Here’s the real reason Doris Day left Hollywood

The 96-year-old Doris Day is a prolific singer and actress who recorded more than 650 songs in two decades. She resigned from acting in 1973.

Day soared to fame as America's Sweetheart but told Closer Weekly back in April that animals are her true passion, and she wanted to devote time to her charity organizations.

She described the work she does as her greatest accomplishment, despite appearing in films such as "Calamity Jane" and "The Man Who Knew Too Much."

Read more about Day's career and personal life on our Twitter account, @amomama_usa.

When she is not rescuing animals, Day responds to the mountains of fan mail she still receives to this day. She explained:

“I’ve been blessed with good health, wonderful pals, lovely fans and so many precious four-leggers. What more could I ask for?”

Film career

During her time in Hollywood, she appeared in 43 roles and produced "The Doris Day Show" for two years during the early seventies.

Her breakthrough came two decades before when she landed a part in "Love Me Or Leave Me." For the next few years, Day appeared in several box office hits.

She won six Golden Globes awards, as well as the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1989 and the Lifetime Achievement Award in 1991.

Music career

The actress, who adopted the name Day in the late thirties, was also a singing sensation and her most well-known track is "Sentimental Journey."

Six of her songs reached the top of the Billboard charts, including "Tain't Me," "Till The End Of Time," and "I Got The Sun In The Morning."

Three of her songs were inducted into the Grammy Hall Fame, and she received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award nine years ago.

Activism

Being a lifetime animal advocate earned her the nickname the "Dog Catcher of Beverly Hills" during the mid-fifties, and she still surrounds herself with animals.

The Doris Day Pet Foundation was founded in the late seventies after her film retirement. In 2006, her foundation was merged with The Humane Society of the US.

Day was married four times but divorced from her last husband in 1981. She's been living in Carmel-by-the-Sea in California since then.