands were all awful.

"At her home in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, she kept many dogs and cats, some of them former strays. Her fourth husband, Barry Comden, whom she married in 1976, complained that the main reason the marriage broke up in 1981 was because she cared for her animals more than him."

She could be the exception, but it's my experience that people who marry so many times have something wrong with them. Often a personality disorder. To screw up that much, she either didn't pay attention to the guy's personality (because she was in it for herself - wanting a husband as an accessory or something like that) and that's a symptom of narcissism (or borderline) -- or she was on the dumb side, like an autistic person, unable to really understand another person very well.

She was friends with Rock Hudson (and loyal to him) so there's that. I'd be interested in knowing if she had other friends who were truly close to her - or if she just stuck to her dogs and cats.

[quote]Olivia is the only one of that group that qualifies as an "old Hollywood legend." I'd add Jane Powell (and maybe Janis Paige?) to the group.

You're off your rocker if you think Jane Powell or Janis Paige are as famous as Tippi Hedren, Vera Miles or Buffy Marie-Saint. Those women were in iconic movies beloved by everybody. If you asked the average person on the street, they wouldn't know who the hell Jane or Janis were, much less be able to name any of their movies.

I hardly know any of those women. I'd put them all on the B list - or worse. And I thought Buffy Saint-Marie was a singer? (not that I can picture her or remember what she sang) Maybe you mean Eva Marie Saint? (so much for being memorable)

The original BSM poster was making a ha ha.

So is Tim Conway the third?

Doris married multiple chiseling Jews. Love her, but they do control show business even now.

It is strange that Doris Day was surprised that her husband signed her for a television series without telling her.

[quote] The original BSM poster was making a ha ha.

Didn't sound like in the context of his otherwise serious post. I think he must have meant Eva Marie Saint, as BSM is a singer-songwriter who's won an Oscar for Best Song but never acted in a feature film.

And just FYI, "making a ha ha" would be a good entry for the Irritating Words thread.

Tippi Hedren is no "Hollywood legend." She's a talentless dimwit blonde who starred in a couple of Alfred Hitchcock movies. And that's ALL the did.

I have no idea what Buffy Saint-Marie has to do with anything. Whoever brought Tippi Hedren and Buffy Saint-Marie into a thread about Doris Day must be totally nuts.

If the old adage applies that these things come in three, we just lost three big ones, different, but big in their own right: Peggy Lipton, Doris Day and Tim Conway.

Ya think?

--R212

Oh god, not your fault, but I just hate stupid superstitions. Like there's some sky fairy playing death sudoku.

As far as real A-List stars from Doris's era who are still living, Kirk Douglas, Olivia de Havilland, Sophia Loren and Joanne Woodward are the only ones I can think of offhand. Any others?

Marty Melcher must have been lousy with money if his death left her broke.

R216, Buffy Sainte-Marie and Scott Brown attended my high school in a suburb north of Boston.

Her wishes in her will were no memorial, no funeral and no gravemarker.

[quote]She could be the exception, but it's my experience that people who marry so many times have something wrong with them.

Well, husband No. 1 beat her.

She remained on pretty good terms with husband No. 2.

She was married to husband No. 3 until his death, at which point she learned he left her broke.

I don't know that any of that says anything about Day.

[quote]or she was on the dumb side, like an autistic person, unable to really understand another person very well.

I must be dumb like an autistic person, then, because I'm 55 years old and I don't understand other people very well at all. I'm as perplexed by people as much now as when I was in my 20s. I can't read people at all.

What I find interesting is how often people who are described as sociopaths, people who are not supposed to have empathy at all, are the ones who so often are great at reading others. One example was Lyndon Johnson. He could read you like a book, figure out how to get out of you what he wanted from you. And he's often described as being an utter psycho.

r210 My point was not about their notoriety, but the era they performed in. I think the Golden Age ended shortly after WWII ... certainly not into the mid to late '50s when those people were prominent.

She was plain and talentless.

"And he's often described as being an utter psycho."

