Doris Day On Leaving Hollywood Behind: 'I Have No Regrets'

Legendary actress and songstress Doris Day is back in the spotlight. The classic Hollywood starlet recently opened up to Closer Weekly about her lasting success as a Hollywood icon best known for her squeaky-clean image on-screen.
“There’s no sense in having regrets,” said the actress to the publication, who turns 93 on April 3rd. “I think you have to get through the bad times to appreciate the good things in life. I’ve had my share of both and always said I’m like one of those dolls with the round bottom — if life deals you a blow you have to bounce right back.”

Despite being one of the biggest stars in Hollywood during the ‘50s and ’60s, the beloved “girl next door” famously withdrew from the public eye.
Her third husband Marty Melcher, who managed her career, squandered her fortune before his death in 1968, leaving Day in debt. She would later launch “The Doris Day Show” that same year to earn back her fortune, but by the 1970s her career was over and her forth marriage was failing. After the death of her friend Rock Hudson in 1985 at age 59 by AIDS, she disappeared from Hollywood and put her focus on animal rights.

“Sometimes I think I should have stayed longer [in show business] and I should have done more films,” she explained. However, Day added that she chose to leave the business because “I just got so involved with animals.”
“Although I’ve loved my singing and acting career, my greatest accomplishment is the important work with my two charities — the Doris Day Animal Foundation and the Doris Day Animal League — have been doing [it] for almost 40 years,” she explained.
These days, Day lives a quiet life 300 miles away from Hollywood at her Carmel, Calif., estate and couldn’t be happier.
“We can’t change the past,” she said on not looking back.

March 31, 2017