Is there a list somewhere of all Doris' Interviews- be it Johnny Carson etc or others?
I know there are a few on YouTube but it would be interesting to see a complete list to see if there are any that are not readily available.
I know she did a few promoting her Bio, but being DownUnder I had know idea about these until years later.
I recall Joan Barr (no longer with us) who had met Doris on a few occasions, being in the audience for one of the Tonight show appearances and her saying that it was a wonderful experience for her (Joan that is- not Doris!!)
Anyway just a thought -For those interviews that are readily available maybe we could discuss them one by one - I'm guessing there aren't that many.
I also recall that at the time Doris was making Eggroll, the host of one of our OZ tonight shows (Don Lane) somehow scored a short interview with her and Marty on the Eggroll set. I'm a bit hazy on the details now (60 yrs later!) but recall that it was fairly heavily promoted by the screening channel.
I'm tempted to say that Doris was wearing the house coat that she wore in the chaotic scene while dressing for the party- but my memory aint that good!
Anyway it was only a couple of minutes but i recall thinking that she looked great with the hair (or wig) slightly disheveled..maybe "wind swept" would have been a better way of saying that!
Doris - Tonight & Other Interview Show Appearances
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DORIS QUOTES FROM CELEBRITIES
DORIS DAY • QUOTABLE QUOTES
TONY BENNETT (Singer) — “She’s gifted in a way that makes everything she does work. She’s a Hollywood producer’s dream: she has beauty, she’s a great actress, a wonderful singer — putting it simply, she has it all!
ROSEMARY CLOONEY (Singer) — “I think the same thing applies to Doris’ acting as to her singing, it was seamless. I don’t think she was given nearly the credit that she deserved.”
SIR PAUL McCARTNEY (Singer-songwriter) — “For many years I have thought of Doris as a great singer and actress. Classic films as varied as ‘Calamity Jane,’ and ‘Pillow Talk’ illustrate this point clearly. When Heather and I recently had the pleasure of meeting Doris, we were delighted to find out that she also was a charming person and perhaps the ultimate animal lover. Suffice it to say, we are huge fans of this wonderful lady.”
JO STAFFORD (Singer) — “Doris Day has always been a multi-talented lady, whether as a big band singer with Les Brown, a fine recording artist with Columbia, or a uniquely gifted motion picture star.”
MARGARET WHITING (Singer) — “Doris Day was such a big movie and T.V. star, people overlooked her singing…the proof is in the package. She’s one of the best singers there ever was.”
FRANKIE LAINE (Singer) — “Doris was a great performer with warmth and expressiveness. It was one of the most pleasant recording dates I ever had when we sang together. She had a wonderful jazz vibrato voice and could have been one of the top jazz singers.”
ANDY WILLIAMS (Singer) — “I first met Doris Day when I was singing with my three brothers on radio station WLW in Cincinnati, Ohio. I was 14 years old. I had a crush on her then and I still do. She had a voice so fresh you could smell it. She’s a terrific singer and a great lady.”
CYBILL SHEPHERD (Actress-singer) — “She is one of the greatest vocalists that has ever lived. I adore her. I think she has been underrated for years.”
ROBERT GOULET (Singer) — “Doris Day is one of the grand ladies of song. She exudes sunshine with her acting and singing and just the mention of her name would bring a smile to one’s face. I adore her.”
PATTI PAGE (Singer) — “Doris Day has always been one of my favorites. She was given so much attention as a movie personality that people sometimes needed to be reminded how well she could sing.”
PAUL WESTON (Conductor/arranger) — “She was a very expressive singer…she could take a lyric and to some extent, act it out…”
ANNE MURRAY (Singer) — “Doris Day was my idol. I wanted to look like Doris Day. I wanted to sing like Doris Day. I wanted to be Doris Day. She was the best! (To Doris, she said) “I know your first love is acting, but I’ve always thought you were one of the finest singers of all time, so underrated.”
ARETHA FRANKLIN (Singer) — “Eydie Gorme and Doris Day are two underrated singers.”
OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN (Singer/Actress) — “I have always admired Doris Day for her beautiful voice that has such feeling and depth to it — she can sing any style and touch you — a true and rare gift — I admire her as both an artist and a woman.”
SARAH VAUGHAN (Singer) — When asked to name her favorite singers, she replied “I dig Doris Day.”
MICHAEL FEINSTEIN (Singer) — “From the moment I heard Doris, I was carried away by the warmth and passion of her natural gift. She remains the high bench mark against which all other singers are measured. I listen to her voice constantly for inspiration and joy.”
RAY EVANS (Songwriter) — “Doris Day has been a most important part of my life; how much she enriched my career with her Que Sera Sera. A great artist, actress and animal lover, Doris Day has brought the world a brighter day.”
