Doris Mary Kappelhoff, one of America's most beloved actresses, was born on April 3, 1922, in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Alma Sophia Welz, a housewife, and William Joseph Kappelhoff, a music teacher and choir master. Her grandparents were all German immigrants. She had two brothers, Richard, who died before she was born, and Paul, a few years older.
Her parents divorced when she was still a child, and she lived with her mother. Like most little girls, Doris loved to dance. At fourteen, she formed a dance act with a boy named Jerry Doherty, and they won $500 in a local talent contest. They felt they could succeed, so they took a brief trip to Hollywood to test the waters. However, a tragic accident occurred the night before she was to move to Hollywood, ending her dancing career.
After taking singing lessons, Doris found a new vocation and began touring with the Les Brown Band at age 17. She met trombonist Al Jorden, whom she married in 1941, but they divorced two years later after the birth of their son Terry. In 1946, Doris married George Weidler, but this union lasted less than a year.
Doris's agent convinced her to take a screen test at Warner Bros., and the executives liked what they saw, signing her to a contract. Her first starring movie role was in Romance on the High Seas (1948). She made several films, including My Dream Is Yours (1949),It's a Great Feeling (1949),Calamity Jane (1953),Lucky Me (1954),Love Me or Leave Me (1955),The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956),and Pillow Talk (1959).
In the 1960s, Doris slowed down her filmmaking pace, even though she started the decade with a hit, Please Don't Eat the Daisies (1960). She continued to make successful films, including Do Not Disturb (1965),The Glass Bottom Boat (1966),Where Were You When the Lights Went Out? (1968),and With Six You Get Eggroll (1968).
Doris married Martin Melcher in 1951, and he adopted her young son Terry. Martin took charge of her career and made deals for her to star in films she didn't really care about, leading to a bout with exhaustion. Martin died in 1968, and Doris never made another film but was signed to do her own TV series, The Doris Day Show (1968).
After her series ended, Doris made occasional TV appearances. By the time Martin Melcher died, Doris discovered she was millions of dollars in debt due to Melcher's poor investments. She was eventually awarded $22 million by the courts and married for the fourth time in 1976. Since her divorce in 1980, she has devoted her life to animals.
Doris was a passionate animal rights activist and ran the Doris Day Animal League in Carmel, California, which advocates for the welfare of household pets. She died on May 13, 2019, in Carmel Valley Village, California, at the age of 97.
