Actress Doris Day Dies at 97, Reports Say

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5/13/2019Updated: 5/13/2019

Longtime actress and singer Doris Day, who achieved fame in the 1950s and 1960s to become one of the most popular actresses in history, died at age 97, according to reports.

The Doris Day Animal Foundation confirmed Day died on May 13, saying she died at her home in Carmel Valley, California, The Associated Press reported. She was surrounded by her friends.

“Day had been in excellent physical health for her age, until recently contracting a serious case of pneumonia, resulting in her death,” the foundation stated.

Day had recently celebrated her 97th birthday.

Her movie career started with a role in the 1948 musical comedy “Romance on the High Seas,” and became a hit with audiences.

She initial specialized in musical comedy roles, which include “My Dream is Yours,” “I’ll See You in My Dreams,” “Tea for Two,” and others.

“Her persona hit a cultural mother lode, tapping into what the average postwar woman was about,” Drew Casper, a USC film professor, told the Los Angeles Times.

“Every female wanted to be Doris Day and every male wanted to marry somebody like her,” Casper said.

Her work shows “how much of an icon she was, how much she became in her own way, the female equivalent of John Wayne or Clint Eastwood,” Times film critic Kenneth Turan said in the article.

And Rock Hudson stated that the actress “was an Actors Studio all by herself,” according to the report.

Hudson, the legendary actor, also wrote: “Her sense of timing, her instincts—I just kept my eyes open and copied her.”

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Actress Rashida Jones (C) poses with her father Quincy Jones and her mother Peggy Lipton, at the premiere of "Celeste and Jesse Forever" at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, on Jan. 20, 2012. Lipton died of cancer at age 72. (Danny Moloshok/AP Photo, File) — Actress Rashida Jones (C) poses with her father Quincy Jones and her mother Peggy Lipton, at the premiere of "Celeste and Jesse Forever" at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, on Jan. 20, 2012. Lipton died of cancer at age 72. Danny Moloshok/AP Photo, File

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Legendary comedian Freddie Starr at the British Comedy Awards at Fountain Studios in London, on Dec. 16, 2011. (Stuart Wilson/Getty Images) — Legendary comedian Freddie Starr at the British Comedy Awards at Fountain Studios in London, on Dec. 16, 2011. Stuart Wilson/Getty Images

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Kelly Jobanputra poses for a photograph she posted on Twitter on March 31, 2019. (@KelJobanputra/Twitter) — Kelly Jobanputra poses for a photograph she posted on Twitter on March 31, 2019. @KelJobanputra/Twitter

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