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(Date Posted:08-12-2008 20:13:31)
Once a Hollywood legend, Doris Day is now an ageing recluse called Clara
By Liz Thomas
August 11, 2008
She enchanted a generation with her golden locks, pretty face and wholesome image.
Today it is only those trademark tresses that offer a clue to her identity.
Doris Day, 84, has changed her name to Clara Kappelhoff and turned her back on Hollywood to live a reclusive lifestyle in rural California.
Seen out shopping with a female friend in her hometown of Carmel, it is hard to believe she was one of the most prolific actresses of the 1950s and 60s.
Her face is devoid of make-up, her hair is untidy and she is dressed in jogging bottoms and trainers.
In her heyday she starred in films such as Calamity Jane, Young At Heart and The Man Who Knew Too Much, in which she sang Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be).
However, the star has kept out of the limelight in recent years, even more so since her only son Terry, from the first of her four marriages, died of cancer in 2004 aged 62.
An animal rights campaigner, she lives alone on her 11-acre fortress-like ranch.
Neighbours have said the only time they see her in public is when she rounds up stray cats and dogs to take back to her estate.
When she won a lifetime achievement Grammy award earlier this year, she refused to attend the ceremony.
Born Doris Mary Ann Kappelhoff, she took her stage name from the first song she ever performed, Day After Day.
Co-star Billy De Wolfe gave her the nickname Clara, saying she looked more like a 'Clara Bixby' than a 'Doris Day', and it caught on among her close friends, in particular her gay co-star Rock Hudson - who she once said was her one true love.
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