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.​
Laraine Day Biography / Wiki
| Name | Laraine Day |
| Also Know | Laraine Johnson |
| Gender | Female |
| Known For | Acting |
| Place of Birth | Roosevelt, Utah, USA |
| Date of Birth | 1920-10-13 |
| Age(as in 2022) | 87 |
| Deathday | 2007-11-10 |
Laraine Day Acting Movies
| Movie Name | Character | Release Date | Overview |
| The Woman on Pier 13 | Nan Lowry Collins | 1950-06-15 | Communists blackmail a shipping executive into spying for them…. |
| Without Honor | Jane Bandle | 1949-10-26 | Jane Bandle has recently married, but Bill, her husband’s brother, tries to wreck her marriage because Jane rejected his sexual advances before her ma… |
| The Locket | Nancy Monks Blair Patton | 1946-12-20 | A dark personal secret drives a young woman to use every man she encounters…. |
| My Dear Secretary | Stephanie ‘Steve’ Gaylord | 1948-11-05 | A budding young writer thinks it’s her lucky day when she is chosen to be the new secretary for Owen Waterbury, famous novelist. She is soon disppoint… |
| A Yank on the Burma Road | Mrs. Gail Farwood | 1942-01-29 | A celebrated New York cabbie is pressed into service for a perilous journey through World War II China…. |
| Three for Jamie Dawn | Sue Lorenz | 1956-07-08 | An unscrupulous attorney attempts to rig the jury vote in a murder trial. Released in 1956…. |
| The Trial of Mary Dugan | Mary Dugan | 1941-02-14 | Mary Dugan is a young woman accused of murdering her billionaire lover. In the process, his defense lawyer acts wrongly against them, and is replaced … |
| Foreign Correspondent | Carol Fisher | 1940-08-16 | The European war was only beginning to erupt across national borders. Johnny Jones, an American crime reporter dispatched by his New York publisher to… |
| Journey for Margaret | Nora Davis | 1942-12-17 | An American newspaperman and his wife, end up in London after several retreats in the opening days of WWII. After a shrapnel wound and loss of her ba… |
| Fingers at the Window | Edwina ‘Eddie’ Brown | 1942-04-22 | In Chicago, an unemployed actor aims to solve the mystery concerning a string of ax murders, apparently committed by a lunatic…. |
| Mr. Lucky | Dorothy Bryant | 1943-07-01 | A conman poses as a war relief fundraiser, but when he falls for a charity worker, his conscience begins to trouble him…. |
| The Story of Dr. Wassell | Madeleine | 1944-07-04 | As the Japanese sweep through the East Indies during World War II, Dr. Wassell is determined to escape from Java with some crewmen of the cruiser Marb… |
| Tycoon | Maura Alexander Munroe | 1947-12-27 | Engineer Johnny Munroe is enlisted to build a railroad tunnel through a mountain to reach mines. His task is complicated, and his ethics are compromis… |
| And One Was Beautiful | Kate Lattimer | 1940-04-05 | A teenager falls hard for an irresponsible playboy…. |
| Keep Your Powder Dry | Leigh Rand | 1945-04-01 | A debutante (Lana Turner), a serviceman’s bride (Susan Peters) and a girl (Laraine Day) from a military family join the Women’s Army Corps…. |
| Bride by Mistake | Norah Hunter | 1944-07-26 | The staggeringly wealthy Norah Hunter, a shipyard owner, too often finds herself the romantic target of gold-digging men. To attract a suitor whose ma… |
| Toy Tiger | Gwendolyn Taylor | 1956-06-29 | Advertising executive Gwen Taylor sends her art director Rick Todd on a mission to bring an artist back to the commercial fold. Meanwhile, Gwen’s fath… |
| Painted Desert | Carol Banning | 1938-08-12 | A cowboy and a bandit face off over possession of a valuable mine…. |
| Arizona Legion | Letty Meade (as Laraine Johnson) | 1939-01-20 | A federal agent infiltrates an outlaw band that’s taken over a western town…. |
| Those Endearing Young Charms | Helen Brandt | 1945-06-19 | A soldier loses his girlfriend to his best buddy…. |
| Border G-Man | Betty Holden (billed as Laraine Johnson) | 1938-06-24 | A federal agent goes undercover in order to capture a gang that’s been smuggling munitions and horses near the Texas border…. |
| Think First | Marjorie (Margie) Smith | 1939-09-08 | Episode 24 of the Crime Does Not Pay series. Margie Smith (Laraine Day) works as a waitress at a drive in restaurant. She likes to date and look nice … |