TOM SHALES (Pulitzer Prize-winning film, TV critic – Washington Post) — “At whatever she did, Day was a natural, a performer who embodied determined womanhood on the screen. In the 50s and 60s, that was no small accomplishment…A few years ago, Day reappeared after a long absence to accept an honorary Golden Globe Award. Seeing her again, warm and radiant, I realized how much I’d always loved her and how much I had missed her.”
LES BROWN (big band leader) — “I’d say that next to Sinatra, Doris is the best in the business on selling a lyric.”
JOHNNY MATHIS (Singer) — “I always try to include songs by my favorite singers in my concerts. As Doris Day has always been one of my favorites, I sing ‘Secret Love’ in every show I do. Doris Day was also one of the first celebrities to attend my night club performances when I first started out. She was always very kind to me. She’s a wonderful human being.”
WILL FRIEDWALD (co-author of the Tony Bennet bio “The Good Life” and author of “Sinatra: The Song Is You.”) — “Why isn’t Doris Day more widely celebrated as the great pop singer she was? The easy answer is that her enormous success as a movie star obscured other aspects of her talent…Miss Day embodies the best that pop singing has to offer.”
NORMAN JEWISON (Motion picture director) — “Doris had wonderful comedic timing. This was, I think, because she had been a singer. People who sing, who have great rhythm — like Sinatra, Dean Martin, Judy Garland — all seem to have better timing than other actors. And that’s why Doris Day became queen of the romantic comedies. She was also an excellent dramatic actress, but because she didn’t have any training, people underestimated her.”
MICHAEL GORDON (Director-“Pillow Talk”) — “This girl has never had an acting lesson in her life. She has no technique but she draws on a wellspring of emotion and experience that makes her one of the finest instinctive actresses in the world.”
BILL O’REILLY (Cable newscaster and author) — “For my eyes, she is simply the prettiest, most all-American actress ever. She is also a comedian with a deft touch. It’s become chic or something to laugh at just about everything about the 1950s, and that includes such Doris Day classics as ‘Pillow Talk.’ Well, go out and rent one of her hits, and you might be surprised. They’ve gotten better with age. In her personal life, Ms Day apparently had a great many disappointments, but she does not whine publicly, and she has devoted herself to doing great work with abused animals. In case you have no idea who I’m talking about, the closest thing we have to Doris Day on today’s screens is Debra Messing, star of TV’s “Will and Grace.’ I hope she learns from her predecessor how to have a memorable career and a dignified public image.”
MICHAEL CURTIZ (Film director) — “There’s more than obvious reasons for the success of Doris Day. She has something that goes beyond her talent for singing and acting — she has heart — a warm, feeling heart that reaches out and this is something no one can give her. She was born with it.”
GEORGE T. SIMON (One-time editor-in-chief of Metronome Magazine, producer of jazz and pop recordings and author of “The Big Bands”) — “…and Doris Day, now THE band singer in the field, who is singing better than ever and displaying great poise.”
DENVER PYLE (co-star on “Doris Day Show”) — “This girl is no lollipop, and she’s no girl next door. She’s an actress and a fine one; a woman and a complete one. The press has always taken the easy way out with her. They’ve missed by a mile. Working with Doris has to be a thrill for an actor who knows his trade, because she so definitely knows hers.”
DELBERT MANN (Motion picture director) — “Doris was a vitally alive and attractive lady, and one of the best comediennes around, with a hearty laugh and a joyous spirit.”
ROGER EBERT (Film critic) — “I was starting out as a film critic at just about the time Doris Day’s movie career was ending, and I was not kind to her in several reviews. Perhaps movies like “Where Were You When the Lights Went Out?” deserved to be mocked, but still — I was being a smart-ass and knocking Doris Day because, in the atmosphere of the late 60s, she was a fashionable target. Had I forgotten how much I enjoyed her in “Young at Heart,” or Please Don’t Eat the Daisies,” or “Pillow Talk,” or “Teacher’s Pet?” Later, when I went back and looked at a lot of her films, especially “Love Me or Leave Me,” I saw an enormous talent. I realized that with Day I had not followed Robert Warshow’s advice (“a man goes to the movies, the critic must be honest enough to admit he is that man.”). I had not acknowledged that I liked and admired a lot of what she had done.” In his review of the motion picture “Down With Love” — I don’t believe anyone will equal whatever it was that Doris Day had; she was one of a kind.”
STEVE ALLEN (comic, songwriter and author) — “Doris Day is one of the best comedic actresses ever in movies.”
