Inside Doris Day and James Garner’s Special Friendship That Almost Resulted in Romance

The last time Doris Day and James Garner spoke, his daughter Gigi initiated the call. “I handed the phone to my dad and they had a really lovely conversation,” she tells Closer. “I was glad that they had a chance to hear each other’s voices. They were such old friends.”

In 1963, Doris and Jim starred in two hit romantic comedies together, The Thrill of It All and Move Over, Darling. From those experiences sprang a warm, affectionate friendship that would last for five decades. “Doris was everyone’s darling. And I wish I could have done 50 more pictures with her,” gushed Jim. The feeling was mutual. “He’s so funny and so nice, I just love him,” Doris said.

Pairing these Hollywood heavyweights on screen — they played a married couple in both films — seemed natural. Jim, hot off his hit series Maverick, proved adept at comedy as well as drama. Doris, meanwhile, was the period’s queen of the box office, starring in many beloved films. They clicked immediately. “On set, they understood each other’s rhythms so well,” notes Tom Santopietro, author of the biography Considering Doris Day, who adds that their compatibility as actors helped forge their off-camera friendship. They soon realized they had a lot in common.

“They were both very down-to-earth people, no airs and pretenses,” says Santopietro. “They were both Midwesterners — Doris from Cincinnati, and Jim from Oklahoma. I think that informed their practical outlook.”

Both were animal lovers, too. “There was a scene in The Thrill of It All where my dad is riding a horse,” recalls Gigi, who was treated by her father to a trot around the soundstage between scenes. “I remember Doris coming over and petting the horse.”

Doris, of course, would go on to found the Doris Day Animal Foundation, which still carries on her work. Gigi, meanwhile, created the Jim Garner Animal Rescue Fund in her dad’s honor.

If circumstances had been different, it’s likely they would have dated. Jim called Doris one of the two most desirable women he’d ever kissed on screen. (The other was Julie Andrews.) “Doris didn’t play sexy, she didn’t act sexy, she was sexy. And then she could take a sexy scene and make you laugh — which is better in the bedroom than a lot of things,” he said. “I must admit that if I had not been married, I would have tried to carry forward after hours.”

Doris also had a soft spot for Jim, even after he broke her ribs! In Move Over, Darling, Jim had to pull Doris off of Polly Bergen, who played the rival for his affections. After the scene wrapped, Doris felt a pain in her side. “Jim, if we don’t speak for a while, I forgive you for breaking my ribs. Both of them,” she scolded him in her memoir, Doris Day: Her Own Story. “Don’t give it another thought.” She completed filming the movie wearing bandages under her costumes, admitting that it was painful to breathe and excruciating to laugh.

Despite their mutual attraction, Jim was a one-woman man. He wed Gigi’s mother, Lois, in 1956, and they remained married throughout his life. “My wife and I have a good marriage because we have nothing in common,” Jim joked. “[Also] she never nags or make scenes.” Like any couple in a long relationship, they survived many ups and downs. “I think people of their generation didn’t just divorce at the drop of a hat,” says Gigi.

Doris, on the other hand, thought she’d finally married her Prince Charming. She had been physically abused by her first husband and abandoned by her second, but her third husband, producer Marty Melcher, boosted her career and adopted her son, Terry. Sadly, that house of cards came toppling down when Marty suddenly died of a heart issue in 1968. Upon review of her finances, Doris realized that her husband had squandered all her savings, leaving her deeply in debt.

Jim, like many in Hollywood, never liked Marty, but it would have been inappropriate for him to say anything. “Marty was a hustler, a shallow, insecure hustler,” Jim said years later, accusing Marty of “ripping off” Doris. “When we were making Move Over, Darling, he was bragging a lot about money…. Without Doris, he couldn’t have driven a truck for the Teamsters.”

Doris’s friendship with Jim would outlast her financial troubles. (She eventually won a settlement from her late husband’s business partner.) They didn’t see each other often because Jim loathed dressing up and going to parties, but Doris remained in touch. “We’ve stayed friends because we talk on the phone regularly,” Doris said. “I don’t know how, because Jim hates the telephone. I usually have to call him. ‘Can’t you pick up a phone?’ I say, but he just grumbles.”

Jim’s daughter Gigi was happy to help Doris connect with him in his final years. “It was really important for her to speak to him to see how he was doing,” she says of their last conversation. “They were great friends.”