ERIC BRAUN

An in-depth and fascinating study of one of Hollywoods most popular icons - fully updated and including previously unreleased pictures.Doris Day is almost always portrayed as the sunny, squeaky-clean girl next door. This wholesome image kept her at the top for twenty-four years and thirty-nine films.But behind the effervescent, ever-cheerful image that Doris Day portrayed through dozens of classic Hollywood movies was an extraordinary story of private pain. Her dazzling smile hid a tormented personal life that included four marriages, and a terrifying accident that nearly ended her life. And yet for generations of movie-goers Doris Day remained the embodiment of innocent beauty and apple-pie homeliness, and even today she exerts a powerful fascination for millions of fans around the world.

In the year of her 80th birthday, Doris Day is still one of Hollywoods most beloved stars. At 16, she was already working as a singer, and by the 1950s, she was Americas sweetheart. Nominated for an Oscar for Pillow Talk in 1959, she starred opposite Cary Grant, Rock Hudson, and James Garner in a now-classic series of bedroom farces. Always portrayed as the wholesome girl-next-door, Doris Days squeaky-clean image kept her at the top for 24 years and 39 films. This affectionate biography, which features previously unreleased pictures by legendary Hollywood photographer Leo Fuchs, looks at the actress'' childhood, her fame as a singer and actress, the near-fatal car crash that ended her career as a dancer, her four marriages, and the passionate campaigns for animal welfare that are now the focus of her life.