Hollywood Actress Doris Day Dead at 97

Doris Day, one of the biggest movie stars in the 50’s and 60’s who became a fierce proponent of animal rights, is dead.

The Doris Day Animal Foundation confirmed her death.  She died at her home in Carmel Valley, CA, surrounded by close friends.  The Foundation said Day “had been in excellent physical health for her age, until recently contracting a serious case of pneumonia.”

Doris became a star in 1956, when she appeared alongside Jimmy Stewart in Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Man Who Knew Too Much.”   She then hit even bigger the next year, starring in “The Pajama Game.”

Day became tied at the hip onscreen, beginning in 1959, with Rock Hudson … the 2 starred in “Pillow Talk,” for which she received an Academy Award nom for Best Actress.  

You can’t understate the star power of the quintessential girl-next-door … she was voted Top Box Office Female Star for 4 straight years in the early 60’s.

As big as her movie career was … she was equally famous for her singing.  She went to the top of the charts with 1956 song, “Que Sera Sera.” In 2008 Doris was awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Day briefly dated Ronald Reagan back in 50’s.  She was married 4 times. 

Day’s son, Terry Melcher, became a famous and successful music producer, working with The Beach Boys for many years.  He notoriously put a song written by Charles Manson on a Beach Boys’ single, but when Melcher distanced himself from Manson the future murderer targeted him.  In fact, it’s widely believed the Tate murders were really directed at Melcher and his then-girlfriend, Candice Bergen, who had been renting the Tate home until just weeks before the murder.

Doris was one of the founders of Actors and Others for Animals in 1971 and in the late 70’s she started The Doris Day Foundation.