Barry Comden; was married to Doris Day
- |
LOS ANGELES - Barry Comden, a businessman and restaurateur who was the fourth husband of singer-actress Doris Day, died May 25 of heart failure at his Los Angeles home. He was 74.
In 1976, he married Day after meeting her at the Beverly Hills Old World Restaurant, where he was the maitre d'. He always made sure that her favorite wine was chilled and provided her with ample leftovers for her dogs to eat, Vanity Fair magazine reported last year.
Pampered pets would be a recurring theme of the five-year marriage between Day and Mr. Comden, 12 years her junior.
The couple bought a hilltop home in Carmel in late 1978 but soon separated. When they divorced in 1981, Mr. Comden complained that Day preferred the company of dogs.
"She had 14 dogs, and the final straw was when I was kicked out of bed to make way for Tiger, a poodle," Mr. Comden recalled in 1996 to the London Sunday Mail.A native of New York City, Mr. Comden had received his bachelor's degree from Tufts College.