ERNIE KOVACS (comedian and actor) — “She is beyond acting when in front of the cameras. She’s so fine that I find myself watching her eyes, her breathing, her thinking. She does precisely what the character would do under the circumstances, but with the added intelligence of putting it into acting form, so that it’s great theater. And unlike so many movie stars, she ignores completely the caste system. Neither men nor women who work with her have to worry about being given a sleazy wardrobe or ending up on the cutting room floor. I like her every bit as well as a person. She is honest — refreshing in this world of perfidious broads, the smilers, the actresses…with Doris, you don’t have to worry about a façade.”
JACK LEMMON (Actor) — “Doris Day is the best actress I have worked with to date (1958). That includes the dolls on the stage in New York and in television. And I think she is potentially one of the greatest actresses I’ll ever work with… because in every scene she is so open, simple and honest that I found myself in the position of having to play up to her. Which in the parlance of actors means she’s so good that I automatically reacted to her. Doris gets a line on a scene and that’s it — boom — she comes on so forcefully that she transports fellow actors right into the scene with her. When I watched the rushes and she was funny, I doubled up. And when she was unhappy in a scene I sat there and cried. I’ve never done that before. She’s a wonderfully attractive woman with strength, and vitality and energy, none of which lack femininity. She is definite, there’s nothing wishy-washy about her. Her laugh for instance, it’s a real cackle, full and open-hearted.”
JAMES GARNER (Actor) — “Doris Day is the Fred Astaire of comedy.” “She exuded sex, but made you smile about it.”
ROD TAYLOR (Actor) — "I'll tell you this much about Doris Day: I love that girl! She's one of the greatest pros I've ever worked with. I've been going to the rushes every day on this picture [Do Not Disturb], which is something I never did before; all I can say is that I haven't recognised myself because of her. I can't put my finger on it, but whatever it is, Doris brings out great things in a man. We play a happily married couple who fight like mad, but make up like crazy, and I'll think you'll agree that she has all the warmth and sex and charm in the world. The studio seems to think we have a sort of… chemistry. Anyway, they've thought enough of us to team us in another picture called "The Glass Bottom Boat".
TONY RANDALL (Actor) — "Brilliant! The most talented actress I've ever worked with! Even SHE doesn't know how good she is."
JOAN CRAWFORD (Actress) — “What a sweet girl, and such a fine actress; she deserves all her success.”
REX REED (Film critic) — Doris Day was one of the truly perfect women ever to grace the screen. She was smart, funny, warm, beautiful in a sunny, wholesome way and surprisingly, unfailingly sexy. She was such a natural and charismatic force that without a single acting lesson, she seized the screen from her very first appearance (in the 1948 musical Romance on the High Seas) and remained a superstar for 20 years, and she was—and still is—one of the really flawless singers of all time. What it lacks in fatal doses (“Down With Love”) is what Doris Day had plenty of—the kind of style that left her fully defined and the rest of us clamoring for more.
.
EDIE ADAMS (Singer-actress) — “Everything she did, she did perfectly. We all wanted to be like her.”
JAMES HARBERT (Music arranger/conductor “I Have Dreamed” album) — The re-released Sony CD is Doris Day at her loveliest and dreamiest. Classical divas, from the Met no less, have told me how they marveled at Doris Day’s vocal sensitivity, her consummate musical phrasing, and her ability to turn a popular lyric into sheer poetry…I was pretty young when we made the album for Columbia Records. It’s another example of Doris’ legendary kindness (not only to animals) that she trusted me with great songs by the likes of Noel Coward, Kurt Weill, her friend Paul Francis Webster, and Livingston and Evans who wrote the incredibly beautiful ‘We’ll Love Again’ which Doris sang in the Alfred Hitchcock film, ‘The Man Who Knew Too Much.’…all I can add about Doris Day? She is incomparable.”
OTHER FANS
CELIA CRUZ (Latino music legend) — Cites Doris as an early influence.
BERRY GORDY (founder of Motown Records) — A big fan. In his early years, he wrote a song especially for Doris. Had a tearful meeting with her a few years back in Carmel.
HELEN MIRREN (Actress) — Her two favorite actresses? Doris and Judy Garland.
LARRY KING (cable TV host) — Puts Doris at the top of his “dream” interview list.
BONNIE HUNT (Actress)
BILL COSBY (Comedian, actor, author) — Sent Doris a fan letter to say how much pleasure he got out of her work.
MARY WILSON (Singer)
BELINDA CARLISLE (Singer-Go-Gos)
SUZANNE SOMMERS (Actress, author, singer)
BONNIE RAITT (Singer)
LONI ANDERSON (Actress)
DEBORAH HARRY (Singer/Blondie) — She’d love to play Doris in a movie, Always loved her – “underneath her wholesome exterior, beat the heart of a true sex goddess and a very strong woman.”
