Actress Laraine Day died 10 November 2007 at the home of her daughter in Ivins, Utah. Born Laraine Johnson, she was under contract to MGM in the early 1940s, and as a result, found her career typecast into what were called "B+ Movies"; she appeared in several blockbusters while on loan from MGM, but never was able to break the mold into a leading lady.
Her genre appearances include guest roles on Airwolf (1985), Fantasy Island (1979), and The Sixth Sense (1972). She also had a bit part in Tarzan Finds a Son! (1939).
She was born in Roosevelt, Utah, one of eight children born to a prosperous Mormon family. Her date of birth was often given as 13 October 1917, though it was announced as 1920 in the death announcement released by her publicist. She was one of eight children, including a twin brother. According to the New York Times, "When he was 15, her father had acted as a Mormon Paul Revere, riding to warn polygamists that the federal marshals were coming so that they could hide their wives. Her great-grandfather, three of his six wives, and a few dozen of his 52 children had been early settlers in San Bernardino, Calif. The Johnsons followed two of their older sons to the area when Day was 9 years old."
She married three times: to Ray Hendricks (1942-47), baseball player Leo Durocher (1947-60), and then Michael Grilikhes (1960-2007). Her third husband died in March.
During her marriage to Durocher (who died in 1991), she was the host of Day With the Giants, a 15-minute television interview program broadcast before New York Giants home games. She published a book in 1952 about her experiences as a baseball wife, also titled Day With the Giants. After their divorce in 1960, she told an interviewer that she had never liked baseball. "When our relationship was over," she said "so was my relationship with baseball."
Day's survivors include two daughters with Grilikhes, Gigi Bell and Dana Grilikhes Nassi; and a son and a daughter with Durocher, Christopher and Michelle; her twin brother, Lamar; and many grandchildren.
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