Doris Day

In 2005 "Premiere" magazine ranked her as #24 on a list of the Greatest Movie Stars of All Time in their Stars in Our Constellation feature.

In June 2004 she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by George W. Bush. She did not attend the White House award ceremony because of her intense fear of flying.

In order to make a political statement regarding the platform of the Canadian Alliance Party, in 2000 Canadian satirist Rick Mercer launched an attempt to hold a national referendum on the question of whether or not Stockwell Day should be forced to change his first name to "Doris". Within days, he had the required number of signatures under the Alliance Parties current platform to launch a federal referendum. According to her publicist, Doris was amused by this.

Is referenced on every chorus of Ringo Starr's last top 40 release in 1999, "La De Da".

Is referenced in the 1994 song "Dirty Epic" by Underworld.

Biography in: "Who's Who in Comedy" by Ronald L. Smith. Pg. 133-134. New York: Facts on File, 1992. ISBN 0816023387

Is referenced in the 1989 song "We Didn't Start the Fire" by Billy Joel.

Is referenced in the 1985 song "Wrap Her Up" by Elton John.

Is referenced in the song "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" by pop band Wham!, a single that hit Billboard's #1 in 1984.

Has a 1982 hit song, by the hugely popular Dutch ska-pop band Doe Maar, named after her.

She married for the fourth time in 1976 and since her divorce in 1980 has devoted her life to animals. Doris was a passionate animal rights activist. She ran Doris Day Animal League in Carmel, California, which advocates homes and proper care of household pets.

That show, like her movies, was successful, lasting until 1973. After her series went off the air, she made only occasional TV appearances. By the time Martin Melcher died, Doris discovered she was millions of dollars in debt. She learned that Melcher had squandered virtually all of her considerable earnings, but she was eventually awarded $22 million by the courts in a case against a man that Melcher had unwisely let invest her money.

Is referenced in the 1970 song "Dig It" by The Beatles.

Her son Terry Melcher had rented a house at 10050 Cielo Drive in Bel Air, CA, where Sharon Tate and her friends were murdered by the Charles Manson "Family". On March 23, 1969, Charles Manson had visited the house looking for Melcher, a music producer and composer who had worked with The Beach Boys, Bobby Darin and The Byrds. The house was now sub-leased by Tate, and her photographer told Manson to leave by "the back alley", possibly giving Manson a motive for the later attack. Melcher had auditioned Manson for a recording contract but rejected him, and there was a rumor after the murders that Manson had intended to send a message to Melcher, a theory that police later discounted.

Martin Melcher died in 1968, and Doris never made another film, but she had been signed by Melcher to do her own TV series, The Doris Day Show (1968).

She turned down the role of Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate (1967), which went to Anne Bancroft.

She didn't make as many films as she had in that decade, but the ones she did make were successful: Do Not Disturb (1965), The Glass Bottom Boat (1966), Where Were You When the Lights Went Out? (1968) and With Six You Get Eggroll (1968).

Was named the top box-office star of 1963 by the Motion Picture Herald, based on an annual poll of exhibitors as to the drawing power of movie stars at the box-office, conducted by Quigley Publications.

Profiled in the book, "Film Fatales: Women in Espionage Films and Television, 1962-1973", by Thomas Lisanti and Louis Paul (McFarland, 2002).

The film The Children's Hour (1961) was constructed with both Day and Katharine Hepburn as the two leading ladies. However both actresses backed out due to scheduling conflicts and as a result Shirley MacLaine was cast in Hepburn's role and Audrey Hepburn was cast in Day's role.

She began to slow down her filmmaking pace in the 1960s, even though she started out the decade with a hit, Please Don't Eat the Daisies (1960).

The 1960s weren't to be a repeat of the previous busy decade.

After her Pillow Talk (1959) co-star Rock Hudson died of AIDS in 1985, Day told the press that she had never known he was a homosexual.

In 1958, her brother Paul died. Around this time, her husband, who had also taken charge of her career, had made deals for her to star in films she didn't really care about, which led to a bout with exhaustion.

It was during the location filming of The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) when she saw how camels, goats and other "animal extras" in a marketplace scene were being treated that began her lifelong commitment to preventing animal abuse.

In 1953, Doris starred in Calamity Jane (1953), which was a major hit, and several more followed: Lucky Me (1954), Love Me or Leave Me (1955), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) and what is probably her best-known film, Pillow Talk (1959).

Childhood idol was Ginger Rogers, with whom she starred in Storm Warning (1951).

in 1950 and five more in 1951. In that year, she met and married Martin Melcher, who adopted her young son Terry, who later grew up to become Terry Melcher, a successful record producer.

The next year, she made two more films, My Dream Is Yours (1949) and It's a Great Feeling (1949). Audiences took to her beauty, terrific singing voice and bubbly personality, and she turned in fine performances in the movies she made (in addition to several hit records). She made three films for Warner Bros.

Her first starring movie role was in Romance on the High Seas (1948).

In 1946, Doris married George Weidler, but this union lasted less than a year. Day's agent talked her into taking a screen test at Warner Bros.

Gave birth to her only child at age 19, a son Terrence "Terry" Jorden (aka Terry Melcher) on February 8, 1942. Child's father was her first ex-husband, Al Jorden. Terry was later adopted by his stepfather and became known as Terry Melcher.

She met trombonist Al Jorden, whom she married in 1941. Jorden was prone to violence and they divorced after two years, not long after the birth of their son Terry.

Has a fear of flying that stemmed from tours with Bob Hope in the 1940s that resulted in some close calls in impenetrable winter weather. She almost turned down her role in Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) because it was to be filmed in London and Marrakesh. Her husband and manager, Martin Melcher, talked her into accepting it.

Her dreams of a dancing career were dashed when a car accident on October 13, 1937, badly damaged her legs. She spent most of her teenage years wheelchair-bound and during this time began singing on the radio.

The executives there liked what they saw and signed her to a contract (her early credits are often confused with those of another actress named Doris Day, who appeared mainly in B westerns in the 1930s and 1940s).

One of America's most prolific actresses was born Doris Mary Ann Kappelhoff on April 3, 1922, in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Alma Sophia (Welz), a housewife, and William Joseph Kappelhoff, a music teacher and choir master. Her grandparents were all German immigrants. She had two brothers, Richard, who died before she was born and Paul, a few years older. Her parents divorced while she was still a child, and she lived with her mother. Like most little girls, Doris liked to dance. At fourteen, she formed a dance act with a boy, Jerry Doherty, and they won $500 in a local talent contest. She and Jerry took a brief trip to Hollywood to test the waters. They felt they could succeed, so she and Jerry returned to Cincinnati with the intention of packing and making a permanent move to Hollywood. Tragically, the night before she was to move to Hollywood, she was injured riding in a car hit by a train, ending the possibility of a dancing career. It was a terrible setback, but after taking singing lessons she found a new vocation, and at age 17, she began touring with the Les Brown Band.

Daughter of William (1892-1967) and Alma (née Welz) Kappelhoff (1895-1976). Both were born and raised in Ohio to German-born parents.