GEORGE CLOONEY — “There was something about her that was so cool.”
MARTIN SCORSESE - I just love the good old Hollywood movies. The other day, I saw 'Love Me or Leave Me' starring Doris Day and James Cagney. It was terrific. Doris Day was superb, her performance in this film and Hitchcock's 'The Man Who Knew Too Much'" have been vastly underrated. ... She may have been sweet and virginal in 'Young at Heart,' with Frank Sinatra, but what a dramatic performance [in 'Storm Warning.'] It keeps resonating in my memory." - Martin Scorsese (Director)
TONY RANDALL (Actor) - “She (Doris Day), did it all by instinct, and her instinct was dead center, always true."
SIDNEY GUILAROFF (MGM Hair dresser) - “Doris was the most professional actress I have ever encountered. She always knew her lines, never kept people waiting and treated the crew with the same dignity and kindness that she treated her co-stars.”
DORIS DAY - Here's a quote from Doris regarding the Hollywood legacy she's left behind: "I particularly loved the comedies. I really enjoyed making those films, and I enjoy them better than some of the movies they’re making today. I think those comedies were very moral. I think things stink now. I’m not interested in seeing people in bed having sex. I think it’s just sick and I’d never do that even if I was 25 years old and my career depended on it.”
KELLY CLARKSON (Singer-tv host) I love Doris Day. Whenever I need perking up I watch Pillow Talk.
ROSE-MARIE (Actress) - “I loved her. First of all, she's the most underrated talent in the business today. She's so wonderful and so brilliantly talented... everybody takes her for granted... It was wonderful to work with her. She was such a professional. So great to work with. We still write to one another, we call one another. Christmas cards, birthdays, everything. We were a nice big family, I know that's a cliché that everybody uses, but it was true, because Doris was a very easygoing kind of person. There were no tantrums. And if the kids had any problems, they'd go to Doris or come to me.”
NORMAN JEWISON (DIirector Thrill of it All and Send Me No
Flowers) - Looking back, Jewison said he felt that Flowers " showed good pacing..was tight and had no wasted motion ". The admiration he expressed for Day after working on The Thrill of It All was enriched by their second collaboration. " Doris showed me a different side of her acting in this movie, or rather two new different sides , said Jewison."One was her on-screen vulnerability. Not much of it was called for in a farce, but in a couple of scenes
she needed to project a wounded quality and each time I asked it of her she delivered. The other was a deft way with physical comedy that I hadn't entirely expected, so I kept inventing new , funny situations for her. In one, she created a simple act, bringing in a morning delivery of eggs, from the back porch , into a tour-de-force of small calamities..She carried it off beautifully. "
Johnny
BILLBOARD MAG - 1949 review of her first album, Billboard wrote "This package should prove to the doubtful that Dodo righteously is one of the greats. She wraps up the eight beautiful standards in her own intimate, throaty style, setting a warm, soft-lights-and-sweet-music mood. Few singers have been able to transfer a sexy sound to wax, as Doris does."
Designer Stella McCartney took to Twitter to share a photo of herself with Day. “The one, the only, the woman who inspired so much of what I do… Doris Day I love you, my calamity Jane,” she captioned the photo. “An iconic woman who I was hugely honoured to meet and share precious moments with. Rest in peace.”
Katie Couric also remembered Day on Twitter. The journalist wrote that the late actress was “one of a kind.” The post included a clip of Day performing “Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be).”
Seth MacFarlane also remembered Day on Twitter. “We’ve lost another great Hollywood talent. Take a minute to appreciate the legendary Doris Day,” he tweeted, which was accompanied by a video of Day performing “Shaking the Blues Away” in Love Me or Leave Me.
PAUL MCCARTNEY - She was a true star in more ways than one,” he added. “I had the privilege of hanging out with her on a few occasions. Visiting her in her Californian home was like going to an animal sanctuary where her many dogs were taken care of in splendid style. She had a heart of gold and was a very funny lady who I shared many laughs with. Her films like Calamity Jane, Move Over, Darling and many others were all incredible and her acting and singing always hit the mark. I will miss her but will always remember her twinkling smile and infectious laugh as well as the many great songs and movies she gave us. God bless Doris.”
GEORGE TAKEI: For those of us in my generation, Doris Day was synonymous with Hollywood icon. She would no doubt remind us, upon this day of her passing, “Que sera sera,” but we will miss her dearly anyway. Rest now in our hearts forever, Ms. Day.
Piers Morgan
@piersmorgan
RIP Doris Day, 97.
Fabulous life, fabulous star, fabulous woman.