Oh for fuck's sake, he wasn't a "psycho." He was wily, a good politician, a somewhat eccentric man. But no psycho. Richard Nixon..now THERE was a psycho. And Donald Trump. But then politicians tend to be strange types, anyway, especially the ones who get to be President.

r226 The Golden Age of Hollywood went from the end of the Silent Film era until the early 1960s.

I believe the '50s is the Silver Age, r229.

[quote] Richard Nixon..now THERE was a psycho.

No. You are wrong.

Nixon was a deeply flawed man with a huge inferiority complex. He was not at all comfortable with people.

But he was also brilliant.

And certainly not a psycho.

And it is very important to keep in mind that when he became President, one of his priorities was working hard to provide universal health care. Having grown up poor, his mother supplemented the family income with a (I think) small produce stand. When one of Nixon's brothers became ill, the mother had to stop working to care for the boy. The family's financial situation became even worse.

Nixon understood from his own family the hardships that happen when a family member becomes sick.

The person who prevented the universal healthcare plan during Nixon's administration was TEDDY KENNEDY.

Yes. TEDDY KENNEDY.

Funny how Kennedy lovers forget that little tidbit.

r230

No grave marker? Wow, she really wants to be left alone.

[quote] No grave marker? Wow, she really wants to be left alone.

Even I didn't vant to be alone that much!

R231 = Alex P. Keaton

OP, why "passed away"? SHE DIED. She's DEAD. She didn't sprout little wings and pass away into the heavens. I hate that church lady talk.

No grave marker is a bit much. Maybe her ashes are to be spread? That would solve it.

Greta Garbo has a grave in Stockholm.

[quote] OP, why "passed away"? SHE DIED.

Yes, but that doesn't rhyme with Doris Day.

After Olivia and Kirk, I would say the next truly big star of the Golden Age still with us would be Kim Novak. And then Joanne Woodward.

But Olivia is the ONLY one who was a huge star in the 1930s.

She was a Hollywood legend and icon and one of the last big name survivors of the golden age of Hollywood. Of course her passing is big news and incredibly news worthy.

[quote]Tippi Hedren is no "Hollywood legend." She's a talentless dimwit blonde who starred in a couple of Alfred Hitchcock movies. And that's ALL the did.

The Birds alone was enough to make Tippi a Hollywood legend. If she did nothing else, that was enough. Same with Vera Miles in Psycho. If you don't agree, then please turn in your gay card at once.

R227, cunty,this is NOT a Madonna thread.

R220, Sidney Poitier, Angela Lansbury, Jane Withers was a pretty big child star, Angie Dickinson (sort of) Norman Lloyd, 104, wasn't a star, but worked with Welles and Hitchcock

Tony Perkins and Janet Leigh are the only two castmembers who gained "immortality" (or whatever you want to call it) from PSyCHO.

Doris, I would've made them wait til Labor Day to find out.

I just watched a 1956 B-movie called Over-Exposed in which the main character changes her name to Lila Crane. Did Robert Bloch see that before he created Vera Miles' character?

I would include Margaret O'Brien, Dean Stockwell, Robert Wagner, Terry Moore, Rita Moreno, and Darryl Hickman as being Golden Age alumni.

I loved her look and the sound of her voice. She was beautiful to me.

Beautiful voice. A bit like Dinah Shore but with a lighter touch and lighter material.

I’d like to know what her real personality was like. Was she considered funny or feisty; reserved, serious—did she shave many affairs and drink a lot. Was she well liked behind the scenes and in her every-day life?

People in the business loved DD....you will not find many, if any, negative articles about her. Very professional and expected the same from her coworkers.

R236 how do you talk about friends and family who have died?

“Passed away” is a ubiquitous euphemism and you sound like an utter dickhead, FYI.

No way is Joanne Woodward in the same league as Doris or Olivia. Nor Vera Miles, Hedren, Saint.

Most of the names being put up are not A list. Some are A-. And some are B.

I think Olivia (certainly) and Kirk Douglas are A.

Doris was huge during her years. Some of you are just pulling out the names of older performers without considering the level of their fame.

Joanne Woodward? Please.

