From the Forbes archives: A look back at the time, in the early 1970s, when Doris Day realized her fortune had been stolen out from under her.
Portrait of American movie and television star, singer, and a friend to all the animals Doris Day as she wears a flower brooch, circa 1966. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Topline: After actress and singer Doris Day (who died Monday at 97) was an ascendant star of the 1950s and ’60s, she experienced a sudden financial crisis, brought on by her husband (who was also her manager) and a Beverly Hills lawyer who squandered her $20 million fortune and left her in debt, as documented by Forbes at the time (read the original 1974 article, below).
Day was known for being one of the biggest box office draws of the early ’60s, with acclaimed roles in Pillow Talk—which earned her an Academy Award nomination—and in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Man Who Knew Too Much.