Luke Evans
@TheRealLukevans
Goodbye Doris Day, there was only one of you! I have always loved your voice and the beautiful songs you made eternal. RIP. Hollywood actress and singer, dies aged 97
JEANINE BASINGER - {Writing about Day in The Movie Musical, } Jeanine Basinger says that "after Love Me or Leave Me, she was always an actress who sang, and that ability to mold a dramatic force into her songs elevated her to the position she occupies today in retrospect: she's a legend. Her musicals are not throwaways. In The Pajama Game, she's Babe Williams, a hard-nosed working woman, and some of the grit and independence that had fueled Day's life was allowed to be seen onscreen."
TONY BENNETT (Singer) — “She’s gifted in a way that makes everything she does work. She’s a Hollywood producer’s dream: she has beauty, she’s a great actress, a wonderful singer — putting it simply, she has it all!
ROSEMARY CLOONEY (Singer) — “I think the same thing applies to Doris’ acting as to her singing, it was seamless. I don’t think she was given nearly the credit that she deserved.”
SIR PAUL McCARTNEY (Singer-songwriter) — “For many years I have thought of Doris as a great singer and actress. Classic films as varied as ‘Calamity Jane,’ and ‘Pillow Talk’ illustrate this point clearly. When Heather and I recently had the pleasure of meeting Doris, we were delighted to find out that she also was a charming person and perhaps the ultimate animal lover. Suffice it to say, we are huge fans of this wonderful lady.”
JO STAFFORD (Singer) — “Doris Day has always been a multi-talented lady, whether as a big band singer with Les Brown, a fine recording artist with Columbia, or a uniquely gifted motion picture star.”
MARGARET WHITING (Singer) — “Doris Day was such a big movie and T.V. star, people overlooked her singing…the proof is in the package. She’s one of the best singers there ever was.”
FRANKIE LAINE (Singer) — “Doris was a great performer with warmth and expressiveness. It was one of the most pleasant recording dates I ever had when we sang together. She had a wonderful jazz vibrato voice and could have been one of the top jazz singers.”
ANDY WILLIAMS (Singer) — “I first met Doris Day when I was singing with my three brothers on radio station WLW in Cincinnati, Ohio. I was 14 years old. I had a crush on her then and I still do. She had a voice so fresh you could smell it. She’s a terrific singer and a great lady.”
CYBILL SHEPHERD (Actress-singer) — “She is one of the greatest vocalists that has ever lived. I adore her. I think she has been underrated for years.”
ROBERT GOULET (Singer) — “Doris Day is one of the grand ladies of song. She exudes sunshine with her acting and singing and just the mention of her name would bring a smile to one’s face. I adore her.”
PATTI PAGE (Singer) — “Doris Day has always been one of my favorites. She was given so much attention as a movie personality that people sometimes needed to be reminded how well she could sing.”
PAUL WESTON (Conductor/arranger) — “She was a very expressive singer…she could take a lyric and to some extent, act it out…”
ANNE MURRAY (Singer) — “Doris Day was my idol. I wanted to look like Doris Day. I wanted to sing like Doris Day. I wanted to be Doris Day. She was the best! (To Doris, she said) “I know your first love is acting, but I’ve always thought you were one of the finest singers of all time, so underrated.”
ARETHA FRANKLIN (Singer) — “Eydie Gorme and Doris Day are two underrated singers.”
OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN (Singer/Actress) — “I have always admired Doris Day for her beautiful voice that has such feeling and depth to it — she can sing any style and touch you — a true and rare gift — I admire her as both an artist and a woman.”
SARAH VAUGHAN (Singer) — When asked to name her favorite singers, she replied “I dig Doris Day.”
MICHAEL FEINSTEIN (Singer) — “From the moment I heard Doris, I was carried away by the warmth and passion of her natural gift. She remains the high bench mark against which all other singers are measured. I listen to her voice constantly for inspiration and joy.”
RAY EVANS (Songwriter) — “Doris Day has been a most important part of my life; how much she enriched my career with her Que Sera Sera. A great artist, actress and animal lover, Doris Day has brought the world a brighter day.”
TOM SHALES (Pulitzer Prize-winning film, TV critic – Washington Post) — “At whatever she did, Day was a natural, a performer who embodied determined womanhood on the screen. In the 50s and 60s, that was no small accomplishment…A few years ago, Day reappeared after a long absence to accept an honorary Golden Globe Award. Seeing her again, warm and radiant, I realized how much I’d always loved her and how much I had missed her.”
LES BROWN (big band leader) — “I’d say that next to Sinatra, Doris is the best in the business on selling a lyric.”
