Doris knew

So today is the birth anniversary of both Doris Day and Marlon Brando, and TCM spent part of the day with each. But Doris Day's age is apparently not what we thought it all was. Newspapers are claiming Birthday surprise for Doris Day as she discovers she is 95 - two years older than she thought.

Somehow I doubt Doris was surprised by this. It was common for actresses to use different ages; I remember reading when Jane Wyman died that her driver's license confirmed her year of birth as 1917 and not 1914. Some actresses who started off young wanted to pass themselves off as adults; others want to seem younger than they really are.

But certainly Doris would have remembered when she started school, and remembered certain historic events from early in her life. I can't believe she didn't know -- certainly not when she was starting out in Hollywood -- how old she really was.

At any rate, a happy 95th birthday to Doris Day.