| The 3rd Voice | Marian Forbes | 1960-03-05 | Marian Forbes has been having an affair with her boss and when he drops her for another woman. In an act of jealousy and greed she convinces an acquai… |
| The High and the Mighty | Lydia Rice | 1954-07-03 | Dan Roman is a veteran pilot haunted by a tragic past. Now relegated to second-in-command cockpit assignments he finds himself on a routine Honolulu-t… |
| Dr. Kildare’s Wedding Day | Mary Lamont | 1941-08-22 | A variety of predicaments arise to distract Dr. Kildare from his wedding to Nurse Mary Lamont…. |
| Dr. Kildare Goes Home | Mary Lamont | 1940-09-06 | A young doctor gives up big-city success to help his father set up a small-town clinic…. |
| Unholy Partners | Miss ‘Croney’ Cronin | 1941-11-01 | A crusading newsman starts up a tabloid with a gangster as his 50-50 partner…. |
| Dr. Kildare’s Crisis | Mary Lamont | 1940-11-29 | Jimmy Kildare’s impending nuptials are jeopardized by a diagnosis of possible epilepsy in his fiancee’s brother…. |
| Calling Dr. Kildare | Nurse Mary Lamont | 1939-04-28 | Following an argument with his young protege, the curmudgeonly Dr. Gillespie dumps Jimmy Kildare in a street clinic, hoping to teach him a lesson. Wh… |
| Dr. Kildare’s Strange Case | Nurse Mary Lamont | 1940-04-12 | Kildare tries brain surgery, advised by Dr. Gillespie, and faces a rival for nurse Lamont…. |
| The People Vs. Dr. Kildare | Nurse Mary Lamont | 1941-05-02 | An ice skater sues Kildare (Lew Ayres) for malpractice after his roadside first aid leaves her paralyzed…. |
| Kathleen | Martha Kent | 1941-12-18 | Kathleen is a twelve-year-old who lives in a big house with a nanny, a butler, maids, no mother and a father who is working most of the time. She drea… |
| The Bad Man | Lucia Pell | 1941-03-28 | Lopez is a bandit who has stolen the herd at Gil’s ranch, so Hardy is about to foreclose. But Lucia has come back from New York and Gil is happy until… |
| Mister Gardenia Jones | Joanne | 1942-05-29 | Documentary short film depicting the work of the United Service Organizations (USO) in providing recreational and morale-boosting services for America… |
| My Son, My Son! | Maeve O’Riordan | 1940-03-21 | A self-made success is determined to give his son the lavish upbringing he himself was denied. Not surprisingly, the son grows up to be spoiled rotten… |
| I Take This Woman | Linda Rodgers | 1940-02-02 | On return from Europe Dr. Decker foils glamour girl Georgi from jumping overboard. At Decker’s suggestion to keep busy, she assists at his clinic i… |
| Sergeant Madden | Eileen Daly | 1939-03-24 | A dedicated police officer is torn between family and duty when his son turns to a life of crime…. |
| Murder on Flight 502 | Claire Garwood | 1975-11-21 | On a flight to London, a note is found stating that there will be murders taking place on the airliner before it lands…. |
| The Secret of Dr. Kildare | Nurse Mary Lamont | 1939-11-24 | Intern Kildare (Lew Ayres) heals a millionaire’s daughter and tricks Dr. Gillespie (Lionel Barrymore) into taking a vacation…. |
| Tarzan Finds a Son! | Mrs. Richard Lancing | 1939-06-16 | A young couple die in a plane crash in the jungle. Their son is found by Tarzan and Jane who name him Boy and raise him as their own. Five years later… |
| Return to Fantasy Island | Mrs. Grant | 1978-01-20 | A second feature-length pilot film for the wish-fulfillment series sees six lucky people having their dreams fulfilled on the luxury resort island. Ca… |
| Scandal Street | Peg Smith (as Laraine Johnson) | 1938-02-11 | Joe McKnight temporarily leaves his fiancée, Nora Langdon, for an expedition in a South American jungle. Nora gets a position as librarian in the sma… |
| Twenty Years After | 1944-01-01 | This short celebrates the 20th anniversary of MGM. Segments are shown from several early hits, then from a number of 1944 releases…. | |
| A New Romance of Celluloid: The Miracle of Sound | Self | 1940-10-24 | This short documentary, presented and directed by MGM sound engineer Douglas Shearer, goes behind the scenes to look at how the sound portion of a tal… |
| Stella Dallas | Girl at Soda Shop / Train Passenger (uncredited) | 1937-08-06 | After divorcing a society man, a small-town woman tries to build a better life for their daughter…. |
Credit: TMDB
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