JOHNNY MATHIS (Singer) — “I always try to include songs by my favorite singers in my concerts. As Doris Day has always been one of my favorites, I sing ‘Secret Love’ in every show I do. Doris Day was also one of the first celebrities to attend my night club performances when I first started out. She was always very kind to me. She’s a wonderful human being.”
WILL FRIEDWALD (co-author of the Tony Bennet bio “The Good Life” and author of “Sinatra: The Song Is You.”) — “Why isn’t Doris Day more widely celebrated as the great pop singer she was? The easy answer is that her enormous success as a movie star obscured other aspects of her talent…Miss Day embodies the best that pop singing has to offer.”
NORMAN JEWISON (Motion picture director) — “Doris had wonderful comedic timing. This was, I think, because she had been a singer. People who sing, who have great rhythm — like Sinatra, Dean Martin, Judy Garland — all seem to have better timing than other actors. And that’s why Doris Day became queen of the romantic comedies. She was also an excellent dramatic actress, but because she didn’t have any training, people underestimated her.”
MICHAEL GORDON (Director-“Pillow Talk”) — “This girl has never had an acting lesson in her life. She has no technique but she draws on a wellspring of emotion and experience that makes her one of the finest instinctive actresses in the world.”
BILL O’REILLY (Cable newscaster and author) — “For my eyes, she is simply the prettiest, most all-American actress ever. She is also a comedian with a deft touch. It’s become chic or something to laugh at just about everything about the 1950s, and that includes such Doris Day classics as ‘Pillow Talk.’ Well, go out and rent one of her hits, and you might be surprised. They’ve gotten better with age. In her personal life, Ms Day apparently had a great many disappointments, but she does not whine publicly, and she has devoted herself to doing great work with abused animals. In case you have no idea who I’m talking about, the closest thing we have to Doris Day on today’s screens is Debra Messing, star of TV’s “Will and Grace.’ I hope she learns from her predecessor how to have a memorable career and a dignified public image.”
MICHAEL CURTIZ (Film director) — “There’s more than obvious reasons for the success of Doris Day. She has something that goes beyond her talent for singing and acting — she has heart — a warm, feeling heart that reaches out and this is something no one can give her. She was born with it.”
GEORGE T. SIMON (One-time editor-in-chief of Metronome Magazine, producer of jazz and pop recordings and author of “The Big Bands”) — “…and Doris Day, now THE band singer in the field, who is singing better than ever and displaying great poise.”
DENVER PYLE (co-star on “Doris Day Show”) — “This girl is no lollipop, and she’s no girl next door. She’s an actress and a fine one; a woman and a complete one. The press has always taken the easy way out with her. They’ve missed by a mile. Working with Doris has to be a thrill for an actor who knows his trade, because she so definitely knows hers.”
DELBERT MANN (Motion picture director) — “Doris was a vitally alive and attractive lady, and one of the best comediennes around, with a hearty laugh and a joyous spirit.”
ROGER EBERT (Film critic) — “I was starting out as a film critic at just about the time Doris Day’s movie career was ending, and I was not kind to her in several reviews. Perhaps movies like “Where Were You When the Lights Went Out?” deserved to be mocked, but still — I was being a smart-ass and knocking Doris Day because, in the atmosphere of the late 60s, she was a fashionable target. Had I forgotten how much I enjoyed her in “Young at Heart,” or Please Don’t Eat the Daisies,” or “Pillow Talk,” or “Teacher’s Pet?” Later, when I went back and looked at a lot of her films, especially “Love Me or Leave Me,” I saw an enormous talent. I realized that with Day I had not followed Robert Warshow’s advice (“a man goes to the movies, the critic must be honest enough to admit he is that man.”). I had not acknowledged that I liked and admired a lot of what she had done.” In his review of the motion picture “Down With Love” — I don’t believe anyone will equal whatever it was that Doris Day had; she was one of a kind.”
STEVE ALLEN (comic, songwriter and author) — “Doris Day is one of the best comedic actresses ever in movies.”
ERNIE KOVACS (comedian and actor) — “She is beyond acting when in front of the cameras. She’s so fine that I find myself watching her eyes, her breathing, her thinking. She does precisely what the character would do under the circumstances, but with the added intelligence of putting it into acting form, so that it’s great theater. And unlike so many movie stars, she ignores completely the caste system. Neither men nor women who work with her have to worry about being given a sleazy wardrobe or ending up on the cutting room floor. I like her every bit as well as a person. She is honest — refreshing in this world of perfidious broads, the smilers, the actresses…with Doris, you don’t have to worry about a façade.”