Angela. No way.

Actually, R252, she gotten a rotten apple from the Hollywood presss corps. Not everyone found her easy or pleasant.

[quote]Poor thing had shit taste in men.

Making her a DL icon for this reason alone.

TBH, I don't like most of her popular music. I much prefer her big-band Ella Fitzgerald style music to the icky-sticky sound she adopted in the 50s.

Pleasant enough actress. Huge props for sticking by Rock Hudson.

I've been reading in articles how she preferred the company of dogs to people, and oh how I can relate to that sometimes. Good for you, Doris!

Kim Novak qualifies with Vertigo, Picnic, Middle of The Night (with Fredrik March) also The Man with The Golden Arm and Bell Book and Candle.

Of all the stars featured in my gayling cinephile Bible, David Shipman's "The Great Movie Stars: the Golden Years" (1970), only one is still left, Olivia de Havilland.

In 1961 Doris did a wonderful album, "Duet," with Andre Previn, who died earlier this year.

R242, Vera Miles...really? VERA MILES?

R237, George C. Scott, Steve Jobs, Roy Orbison and Frank Zappa are buried in unmarked graves.

John Wayne's grave remained unmarked for nearly 20 years.

I didn't even remember Vera Miles was in Psycho, and I've seen it twice! How much screen time did she have - was it even 10 minutes?

That list R190 is pretty ridiculous. 2/3rds of the 'stars' on the list may have made a movie -- often ONE -- in the 1950's, but didn't achieve any fame until decades later.

Having said that, I think De Havilland, Kirk Douglas, Sidney Portier and Eva Marie Saint would be considered the last remaining A-listers from 'The Golden Era'.

B-listers: Robert Wagner, Jane Powell, Leslie Caron, Kim Novak and maybe Angela Lansbury. The rest became famous before, or more often, long after the 1950's.

I mean, what the hell is Liza Minnelli doing on that list?!!!

If that R263. She wouldn't show Al her velvet curtains. The rest is history...

Vera Miles should receive special DL recognition for having been married to Gordon "Tarzan" Scott.

Nixon, like the Clintons, was a Rockefeller banking stooge. Groomed and totally owned by the Rockefeller crime syndicate.

If you remember the sister at all, that was Vera. Certainly pallid in comparison to lovely and tragic Marion. And Lila does get to discover "Mrs. Bates," mother of young Master Bates (!).

As for Golden Age luminaries, is there room for one of the incarnations of Shirley Maclaine? She was on the very tail end

Nothing against Eva Marie Saint but I'm not getting all the support for her A List-ness.

Kim Novak was a much bigger star (more popular with more hit films) during the same years. Leslie Caron (who started earlier), too. Well, even Shirley MacLaine (screen debut 1956) for that matter.

I think there must be younger posters making these claims, who weren't around in the early 1950s..

She's with Rock now.....

Competing for big-dicked seraphim

r266 Lucky lady!

On the MOVE OVER, DARLING dvd, Polly Bergen had a great interview. She said that she was nervous playing in a movie with Doris Day - the number one Box Office Actress in the world. Polly had had some bad experiences with "stars."

She says on her first day of shooting, her dressing room had fresh flowers courtesy D. Day - and note welcoming her to the project and wishing her well. Polly loved working with Doris and said she was great with everyone.

OTH - Charles Herbert who played one of her children in PLEASE DON'T EAT THE DAISIES said she never spoke to the children off camera and ignored them completely......BUT just yesterday Stanley Livingston who played another brother in DAISIES wrote on Facebook how he loved working with her and how nice she was to him and the other kids......

Of course there was the time during MAKE MINE MINK when DD retired to her dressing room when both she a Cary Grant wanted to sit on the same side of a taxi cab.....both wanted screen right.....after a long discussion - Cary gallantly gave Doris her way.

[quote] ...during MAKE MINE MINK

I believe you mean "That Touch of Mink".

Yes thank you......for the KIND response. Chemo Brain.....

