Doris Day, who became one of the greatest box-office attractions of her time as the cheery, freckle-faced personification of wholesomeness, has died at the age of 97, her foundation said.

Key points: Day was most famous for innocent sex comedies including Pillow Talk, Calamity Jane and That Touch of Mink

Day was most famous for innocent sex comedies including Pillow Talk, Calamity Jane and That Touch of Mink Her last film was the 1968 comedy With Six You Get Eggroll

Her last film was the 1968 comedy With Six You Get Eggroll In 2011, a collection of her previously unreleased songs hit the top 10 in the UK

Day, who co-starred with 1950s and 60s superstars such as Rock Hudson and Cary Grant, died at her Carmel home in California after a bout of pneumonia, the Doris Day Animal Foundation said on its website.

The foundation said in an emailed statement she was surrounded by close friends.

The actress and honey-voiced singer's film dramas, musicals and innocent sex comedies made her a top star in the 1950s and 60s.

Doris Day built her career on a wholesome but sexy persona. ( Photo: IMDb )

Known for such films as Pillow Talk, Calamity Jane and That Touch of Mink, the actress also topped the music charts with songs including Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera) and My Secret Love.

She never won an Academy Award, but Day was given a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2004, as George W Bush declared it "a good day for America when Doris Marianne von Kappelhoff of Evanston, Ohio decided to become an entertainer".

Early career

Day's breakthrough role came opposite James Cagney in the musical Love Me or Leave Me. ( Photo: IMDb )

Day was born Doris von Kappelhoff on April 3, 1922, in Cincinnati and headed to California aged 14 to be a dancer.

She abandoned that dream after her right leg was broken in a car accident.

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Day began singing for a Cincinnati radio station and local nightclub before moving to New York. A bandleader changed her name to Day, after the song Day after Day, to fit it on a marquee.

Her first musical hit was the 1945 smash Sentimental Journey, when she was barely in her 20s.

Among the other songs she made famous were Everybody Loves a Lover, and It's Magic, a song from Romance on the High Seas, her first film.

Critic Gary Giddins called her "the coolest and sexiest female singer of slow-ballads in movie history".

Her last film was the 1968 comedy With Six You Get Eggroll. She then turned to television, launching The Doris Day Show, which was a moderate success in its 1966-1973 run on American station CBS.

Although mostly retired from show business since the 1980s, she still had enough of a following that a 2011 collection of previously unreleased songs, My Heart, hit the top 10 in the United Kingdom.

The same year, she received a lifetime achievement honour from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.

Doris Day starred opposite Howard Keel in the film Calamity Jane. ( Supplied: Wikipedia )

'More make-believe than any film part I played'

Day was presented with the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the Golden Globes in 1989. ( AP )

Behind the wholesome facade, Day later revealed money troubles, a nervous breakdown and four troubled marriages, contrasting with the happy publicity of her Hollywood career.

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"My public image is unshakably that of America's wholesome virgin, the girl next door, carefree and brimming with happiness, an image, I can assure you, more make-believe than any film part I ever played. But I am Miss Chastity Belt and that's all there is to it," she wrote in her 1976 tell-all book, Doris Day: Her Own Story.

"I'm afraid it's going to shock some people for me to say this, but I staunchly believe no two people should get married until they have lived together."

Day's first of four marriages to musician Al Jorden ended when she alleged he beat her while pregnant.

Their son, record producer Terry Melcher, who died in 2004, was her only child.

After a brief second marriage, Day wed agent and producer Marty Melcher who died in 1968 leaving her with no money and huge debt he accumulated during their 16-year union.

Her final marriage to restaurateur Barry Comden ended in 1981.

In recent years, she spent much of her time advocating for animal rights, launching the Doris Day Animal Foundation, a non-profit which aimed to help animals across the US.

She celebrated her 97th birthday on April 3.

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