Doris Day, who was diagnosed with pneumonia, died Monday at her home in California, according to her animal rights foundation.
Doris Day has died. The American singer and actress, who is best known for her roles in 1960s Hollywood movies, died at the age of 97, the media quoted him as saying on Monday. According to its animal welfare foundation, Doris Day, who suffered from pneumonia, died Monday at her home in California.
She will be remembered for Que sera, sera , a global hit that has allowed her to unite the two major axes of her career: song and cinema, which she owes two stars on the “Boulevard de la gloire” in Hollywood . A particular song sampled by Wax Taylor in the early 2000s.
The Oscar for the best original song
The blonde American is 34 years old, in 1956, when Alfred Hitchcock gives him the moving role of a mother whose child is kidnapped by spies coming from the cold in the Man who knew too much .
Alongside James Stewart and Daniel Gélin, Doris Day plays a tailor-made role: that of a famous singer who interprets Que sera, will be at the top of her voice to signal to her son that the time of liberation is near. The song, signed Jay Livingston and Ray Evans, won the Oscar for Best Original Song.
Oscars, Doris Day will still win none, despite forty films and public adoration. Her friendly, cheerful and uneventful side will not seduce film critics and she will have to settle for a “Grammy” for her singing career, with 650 titles to her credit.
For film critic Molly Haskell, Doris Day is “the most underrated, the least well-known actress ever to be in Hollywood.”
Beginnings in the 1940s
On a personal level, life has not been easy for Doris Mary Anne Kappelhoff, born April 3, 1924 in Cincinnati (North), in a family of German origin. Her parents divorced when she was 13 and Doris was left with a mother who pushed her to go on stage. After a serious car accident, she must give up the dance to devote herself to singing.
Her career began in the early 1940s. Doris Day sang for Les Brown’s “big band,” with whom she performed Sentimental Journey , the future hymn for the soldiers returning home after the 1945 victory.
But the young woman has already divorced a first husband, violent, ending the first of four marriages of which none will last.
A vaudeville star
In 1948, she shot her first film, Romance in Rio , which would be followed by other successes like The Blonde of the Far West ( Calamity Jane , 1953), The Traps of the Passion ( Love Me or Leave Me , 1955) or Ne do not eat daisies ( Please Do not Eat the Daisies , 1960). Doris Day shines especially in vaudeville, a genre that culminates in 1959 with Confidences on the Pillow , where she stars alongside Cary Grant and Rock Hudson. The film is the only one that will earn him an Oscar selection.
Throughout her career, Doris Day has been trying to defend her own American image on her, refusing in 1967 the role of Mrs. Robinson in The Laureate , which she judges daring. “I like being gay. I like to have fun on a shoot. I like to wear nice clothes and be beautiful. I like to smile and people laugh. That’s all I want, “she summarizes in an interview.
Since she was no longer turning, Doris Day had become a pet friend, whom she hosted at her Carmel, California hotel.
In 2004, President George W. Bush presented him with the “Medal of Liberty,” the highest American civilian award, for “delighting the hearts of Americans while enriching our culture.”
