Laraine Day
- Known for
- Acting
- Born
- October 13, 1920
- Died
- November 10, 2007 (aged 87)
- Birthplace
- Roosevelt, Utah, USA
Biography
Laraine Day, born La Raine Johnson, was a major movie star of the 1940s and '50s. Raised in Utah as part of a prominent Mormon family, she came to Hollywood as a young woman, and made her film debut with an uncredited role in Stella Dallas. Before she was famous she also played the birth-mother of Tarzan and Jane's adopted son "Boy" in Tarzan Finds a Son. Her break came in 1939, with the wildly popular "Dr Kildare" sequels. Day played Kildare's nurse and love interest in the third through ninth Kildare movies, until her character married the doctor in Dr. Kildare's Wedding Day. As Mrs Kildare, she was written out of the next, and last, Kildare feature. In 1942, she starred with Ayres again in the underrated axe murder melodrama Fingers at the Window. Over subsequent decades, her memorable films included the flashback-within-flashback-within-flashback drama The Locket, the gangster comedy Mr Lucky, and the campy paranoia piece I Married A Communist. She was among the all-star passengers in the overwrought airliner-in-peril drama The High and the Mighty, and in Hitchcock's Foreign Correspondent it was Day who encouraged Joel McCrea to give his stirring report of the air raid at the film's climax Hitchcock's thinly-veiled plea for America to enter World War II. When television became a viable income source, Day found the small screen more inviting and less time-consuming than making movies, and she became primarily a TV actress. She had a 15-minute series of uplifting vignettes called Daydreaming with Laraine, and another 15-minute daily celebrity chat show called The Laraine Day Show. Married to New York Giants manager Leo Durocher, Day became one of TV's first female sports reporters when she hosted Day with the Giants, an early 1950s baseball talk show with Giants' players that aired on New York City's Channel 11. Her last film was a low-budget thriller, The Third Voice, in 1960, but she continued taking occasional guest roles on TV series Love Boat, Fantasy Island, Murder, She Wrote, etc. through the mid-1980s. Following her retierment she spent the remainder of her life active in the Mormon church, Republican politics, and various charity related work. Upon the death of her third husband Michael Grilikhes in March 2007 she moved back to her native Utah where she died that November at age 87. She is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles, CA.
Known For
Photos
Filmography
Murder, She Wrote
TV · as Constance Fletcher · 2 eps
Airwolf
TV · as Amelia Davenport · 1 ep
Hotel
TV · as Mrs. Kupchak · 1 ep
Return to Fantasy Island
Movie · as Mrs. Grant
Fantasy Island
TV · as Mrs. Cummings · 1 ep
The Love Boat
TV · as Vera Simpson · 2 eps
Murder on Flight 502
Movie · as Claire Garwood
The Sixth Sense
TV · 1 ep
Medical Center
TV · 1 ep
The Name of the Game
TV · as Grace Jellicoe · 1 ep
The F.B.I.
TV · as Helen York · 1 ep
Burke's Law
TV · as Lisa Cole · 1 ep
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour
TV · as Ruth · 1 ep
The New Breed
TV · as Vivian Cowley · 1 ep
The 3rd Voice
Movie · as Marian Forbes
Checkmate
TV · as Amnesiac Woman · 1 ep
Swiss Family Robinson
Movie · as Frannie (Mother)
Pursuit
TV · as Kathy Nelson · 1 ep
Three for Jamie Dawn
Movie · as Sue Lorenz
Toy Tiger
Movie · as Gwendolyn Taylor
Prima Donna
Movie · as Laraine Day
Rendezvous in Black
Movie · as Florence Strickland
Too Old for Dolls
Movie · as Marge Ramsay
The Final Tribute
Movie · as Joyce Carter
Screen Director's Playhouse
TV · as Laraine Day · 1 ep
The High and the Mighty
Movie · as Lydia Rice
Climax!
TV · as Ellen Parker · 1 ep
General Electric Theater
TV · 1 ep
Letter to Loretta
TV · as Carol Potter, Karen McCall, Sara Lewis · 1 ep
Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
TV · as Mrs. Lorenz · 1 ep
The Woman on Pier 13
Movie · as Nan Lowry Collins
Lux Video Theatre
TV · as Sophie, Charlotte Vale, Louise Howell, Lynn, Claire Brandon, Lydia, Phyllis Dietrichson · 1 ep
Your Show of Shows
TV · 1 ep
What's My Line?
TV · as Self · 4 eps
Without Honor
Movie · as Jane Bandle
My Dear Secretary
Movie · as Stephanie 'Steve' Gaylord
Tycoon
Movie · as Maura Alexander Munroe
The Locket
Movie · as Nancy
Keep Your Powder Dry
Movie · as Leigh Rand
Those Endearing Young Charms
Movie · as Helen Brandt
The Story of Dr. Wassell
Movie · as Madeleine
Bride by Mistake
Movie · as Norah Hunter
Twenty Years After
Movie · as (archive footage)
Mr. Lucky
Movie · as Dorothy Bryant
The Glass Key
Movie · as Nurse (uncredited)
Journey for Margaret
Movie · as Nora Davis
Fingers at the Window
Movie · as Edwina 'Eddie' Brown
A Yank on the Burma Road
Movie · as Gail Farwood
Mr. Gardenia Jones
Movie · as Joanne
Dr. Kildare's Wedding Day
Movie · as Nurse Mary Lamont
Unholy Partners
Movie · as Miss 'Croney' Cronin
The People Vs. Dr. Kildare
Movie · as Nurse Mary Lamont
Kathleen
Movie · as Martha Kent
The Trial of Mary Dugan
Movie · as Mary Dugan
The Bad Man
Movie · as Lucia Pell
Foreign Correspondent
Movie · as Carol Fisher
Dr. Kildare Goes Home
Movie · as Nurse Mary Lamont
Dr. Kildare's Crisis
Movie · as Nurse Mary Lamont
Dr. Kildare's Strange Case
Movie · as Mary Lamont
And One Was Beautiful
Movie · as Kate Lattimer
I Take This Woman
Movie · as Linda Rodgers
My Son, My Son!
Movie · as Maeve O’Riordan
A New Romance of Celluloid: The Miracle of Sound
Movie · as Self
Tarzan Finds a Son!
Movie · as Mrs. Richard Lancing
Calling Dr. Kildare
Movie · as Nurse Mary Lamont
The Secret of Dr. Kildare
Movie · as Mary Lamont
Sergeant Madden
Movie · as Eileen Daly
Arizona Legion
Movie · as Letty Meade (as Laraine Johnson)
Think First
Movie · as Marjorie (Margie) Smith
Painted Desert
Movie · as Carol Banning
Border G-Man
Movie · as Betty Holden (as Laraine Johnson)
Scandal Street
Movie · as Peg Smith (as Laraine Johnson)
Stella Dallas
Movie · as Girl at Soda Shop / Train Passenger (uncredited)