Doris Day filmography

Doris Day in a studio publicity portrait for her 1960 film Midnight Lace.

The filmography of American actress Doris Day consists of 39 feature films released between 1948 and 1968. She began her career as a band singer and eventually won the female lead in a Warner Bros. film Romance on the High Seas (1948) replacing Betty Hutton. She went on to star in several minor musicals for Warners, including Tea for Two (1950), Lullaby of Broadway (1951), April in Paris (1952), By the Light of the Silvery Moon (1953), and a hit musical Calamity Jane, which gave her an Academy Award winning song "Secret Love" in (1953). She ended her contract with Warner after filming Young at Heart (1954) with Frank Sinatra.

Day then campaigned for more dramatic parts. Her portrayal of singer Ruth Etting in Love Me or Leave Me (1955) with James Cagney, was well received by critics and was a box office hit. However, her follow-up films, Alfred Hitchcock's remake of The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), Andrew L. Stone's Julie (1956), and George Abbott and Stanley Donen's film version of The Pajama Game (1957) were less successful among the critics and the public alike.

Day's star attained greater heights with the success of Pillow Talk in 1959, alongside Rock Hudson and Tony Randall. She, Hudson, and Randall were later teamed for Lover Come Back (1961) and Send Me No Flowers (1964). In 1960, Day ranked #1 at the box office. She reached #1 at the box office again in 1962 and stayed there until 1964. Day went on to star in several other romantic comedies, including That Touch of Mink (1962) with Cary Grant, The Thrill of It All, and Move Over, Darling (both 1963), both with James Garner. However, after the failure of Do Not Disturb in 1965 and being labeled "The World's Oldest Virgin", Day's film career began to decline. She last ranked as a top ten box office star in 1966 with the hit film The Glass Bottom Boat. Her final films The Ballad of Josie, Caprice (both 1967), Where Were You When the Lights Went Out?, and her final film With Six You Get Eggroll (both 1968) were critical flops, but achieved reasonable success at the box office.

When her film career ended, Day's star retained with her situation comedy The Doris Day Show (1968–1973), which ran for five seasons and 128 episodes and several other television appearances throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Due to her love of animals, Day launched another television series, Doris Day's Best Friends (1985–1986), which ran for 26 episodes. She was an honoree at The 50th Annual Grammy Awards in 2008 and was last seen in archive footage in a 2009 documentary What a Difference a Day Made: Doris Day Superstar.

Film appearances

Box office ranking

For a number of years, American movie exhibitors voted Day among the most popular stars in the country:

• 1951: 9th
• 1952: 7th
• 1953: 11th
• 1954: 18th
• 1955: 14th
• 1956: 12th
• 1957: 17th
• 1958: 15th
• 1959: 4th
• 1960: 1st
• 1961: 3rd
• 1962: 1st
• 1963: 1st
• 1964: 1st
• 1965: 3rd
• 1966: 8th

Television appearances

• The 21st Annual Academy Awards (1949; TV special)
• Screen Snapshots: Hollywood Night Life (1952; short)
• Screen Snapshots: Hollywood on the Ball (1952; short)
• So You Want a Television Set (cameo) (1953; short)
• A Star Is Born World Premiere (1954; short)
• What's My Line? (1954; mystery guest)
• The Ed Sullivan Show (1956; 2 episodes)
• What's My Line? (1957; mystery guest)
• The 30th Annual Academy Awards (1958, co-presenter; TV special)
• This Is Music (1958; 1 episode)
• The 31st Annual Academy Awards (1959, co-presenter; TV special)
• The 32nd Annual Academy Awards (1960, co-presenter/nominee; TV special)
• Every Girl's Dream (1966; short)
• The Doris Day Show (1968-1973; 128 episodes) Golden Globe nomination.
• The Merv Griffin Show (1970; 1 episode)
• The Doris Mary Ann Kappelhoff Special (1971; TV special)
• The Pet Set (1971; 1 episode)
• The Merv Griffin Show (1973; 1 episode)
• The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1973; 1 episode)
• AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute to James Cagney (1974; TV special)
• The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1974; 1 episode)
• The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1975; 1 episode)
• Doris Day Today (1975; TV movie)
• Doris Day's Best Friends (1985–1986; 26 episodes)
• The 46th Annual Golden Globe Awards (1989, winner; TV special)
• Doris Day: A Sentimental Journey (1991; TV documentary)
• Vicki! (1993, 1 episode)
• Homeward Bound (1994; TV documentary)
• Don't Pave Main Street: Carmel's Heritage (1994, Narrator; documentary)
• The Doris Day Story: Everybody's Darling (1998; TV special)
• A&E Biography: Doris Day (1998, archive footage)
• The 50th Annual Grammy Awards (2008, honoree; TV special)
• What a Difference a Day Made: Doris Day Superstar (2009, voice only; documentary)

Bibliography

• Kaufman, David (2008). Doris Day: The Untold Story of the Girl Next Door. New York: Virgin Books. ISBN 978-1-905264-30-8. 
• Santopietro, Tom (2007). Considering Doris Day. Thomas Dunne Books, St. Martin's Press. Emphasis is more on body of work than on her personal life.