Jill Day

English pop singer and actress Jill Day was born Yvonne Page on 5 December 1930 in Brighton, Sussex. She became the main singer with Geraldo and His Orchestra, which made her one of the best-known vocalists in the country and led to a recording contract with Parlophone.

By 1954, she had topped the bill at the London Palladium and co-starred with Tony Hancock and Jimmy Edwards in the West End production of The Talk of the Town at the Adelphi Theatre.

Screen appearances followed in Always a Bride (1953) and All For Mary (1955), and she subsequently found fame in radio and television (she had her own comedy sketch show on BBC Television in 1957, The Jill Day Show and also appeared on Dee Time).

A Jill Day comic strip by Denis Gifford and Bob Monkhouse was published in 1954.

Although she registered no chart hits, her name became synonymous with a number of ballads, including I’m Old Fashioned, Mangoes, A Holiday Affair and I’ve Got My Love To Keep Me Warm.

Diminutive but tough, Day was known for her fierce temper, made worse by her inexorable slide into alcoholism. In 1963, she made the headlines when she emptied a tureen of peas over a waiter at the Pigalle Club in London’s West End, complaining that he clattered plates and cutlery during her act.

Although various comebacks were mooted, including a prestigious part in the musical Follies, her singing career declined as public taste for pop music changed during the 1960s.

Later, she owned racehorses, including the well-known horse “Chrystella,” as well as several businesses, such as a theatrical agency, a gymnasium, and a baby clothing company.

She died of cancer on 16 November 1990, in Kingston, Surrey. She was just 59.

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