Day began her show business career as a big band singer in the late 1930's. She would rise to fame in 1945 her with recording of "Sentimental Journey" along with Les Brown and His Band of Renown. But most baby boomers remember her from her movies from the 1950's and 1960's. Her first starring role came in the 1953 film Calamity Jane. Day also co-starred with Jimmy Stewart in the Alfred Hitchcock film The Man Who Knew Too Much. For this film, Day recorded "Que Será, Será (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)"" which would earn an Academy Award for Best Original Song and become her signature song.
Her only Academy Award nomination was for the 1959 film Pillow Talk, her first of three films with Rock Hudson and Tony Randall. The trio would also co-star in Lover Come Back and Send Me No Flowers in 1961 and 1964, respectively. Day also co-starred in hit films with James Garner - The Thrill of it All and Move Over, Darling. She was one of the most popular movie stars - male or female - of post WWII America.
In 1968, Day would transition to television with The Doris Day Show running for five seasons on CBS before she effectively retired. This was done reluctantly as Day's third husband Martin Melcher left her in debt. The marriage produced her only child, Terry Melcher would who become a songwriter and record producer for The Byrds and Paul Revere and The Raiders. He predeceased his mother in 2004.
Day largely stayed out of the limelight, but would occasionally make appearances on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson to promote animal welfare. In 1985, Day made a brief return to TV with the short-lived Best Friends which aired on CBN. She launched the show with Rock Hudson who appeared gaunt. It was soon discovered he had been diagnosed with AIDS and he would succumb to the disease later that year.
In 2011, Day released an album titled My Heart which largely consisted of unreleased material recorded for the Best Friends show and much of which was co-written by Melcher and Beach Boy Bruce Johnston. It would be her first album to chart on both sides of The Atlantic in nearly 50 years.
I leave you with an interview Day did with Johnny Carson in September 1974. R.I.P.
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