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The death of Doris Day has been announced today, she had been suffering from pneumonia. She began her career as a singer who moved into Hollywood films in the 1940s, with Romance on the High Seas, and quickly became a pinup of the "girl next door" variety, helped by her honeyed singing voice. Biopic Young Man with a Horn, opposite Kirk Douglas, followed, and her career was well underway in the fifties in films both dramatic and comedic such as Storm Warning, On Moonlight Bay, By the Light of the Silvery Moon, and one of her defining hits, Calamity Jane.
After that there was no looking back: Young at Heart, Love Me or Leave Me, Hitchcock's remake of The Man Who Knew Too Much, Julie, The Pajama Game, and right at the end of the decade, Pillow Talk, the fun sex comedy that remains a cult favourite to this day, and paired her with her friend Rock Hudson. In the sixties there was Lover Come Back, Move Over Darling, Do not Disturb, The Glass Bottom Boat, Caprice, and her final film, With Six You Get Eggroll, before she retired from the big screen in favour of a successful television series, The Doris Day Show. Then, in 1973, she retired from acting completely to run her animal sanctuary, only making occasional public appearances, most notably to stand by Hudson when he was dying of AIDS, a kindness that made her even more of a favourite among fans. Along the way she had lost all her money thanks to an unscrupulous husband, but had managed to succeed once more, and at the time of her death had been enjoying her status as a patron of her charity. Her wholesome image may have made her the butt of jokes for decades, but there was nobody quite like her, prim but fun, maybe a little naughty, and with that wonderful singing voice. |
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