Laraine Day
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.
Acted in
Murder, She Wrote
1984
as Constance Fletcher
Airwolf
1984
as Amelia Davenport
Hotel
1982
as Mrs. Kupchak
Return to Fantasy Island
1978
as Mrs. Grant
The Love Boat
1977
as Vera Simpson
Murder on Flight 502
1975
as Claire Garwood
The Sixth Sense
1972
Medical Center
1969
The Name of the Game
1968
as Grace Jellicoe
The F.B.I.
1965
as Helen York
Burke's Law
1963
as Lisa Cole
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour
1962
as Ruth
The New Breed
1961
as Vivian Cowley
Checkmate
1960
as Amnesiac Woman
The 3rd Voice
1960
as Marian Forbes
Pursuit
1958
as Kathy Nelson
Swiss Family Robinson
1958
as Mother
Three for Jamie Dawn
1956
as Sue Lorenz
Toy Tiger
1956
as Gwendolyn Taylor
The Final Tribute
1955
as Joyce Carter
Screen Director's Playhouse
1955
as Laraine Day
Too Old for Dolls
1955
as Marge Ramsay
Climax!
1954
as Ellen Parker
The High and the Mighty
1954
as Lydia Rice
Letter to Loretta
1953
as Carol Potter
Letter to Loretta
1953
as Karen McCall
Letter to Loretta
1953
as Sara Lewis
General Electric Theater
1953
Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
1951
as Mrs. Lorenz
Lux Video Theatre
1950
as Sophie
Lux Video Theatre
1950
as Charlotte Vale
Lux Video Theatre
1950
as Louise Howell
Lux Video Theatre
1950
as Lynn
Lux Video Theatre
1950
as Claire Brandon
Lux Video Theatre
1950
as Lydia
Lux Video Theatre
1950
as Phyllis Dietrichson
The Woman on Pier 13
1950
as Nan Lowry Collins
Your Show of Shows
1950
What's My Line?
1950
as Self - Panelist
What's My Line?
1950
as Self - Mystery Guest
Without Honor
1949
as Jane Bandle
My Dear Secretary
1948
as Stephanie 'Steve' Gaylord
Tycoon
1947
as Maura Alexander Munroe
The Locket
1946
as Nancy
Those Endearing Young Charms
1945
as Helen Brandt
Keep Your Powder Dry
1945
as Leigh Rand
Bride by Mistake
1944
as Norah Hunter
The Story of Dr. Wassell
1944
as Madeleine
Twenty Years After
1944
as (archive footage)
Mr. Lucky
1943
as Dorothy Bryant
Journey for Margaret
1942
as Nora Davis
The Glass Key
1942
as Nurse (uncredited)
Mr. Gardenia Jones
1942
as Joanne
Fingers at the Window
1942
as Edwina 'Eddie' Brown
A Yank on the Burma Road
1942
as Mrs. Gail Farwood
Kathleen
1941
as Martha Kent
Unholy Partners
1941
as Miss 'Croney' Cronin
Dr. Kildare's Wedding Day
1941
as Nurse Mary Lamont
The People Vs. Dr. Kildare
1941
as Nurse Mary Lamont
The Bad Man
1941
as Lucia Pell
The Trial of Mary Dugan
1941
as Mary Dugan
Dr. Kildare's Crisis
1940
as Nurse Mary Lamont
A New Romance of Celluloid: The Miracle of Sound
1940
as Self
Dr. Kildare Goes Home
1940
as Nurse Mary Lamont
Foreign Correspondent
1940
as Carol Fisher
Dr. Kildare's Strange Case
1940
as Nurse Mary Lamont
And One Was Beautiful
1940
as Kate Lattimer
My Son, My Son!
1940
as Maeve O’Riordan
I Take This Woman
1940
as Linda Rodgers
The Secret of Dr. Kildare
1939
as Nurse Mary Lamont
Think First
1939
as Marjorie (Margie) Smith
Tarzan Finds a Son!
1939
as Mrs. Richard Lancing
Calling Dr. Kildare
1939
as Nurse Mary Lamont
Sergeant Madden
1939
as Eileen Daly
Arizona Legion
1939
as Letty Meade (as Laraine Johnson)
Painted Desert
1938
as Carol Banning
Border G-Man
1938
as Betty Holden (as Laraine Johnson)
Scandal Street
1938
as Peg Smith (as Laraine Johnson)
Stella Dallas
1937
as Girl at Soda Shop / Train Passenger (uncredited)