JACK LEMMON (Actor) — “Doris Day is the best actress I have worked with to date (1958). That includes the dolls on the stage in New York and in television. And I think she is potentially one of the greatest actresses I’ll ever work with… because in every scene she is so open, simple and honest that I found myself in the position of having to play up to her. Which in the parlance of actors means she’s so good that I automatically reacted to her. Doris gets a line on a scene and that’s it — boom — she comes on so forcefully that she transports fellow actors right into the scene with her. When I watched the rushes and she was funny, I doubled up. And when she was unhappy in a scene I sat there and cried. I’ve never done that before. She’s a wonderfully attractive woman with strength, and vitality and energy, none of which lack femininity. She is definite, there’s nothing wishy-washy about her. Her laugh for instance, it’s a real cackle, full and open-hearted.”
JAMES GARNER (Actor) — “Doris Day is the Fred Astaire of comedy.” “She exuded sex, but made you smile about it.”
ROD TAYLOR (Actor) — "I'll tell you this much about Doris Day: I love that girl! She's one of the greatest pros I've ever worked with. I've been going to the rushes every day on this picture [Do Not Disturb], which is something I never did before; all I can say is that I haven't recognised myself because of her. I can't put my finger on it, but whatever it is, Doris brings out great things in a man. We play a happily married couple who fight like mad, but make up like crazy, and I'll think you'll agree that she has all the warmth and sex and charm in the world. The studio seems to think we have a sort of… chemistry. Anyway, they've thought enough of us to team us in another picture called "The Glass Bottom Boat".
TONY RANDALL (Actor) — "Brilliant! The most talented actress I've ever worked with! Even SHE doesn't know how good she is."
JOAN CRAWFORD (Actress) — “What a sweet girl, and such a fine actress; she deserves all her success.”
REX REED (Film critic) — Doris Day was one of the truly perfect women ever to grace the screen. She was smart, funny, warm, beautiful in a sunny, wholesome way and surprisingly, unfailingly sexy. She was such a natural and charismatic force that without a single acting lesson, she seized the screen from her very first appearance (in the 1948 musical Romance on the High Seas) and remained a superstar for 20 years, and she was—and still is—one of the really flawless singers of all time. What it lacks in fatal doses (“Down With Love”) is what Doris Day had plenty of—the kind of style that left her fully defined and the rest of us clamoring for more.
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EDIE ADAMS (Singer-actress) — “Everything she did, she did perfectly. We all wanted to be like her.”
JAMES HARBERT (Music arranger/conductor “I Have Dreamed” album) — The re-released Sony CD is Doris Day at her loveliest and dreamiest. Classical divas, from the Met no less, have told me how they marveled at Doris Day’s vocal sensitivity, her consummate musical phrasing, and her ability to turn a popular lyric into sheer poetry…I was pretty young when we made the album for Columbia Records. It’s another example of Doris’ legendary kindness (not only to animals) that she trusted me with great songs by the likes of Noel Coward, Kurt Weill, her friend Paul Francis Webster, and Livingston and Evans who wrote the incredibly beautiful ‘We’ll Love Again’ which Doris sang in the Alfred Hitchcock film, ‘The Man Who Knew Too Much.’…all I can add about Doris Day? She is incomparable.”
OTHER FANS
CELIA CRUZ (Latino music legend) — Cites Doris as an early influence.
BERRY GORDY (founder of Motown Records) — A big fan. In his early years, he wrote a song especially for Doris. Had a tearful meeting with her a few years back in Carmel.
HELEN MIRREN (Actress) — Her two favorite actresses? Doris and Judy Garland.
LARRY KING (cable TV host) — Puts Doris at the top of his “dream” interview list.
BONNIE HUNT (Actress)
BILL COSBY (Comedian, actor, author) — Sent Doris a fan letter to say how much pleasure he got out of her work.
MARY WILSON (Singer)
BELINDA CARLISLE (Singer-Go-Gos)
SUZANNE SOMMERS (Actress, author, singer)
BONNIE RAITT (Singer)
LONI ANDERSON (Actress)
DEBORAH HARRY (Singer/Blondie) — She’d love to play Doris in a movie, Always loved her – “underneath her wholesome exterior, beat the heart of a true sex goddess and a very strong woman.”
GEORGE CLOONEY — “There was something about her that was so cool.”
MARTIN SCORSESE - I just love the good old Hollywood movies. The other day, I saw 'Love Me or Leave Me' starring Doris Day and James Cagney. It was terrific. Doris Day was superb, her performance in this film and Hitchcock's 'The Man Who Knew Too Much'" have been vastly underrated. ... She may have been sweet and virginal in 'Young at Heart,' with Frank Sinatra, but what a dramatic performance [in 'Storm Warning.'] It keeps resonating in my memory." - Martin Scorsese (Director)
TONY RANDALL (Actor) - “She (Doris Day), did it all by instinct, and her instinct was dead center, always true."
