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