‘Age is just a number’: Doris Day turns 95 – two years earlier than planned

Calamity Jane star had thought her 93rd birthday was imminent but record emerges showing she was born in 1922, not 1924
From: The Guardian

Doris Day in 1953 film Calamity Jane.
Photograph: Everett/Rex/Shutterstock

 Doris Day turns 95 on today – something that came as a surprise even to her, as she had until this weekend believed herself to be about to turn 93.

The former film star has long pegged her age to a 1924 birth date but a copy of her birth certificate, obtained from Ohio’s Office of Vital Statistics, settles the issue. 

Doris Mary Ann Kappelhoff, her pre-fame name, was born on 3 April 1922. Her parents were Alma and William Kappelhoff of Cincinnati.

Doris Mary Kappelhoff’s birth certificate,
provided by the State of Ohio Office of Vital Statistics.
Photograph: AP

 “I’ve always said that age is just a number,” Day said in a statement on Sunday. “I have never paid much attention to birthdays, but it’s great to finally know how old I really am!”

The star of Pillow Talk, Calamity Jane, The Pajama Game and Move Over Darling is in excellent company: Hollywood mainstays Betty White, a close friend, and Carl Reiner will also turn 95 this year.

“There has long been speculation and rumors about Doris’s age and we get this question a lot; looks like we finally have the answer,” said Day’s spokesman, Charley Cullen Walters.

“The story I have heard the most is that at one point Doris was up for a role when quite young and her age may have been miswritten on the audition form. We don’t know if that’s correct, but if so it could’ve simply stuck for all these years.”

Day and White, Walters said, have long joked about White being two years older. White was born in January 1922. “Now we know that they are actually just a couple months apart,” Walters said.

Doris Day and James Garner in 1963’s Move Over Darling.
Photograph: 20th Century Fox/Sportsphoto Ltd./Allstar

 On previous birthdays, Day has said she does not care about her age but would rather use the occasion to highlight her favorite cause: animal welfare.

In 1978, the star founded the not-for-profit Doris Day Animal Foundation to provide grants to projects that rescue, care for and protect animals. Day, who lives in Carmel, California, has effectively parlayed her fame for her mission. 

Day, who started out as a big-band singer, made her film debut in 1948 with Romance on the High Seas, before starring in a string of smash-hit 1950s and 60s romantic comedies. She remained a pop star as well, with hits including Whatever Will Be Will Be (Que Sera) and Secret Love.

Pillow Talk earned her an Oscar nomination and she won critical acclaim for dramatic turns in Midnight Lace and Love Me or Leave Me, but Oscar gold, including the lifetime achievement award her career justifies, has not arrived.

Day, who once dismissed her “goody two shoes” image as “so boring”, isn’t necessarily predictable. Walters said she has been offered the honorary award several times and politely declined.