SIDNEY GUILAROFF (MGM Hair dresser) - “Doris was the most professional actress I have ever encountered. She always knew her lines, never kept people waiting and treated the crew with the same dignity and kindness that she treated her co-stars.”
DORIS DAY - Here's a quote from Doris regarding the Hollywood legacy she's left behind: "I particularly loved the comedies. I really enjoyed making those films, and I enjoy them better than some of the movies they’re making today. I think those comedies were very moral. I think things stink now. I’m not interested in seeing people in bed having sex. I think it’s just sick and I’d never do that even if I was 25 years old and my career depended on it.”
KELLY CLARKSON (Singer-tv host) I love Doris Day. Whenever I need perking up I watch Pillow Talk.
ROSE-MARIE (Actress) - “I loved her. First of all, she's the most underrated talent in the business today. She's so wonderful and so brilliantly talented... everybody takes her for granted... It was wonderful to work with her. She was such a professional. So great to work with. We still write to one another, we call one another. Christmas cards, birthdays, everything. We were a nice big family, I know that's a cliché that everybody uses, but it was true, because Doris was a very easygoing kind of person. There were no tantrums. And if the kids had any problems, they'd go to Doris or come to me.”
NORMAN JEWISON (DIirector Thrill of it All and Send Me No
Flowers) - Looking back, Jewison said he felt that Flowers " showed good pacing..was tight and had no wasted motion ". The admiration he expressed for Day after working on The Thrill of It All was enriched by their second collaboration. " Doris showed me a different side of her acting in this movie, or rather two new different sides , said Jewison."One was her on-screen vulnerability. Not much of it was called for in a farce, but in a couple of scenes
she needed to project a wounded quality and each time I asked it of her she delivered. The other was a deft way with physical comedy that I hadn't entirely expected, so I kept inventing new , funny situations for her. In one, she created a simple act, bringing in a morning delivery of eggs, from the back porch , into a tour-de-force of small calamities..She carried it off beautifully. "
Johnny
BILLBOARD MAG - 1949 review of her first album, Billboard wrote "This package should prove to the doubtful that Dodo righteously is one of the greats. She wraps up the eight beautiful standards in her own intimate, throaty style, setting a warm, soft-lights-and-sweet-music mood. Few singers have been able to transfer a sexy sound to wax, as Doris does."
Designer Stella McCartney took to Twitter to share a photo of herself with Day. “The one, the only, the woman who inspired so much of what I do… Doris Day I love you, my calamity Jane,” she captioned the photo. “An iconic woman who I was hugely honoured to meet and share precious moments with. Rest in peace.”
Katie Couric also remembered Day on Twitter. The journalist wrote that the late actress was “one of a kind.” The post included a clip of Day performing “Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be).”
Seth MacFarlane also remembered Day on Twitter. “We’ve lost another great Hollywood talent. Take a minute to appreciate the legendary Doris Day,” he tweeted, which was accompanied by a video of Day performing “Shaking the Blues Away” in Love Me or Leave Me.
PAUL MCCARTNEY - She was a true star in more ways than one,” he added. “I had the privilege of hanging out with her on a few occasions. Visiting her in her Californian home was like going to an animal sanctuary where her many dogs were taken care of in splendid style. She had a heart of gold and was a very funny lady who I shared many laughs with. Her films like Calamity Jane, Move Over, Darling and many others were all incredible and her acting and singing always hit the mark. I will miss her but will always remember her twinkling smile and infectious laugh as well as the many great songs and movies she gave us. God bless Doris.”
GEORGE TAKEI: For those of us in my generation, Doris Day was synonymous with Hollywood icon. She would no doubt remind us, upon this day of her passing, “Que sera sera,” but we will miss her dearly anyway. Rest now in our hearts forever, Ms. Day.
Piers Morgan
@piersmorgan
RIP Doris Day, 97.
Fabulous life, fabulous star, fabulous woman.
Luke Evans
@TheRealLukevans
Goodbye Doris Day, there was only one of you! I have always loved your voice and the beautiful songs you made eternal. RIP. Hollywood actress and singer, dies aged 97
JEANINE BASINGER - {Writing about Day in The Movie Musical, } Jeanine Basinger says that "after Love Me or Leave Me, she was always an actress who sang, and that ability to mold a dramatic force into her songs elevated her to the position she occupies today in retrospect: she's a legend. Her musicals are not throwaways. In The Pajama Game, she's Babe Williams, a hard-nosed working woman, and some of the grit and independence that had fueled Day's life was allowed to be seen onscreen."
Like Irene Dunne done.
Re: Doris - Tonight & Other Interview Show Appearances
Tx for this Howard. It's nice to read what other industry people thought of her.
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