Doris Day

In November 2004 her son Terry died from complications of melanoma. They write that Esmond's feelings of betrayal were genuine despite the unconventional nature of the marriage. In 2004 she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom but refused to attend the ceremony because of a fear of flying. The biographies describe the marriage as a relatively happy one, based on mutual respect and affection and their shared love of theatre. She wrote a best-selling autobiography. Since the deaths of Esmond and Olivier, biographers have written that Olivier was bisexual for his entire life, and that his marriage with Esmond was convenient for both of them, as she was also bisexual. In 1987, she founded the Doris Day Animal League, and she currently devotes much of her time towards the cause of helping animals. She did not remarry, and died in Wimbledon, London.

Day stood by his side. In her later years, Esmond discussed the bitterness she still felt towards Olivier and her feeling that she had sacrificed her career so that he could further his own, only to find herself cruelly discarded. Soon after, she and the world learned that he was dying of AIDS. Her acting appearances grew more sporadic with the passage of time and she made her final film appearance in 1955. Day was taken aback by Hudson's emaciated and wizened frame, as he had always been in top physical condition. She starred in the Broadway production of The Morning Star in 1942, a production noted for the acting debut of Gregory Peck. The show generated unexpected press when her old friend Rock Hudson appeared in the first episode. She returned briefly to acting and appeared in such popular films as Journey for Margaret, The Pied Piper and Random Harvest (all 1942) and The White Cliffs of Dover (1944).

In 1985 Day hosted her own talk show, Doris Day's Best Friends. Pressed by Olivier, who was anxious to marry Leigh, she eventually agreed and they were divorced in 1940. Though generally presenting a happy, carefree image to the public, she had four difficult marriages:. Esmond withstood the publicity of Olivier's affair with Vivien Leigh and did not seek a divorce. Day continued with the show only as long as she needed the work to help pay down her debts. Her career continued to ascend while Olivier's own career languished, but when his career began to show promise after a couple of years, she began to refuse roles. Its theme song was "Que Sera Sera". She also appeared in two Broadway productions with Olivier - Private Lives in 1931 with Noel Coward and Gertrude Lawrence, and The Green Bay Tree in 1933.

Upon Melcher's death she learned that he had committed her to a TV series. From 1968 to 1973, she therefore starred in her own situation comedy, The Doris Day Show. Returning to the United Kingdom she made her film debut with a starring role in an early Alfred Hitchcock film The Skin Game (1931), and over the next few years appeared in several British and Hollywood films, including Thirteen Women (1932). Robinson in The Graduate (a role which went to Anne Bancroft). Olivier continued to follow Esmond, and after proposing to her several times, she agreed and the couple were married in 1930. One of the roles he turned down for her was Mrs. Esmond won rave reviews for her performance. Day herself found many of her mid-late 1960s films to be of very poor quality and did them only at the insistence of her third husband, Marty Melcher. Determined to be near Esmond he travelled to New York where he found work as an actor.

Critics, comics and pundits attacked Day as "the world's oldest virgin" and audiences began to shy away from her repetitive, gimmicky roles. When Bird in the Hand was being staged on Broadway, Esmond was chosen to join the American production - but Olivier was not. Times as well as attitudes changed, but Day's films did not. In his autobiography Olivier later wrote that he was smitten with Esmond, and that her cool indifference to him did nothing but further his ardour. Many of her 1960s films ignored her singing abilities and painted her as a good-hearted woman with a strong will, a hint of naïveté, and the purest virtue this side of a nun. In 1928 she appeared in the production of Bird in the Hand where she met fellow cast member Laurence Olivier for the first time. She and Hudson made two more films together. In 1925, she starred with her mother in a play Mary, Mary Quite Contrary, and after a few more successful roles, won critical praise for her part as a young suicide in Outward Bound.

The film received positive reviews and was a box office favourite. It also brought a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Actress for Day. After reassessing her future and coming to terms with her father's death she studied with the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, and returned to the West End stage in 1924. In 1959 Day entered her most successful phase as a film actress with the hugely popular Pillow Talk co-starring Rock Hudson, who became a lifelong friend. When her father died suddenly in 1922 Esmond returned to school and at the time considered abandoning her ambition to act. She continued to be paired with some of Hollywood's biggest male stars, including James Stewart, Cary Grant, David Niven, and Clark Gable. She made her stage debut playing Wendy to Gladys Cooper's Peter Pan but her success was shortlived. In 1955, she received some of the best notices of her career for her portrayal of singer Ruth Etting in Love Me or Leave Me, co-starring James Cagney. While her parents toured with theatre companies, Esmond spent her childhood in boarding schools until she decided at the age of fourteen to become an actress.

