Doris Mary Ann Kappelhoff, born in Cincinnnati, Ohio of second-generation German immigrants, is 87 or 89 today, depending whom you ask. Her passion for animals comes partly from an incident when she was walking her dog while recovering from an accident; Tiny was knocked down and killed by a passing car. That was when Doris was in her teens, and in the intervening years she has had, to take understatement to new levels, an illustrious career. She always made time for animal welfare projects though, co-founding Actors and Others for Animals, campaigning against the wearing of fur and founding an animal charity which also bears her name: The Doris Day Animal League.
In 1989, Doris Day was the recipient of the Golden Globe's Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement, and in 2009 was officially recognised as the biggest female box-office draw in history.
She lives near picture-perfect Carmel, California (which I think makes her a neighbour of Clint Eastwood).
