Star of stage and screen, actress Laraine Day dies

Actress Laraine Day, who appeared in nearly 50 films including the Alfred Hitchcock thriller Foreign Correspondent, has died. She was 87.

Day died of natural causes Saturday at her daughter's home in Utah, where she moved following the death of her husband of 47 years, producer Michel Grilikhes, earlier this year, said publicist Dale Olson.

Day made her film debut in a bit part in Stella Dallas in 1937. She changed her birth name and first won fame as Nurse Mary Lamont in the film series Dr. Kildare, starring Lew Ayres.

The actress went on to star opposite Joel McRea in 1940's Foreign Correspondent and also appeared in such films as Mr. Lucky, I Take This Woman, The Story of Dr. Wassell, My Dear Secretary and The High and the Mighty. She appeared in her last movie, The Third Voice in l960, the year she married Grilikhes.

During a break in her film career, Day co-starred on a national theatre tour with Gregory Peck in Angel Street and also took the stage in Lost Horizon, The Womenand Time of the Cuckoo.

In 1951, Day became one of U.S. television's first female talk show hosts in The Laraine Day Show.

Day penned the memoir Day With Giants in 1951 about life with baseball manager Leo Durocher, to whom she was married from 1947 to 1960, a period in which she was sometimes called "The First Lady of Baseball."

Day's first husband was singer Ray Hendricks.

Day is survived by her twin brother, three daughters, a son and numerous grandchildren.