person

Laraine Day

Personal Info

Known For

Acting

Gender

Female

Birthday

1920-10-13

Place of Birth

Roosevelt, Utah, USA

Laraine Day

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.​

Also Known For

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69

Foreign Correspondent

Aug 16, 1940

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53

The Woman on Pier 13

Jun 15, 1950

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61

Tarzan Finds a Son!

Jun 16, 1939

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66

The Glass Key

Sep 08, 1942

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58

The 3rd Voice

Mar 05, 1960

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48

Without Honor

Oct 26, 1949

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66

Journey for Margaret

Dec 17, 1942

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64

The Locket

Dec 20, 1946

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54

Fingers at the Window

Apr 22, 1942

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70

Mr. Lucky

Jul 01, 1943

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59

The High and the Mighty

Jul 03, 1954

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58

My Dear Secretary

Nov 05, 1948

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NA

Swiss Family Robinson

Oct 12, 1958

poster

65

Dr. Kildare's Wedding Day

Aug 22, 1941

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63

The Story of Dr. Wassell

Jul 04, 1944

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53

Tycoon

Dec 27, 1947

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68

Dr. Kildare Goes Home

Sep 06, 1940

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70

Unholy Partners

Nov 01, 1941

poster

40

A Yank on the Burma Road

Jan 29, 1942

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60

Dr. Kildare's Crisis

Nov 29, 1940

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57

Murder on Flight 502

Nov 21, 1975

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45

Dr. Kildare's Strange Case

Apr 12, 1940

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61

Calling Dr. Kildare

Apr 28, 1939

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56

The Secret of Dr. Kildare

Nov 24, 1939

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68

The People Vs. Dr. Kildare

May 02, 1941

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62

And One Was Beautiful

Apr 05, 1940

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62

I Take This Woman

Feb 02, 1940

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59

Keep Your Powder Dry

Apr 01, 1945

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60

Sergeant Madden

Mar 24, 1939

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61

Bride by Mistake

Jul 26, 1944

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50

Three for Jamie Dawn

Jul 08, 1956

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62

Toy Tiger

Jun 29, 1956

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47

My Son, My Son!

Mar 21, 1940

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68

Stella Dallas

Aug 06, 1937

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46

Return to Fantasy Island

Jan 20, 1978

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50

Kathleen

Dec 18, 1941

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NA

Those Endearing Young Charms

Jun 19, 1945

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50

Arizona Legion

Jan 20, 1939

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58

Painted Desert

Aug 12, 1938

poster

50

Border G-Man

Jun 24, 1938

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50

The Trial of Mary Dugan

Feb 14, 1941

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54

The Bad Man

Mar 28, 1941

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67

A New Romance of Celluloid: The Miracle of Sound

Oct 24, 1940

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70

Think First

Sep 08, 1939

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60

Twenty Years After

Jan 01, 1944

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NA

Scandal Street

Feb 11, 1938

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46

Mr. Gardenia Jones

May 29, 1942

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NA

Too Old for Dolls

Feb 24, 1955

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NA

The Final Tribute

Nov 16, 1955

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NA

Prima Donna

Feb 01, 1956

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NA

Rendezvous in Black

Oct 25, 1956

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75

Murder, She Wrote

Sep 30, 1984

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60

Burke's Law

Sep 20, 1963

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54

The F.B.I.

Sep 19, 1965

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75

Airwolf

Jan 22, 1984

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68

Hotel

Aug 21, 1982

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61

Medical Center

Sep 24, 1969

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62

General Electric Theater

Feb 01, 1953

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63

Lux Video Theatre

Oct 02, 1950

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63

Your Show of Shows

Feb 25, 1950

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72

Schlitz Playhouse of Stars

Oct 05, 1951

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32

Climax!

Oct 07, 1954

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63

The Sixth Sense

Jan 15, 1972

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70

The New Breed

Oct 03, 1961

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65

Letter to Loretta

Sep 20, 1953

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65

Letter to Loretta

Sep 20, 1953

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63

Lux Video Theatre

Oct 02, 1950

poster

63

Lux Video Theatre

Oct 02, 1950

poster

65

Letter to Loretta

Sep 20, 1953

poster

63

Lux Video Theatre

Oct 02, 1950

poster

63

Lux Video Theatre

Oct 02, 1950

poster

63

Lux Video Theatre

Oct 02, 1950

poster

63

Lux Video Theatre

Oct 02, 1950

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NA

Pursuit

Oct 22, 1958

poster

41

Checkmate

Sep 17, 1960

poster

68

The Name of the Game

Sep 20, 1968

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63

The Love Boat

Sep 24, 1977

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69

What's My Line?

Feb 02, 1950

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65

Screen Director's Playhouse

Oct 05, 1955

poster

78

The Alfred Hitchcock Hour

Sep 20, 1962