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| Singer Doris Day is shown in an undated publicity photo |
Actress Doris Day, who became one of the greatest box-office attractions of her time as the cheery, freckle-faced personification of wholesomeness, died on Monday at the age of 97, her foundation said on Monday.
Day, who co-starred with 1950s and โ60s superstars such as Rock Hudson and Cary Grant, died at her Carmel, California home after a bout with pneumonia, the Doris Day Animal Foundation said on its website.
Her shiny girl-next-door image was built on a series of innocent romantic comedies, including โPillow Talk,โ for which Day received an Oscar nomination, โThat Touch of Minkโ and โThe Thrill of It All.โ
Day also had hit records, most notably โQue Sera, Seraโ from the movie โThe Man Who Knew Too Much.โ It became her theme song, even though she had initially been reluctant to record it.
Dayโs life was not always as sunny as her movie roles. She married four times, was divorced three times and widowed once, suffered a nervous breakdown and had severe financial trouble after one husband squandered her money.
โMy public image is unshakably that of Americaโs wholesome virgin, the girl next door, carefree and brimming with happiness,โ she said in a memoir, โan image, I can assure you, more make-believe than any film part I ever played. But I am Miss Chastity Belt and thatโs all there is to it.โ
โSheโs the girl every guy should marry,โ a critic wrote in the Saturday Review. โMarilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Kim Novak? Theyโd all be trouble. Doris Day would be true blue, understanding, direct, honest, and even a little sexy.โ
She was born Doris von Kappelhoff on April 3, 1922, in Cincinnati and headed to California at age 14 to be a dancer. She abandoned that dream after her right leg was broken in an auto accident.
REUTERS