Doris Day helped America look at AIDS with empathy and love for Rock Hudson

As an honest person who had earned her money fair and square by working for it, and as a Christian Scientist, Doris NEVER went on the payroll of that Global horror $cam known as "HIV/AID$" Inc. or endorsed it in any way.

[quote] But Olivia is the ONLY one who was a huge star in the 1930s.

Why does everyone forget about me??

I hadn't know that Christopher Olsen (Man Who/Too Much) was Thindy Brady'th brother!

279, wouldn't there have been like a 40 year age difference between Christopher and Thindy?

Christopher Olsen was born in 1946, his thister Thindy in 1961.

Felt like watching this again....

If you ever get an obscene phone call, DON'T do what Doris does in MIDNIGHT LACE!

Watching DD with silly old queen Billy DeWolfe in LULLABY OF BROADWAY (51). They were pals, and he showed up in numerous eps of her TV show.

Aw, rest in peace Doris. My mother was from the era. One of the few memories I have before kindergarten was asking my mom if I would be good looking or rich when I grow up. Her response was spot on, "que sera sera". I had no idea what that mean so she put on the record and the die was cast.

I still feel sad every time I hear that song in a random setting like a store or diner because it reminds me of what a loving mother I once had.

Film critic Molly Haskell tried interviewing Doris but she wasn't a good interview. She wasn't much interested at that point in discussing her past and said she didn't think her movies were very good. Maybe Love Me or Leave Me was good. I guess this was after her book came out and she was done with the publicity circuit.

She was known though as the iron fist in the velvet glove. Absolutely unmoveable when she wanted something her way. I mean she went toe to toe with Grant in That Touch of Mink and who else could do that and come out the winner?

Myrna Loy had nothing but praise working with her when Day was at the top of her stardom and clout. Is that Midnight Lace?

Doris Day's smokin' HOT grandson Ryan Melcher was cut out of her life by her new 'manager'. If you're on Facebook, definitely worth a read. And a LOOK as well...

R287 Thanks for the link. What a sad story that is.

Yeah, I agree R287. Doris was such a sweet, kind, and unfortunately for her, trusting person. Perfect to be taken advantage of. I would hope he would try and go after the people involved, but he sounds too forgiving and seems like his realty is doing really well so he probably doesn't need the $$.

Another photo:

Interesting how Michael Feinstein befriends old ladies with money. First he is with Liza, and last month Do. Is he a schemer?

r287....smokin hot ???? No, as I said in another thread, he looks like a re hydrated mummy.

Her grandson is NOT "smokin' hot." It stands to reason; his father, Terry Melcher, was absolutely nothing to look at.

Terry was no looker. Surprising that he had such a pretty mother even before her nose bob.

Sad story about the manager cutting everyone out of Doris's life. That's fairly common with older wealthy people.

I've never known exactly how they manage it unless they succeed in poisoning their minds.

Clearly for some reason Day did not want anything to do with her grandson. He's leaving something out because superficially it makes no sense.

Doris suffered from panic attacks in the mid 1950's. So much so that she retreated from public life for a good while to recover. They did not have a name for panic attacks back then and, to Doris, that made them even more terrifying since they were undiagnosed. THIS is why she got that poison apple or whatever it was from the press corps. She was unavailable for interviews or press to publicize her movies at that time. And the press mistook that for her being standoffish. She wrote about this all in her autobio...or whatever that book was with A.E.Hotchner "as told to" as the author.

R294. Yet, he was with Candy Bergen for years when she was in her prime.

R293, There are photos on Ryan's FB page that are definitely underwhelming. The blue shirt photo the media is running with is highly flattering.

R293, R294, R295 (the same person)...Time to get your prescription checked.

Is Ryan a homosexual?

R41 From the New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract:

"Let's face facts here: Maury Wills is a creep. He was a lousy father, a lousy teammate, a horrible husband, and probably the worst manager in the history of baseball. He's vulgar and trashy, he doesn't have the sense God give a cockroach, and he blames other people for problems that he has meticulously created for himself. He's a drug addict with an inflated opinion of his own intelligence. He had an affair with Doris Day 35 years ago, and has never stopped bragging about it."