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Laraine Day: Lew Ayres
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Laraine Day; actress was called first lady of baseball Boston Globe LOS ANGELES - Laraine Day, the actress best remembered on screen as Lew Ayres's fiancée in a series of 1940s "Dr. Kildare" movies, has died. She was 87.
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Synopsis: When MGM decided to move up-and-coming star Laraine Day out of the "Dr. Kildare" series, the studio did so in a startlingly dramatic fashion. In Dr. Kildare's Wedding Day, Dr. Jim Kildare (Lew Ayres) and nurse Mary Lamont (Laraine Day) are finally able to exchange their marital vows. Alas, theRead More
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When MGM decided to move up-and-coming star Laraine Day out of the "Dr. Kildare" series, the studio did so in a startlingly dramatic fashion. In Dr. Kildare's Wedding Day, Dr. Jim Kildare (Lew Ayres) and nurse Mary Lamont (Laraine Day) are finally able to exchange their marital vows. Alas, the honeymoon ends abruptly when poor Mary is struck down and killed by a speeding truck (hopefully, it is safe to give away this plot twist at this late date). Numbed by grief, Kildare is snapped out of his doldrums by his crusty mentor Dr. Gillespie (Lionel Barrymore), who urges the young medico to honor Mary's memory by continuing to help others. The grimmer aspects of Dr. Kildare's Wedding Day are offset by several comic subplots, one of which involves an orchestra leader (Nils Asther) who suffers buzzing in his ears due to his eating habits! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
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Day's performance was so affecting that the studio was inundated with letters from grieving fans. In order to console them, MGM cast her again opposite Lew Ayres in "Fingers at the Window (1942)", hoping to create a husband-and-wife detective duo to rival "The Thin Man."
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