She continued to make saccharine and somewhat low-level musicals such as Starlift, By the Light of the Silvery Moon, and Tea for Two for Warner Brothers until the cycle exhausted itself. Esmond and Eva Moore. Day began her film career in 1948 as a peppy, Betty Huttonesque persona. Esmond was born in London, England, the daughter of stage actors Henry V. In Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much, she sang "Que Sera Sera", which won an Oscar; it became her signature song. Jill Esmond (January 26, 1908 – July 28, 1990) was a British actress. Day acted in many films, in most of which she sang.

On her own, she had more # 1's, including "Secret Love". She admitted coming to hate singing "Journey", but never tired of reading the letters. "Sentimental Journey" earned her a flood of letters from World War II GIs. With Brown, she charted 12 popular music hits, among them her first two # 1's: "Sentimental Journey" and "My Dreams Are Getting Better All the Time".

She never really liked the name Doris Day, thinking it sounded too much like a stripper; this was ironic, since she eventually became associated with a nearly opposite image of wholesomeness and innocence. It was Barney Rapp who convinced her that "Kappelhoff" was too awkward a name and suggested "Day" after the song "Day after Day" that was part of her repertoire. She sang with the big bands of Barney Rapp, Bob Crosby, and Les Brown, before setting out on her own in the late 1940s. Day started out as a dancer, winning a contract that enabled her to travel to Hollywood with her partner, Jerry Doherty, in 1936, but turned to singing when she injured her leg in an auto accident in 1937.

She later embraced Christian Science. Her family was Catholic, despite her parents' divorce. The second of two children, she was named "Doris" after silent movie actress Doris Kenyon, whom her mother liked. A vivacious blonde with a wholesome image, she was one of the most prolific actresses of the 1950s and 1960s.

Doris Day (born Doris Mary Ann von Kappelhoff on April 3, 1924 in Evanston, Ohio) is an American singer, actress, and animal welfare advocate. "You Do Something For Me". "You Are My Sunshine". "Whatever Will Be, Will Be" ("Que Sera, Sera").

"Teacher's Pet". "Tacos, Enchiladas and Beans". "Someone Like You. "Singing in the Rain".

"Sentimental Journey". "Secret Love". "Put 'em in a Box, Tie 'em with a Ribbon". "Pillow Talk".

"Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps". "On Moonlight Bay". "Once In A While". "My Young and Foolish Heart".

"My Darling, My Darling". "Move Over, Darling". "Love Somebody". "It Takes Time".

"It's Magic". "It All Depends on You". "I'm An Indian". "I'll Never Stop Loving You".

"If I Give My Heart to You" (also done by Denise Lor). "Hurray For Hollywood". "Hernando's Hideaway" (bigger hit done by Archie Bleyer). "Everybody Loves My Baby".

"Everybody Loves A Lover". "Dream A Little Dream Of Me". "Cheek To Cheek". "By The Light Of The Silvery Moon".

"But Not For Me". "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered". "Anything You Can Do". "Again".

"A Guy Is A Guy". Comden was her only husband outside show business. To Barry Comden, from April 14, 1976 to 1981. Day also later revealed that Melcher had physically abused Terry.

Her money difficulties continued for a number of years after his death, she ultimately returned to financial security. However, when he died in 1968 it turned out he had been spending her money without restraint, leaving her bankrupt, and owing thousands. Melcher adopted Terry (thus becoming Terry Melcher), and also produced many of Day's movies. This looked like a happy marriage, and lasted much longer than her first two.

To Marty Melcher, whom she married on her 27th birthday, April 3, 1951. Weidler and Day met again years later and he helped her become involved in Christian Science. Weidler never could accept the fact that his wife would become a bigger star than he, and they broke up after eight months. To George Weidler, (a saxophonist), from March 30, 1946 to May 31, 1949.

Her only child, Terry, was born in this marriage, but Jorden was physically abusive. To Al Jorden, a trombonist whom she had met when he was in Barney Rapp's band, from March 1941 to 1943.