Doris Day Biography

She was born as Doris Mary Ann Kappelhoff in Cincinnati, Ohio, on April 3, 1924. Her mother Alma Sophia was a housewife while her father Wilhelm von Kappelhoff was a music teacher and choir master. She had two older brothers.

She badly injured her legs in a tragic car accident in 1937, which made it impossible for her to follow her ambition of becoming a professional dancer. While recovering she listened to a lot of songs on radio and while singing along with them, she realized that she was blessed with a good voice. Her mother too recognized her potential as a singer and arranged for her to receive lessons from vocal coach Grace Raine.

She adopted the stage name Doris Day in 1939, while working for Rapp. She later on worked with Les Brown and released the song ‘Sentimental Journey’ in 1945, which became very popular and established her career as a successful singer.

She gave one of her most memorable performances as an actress in 1959, when she starred in the movie ‘Pillow Talk’, co-starring Rock Hudson and Tony Randall. She went on to star in two more films with Hudson and Randall, ‘Lover Come Back’ (1961) and ’Send Me No Flowers’ (1964).

Her success streak continued throughout the 1960s, and she appeared in several hit films such as ‘The Ballad of Josie’ (1967), ‘Where Were You When the Lights Went Out?’ (1968), and ‘With Six You Get Eggroll’ (1968). She decided to retire from films in 1968.

Her third husband died in April 1968, and Doris Day discovered that he along with his business partner had squandered her earnings, leaving her deeply in debt. Thus she had to continue working and started appearing in the television series, ‘The Doris Day Show’ even though she hated the idea of working on television.

Doris Day was in excellent health till her last days. A few days before her death, she contracted a serious case of pneumonia and died on May 13, 2019, at the age of 97, at her Carmel Valley home in California.