Melissa Schneider says screen legend Doris Day turned 90 this year - even though some records say 92. There appears to be more than the usual movie-star vanity involved here regarding Day's year of birth.

"She assures me it was 1924,'' Schneider says.

"The reason being, when she was starting out in the big band wera she was 16, performing with bands like Les Brown's Band of Renown, and put her age up two years to work in nightclubs, and it stuck with her."

That's just one of the nuggets of Day data from Schneider, who's a longtime fan of the singer-actress, who is touring her tribute show Doris: Doris Day - So Much More Than the Girl Next Door again to mark Day's 90th birthday. And it's been tweaked since it was last seen.

"We've got a new director, Stuart Maunder, who's done a great job with it, and the band is quite different. And we've got two new boys, James Bryers and Jordan Pollard."

But the aim is the same: to celebrate the music and life of Doris Day with stories and songs - the numbers include Que Sera, Sera, Secret Love and Sentimental Journey.

"I've always loved Doris, ever since I was a kid,'' Schneider, 42, says.

"I first saw her in Calamity Jane when I was eight, on the afternoon movie ... I remember the Doris Day TV show which was always on TV in the '70s. I fell in love with her wonderful voice and talent - the great singer, dance and actor that she is."

She also liked Day's demeanour - "the happy-go-lucky, girl-next-door persona she had" - but discovered over the years that not only did the actress have more range than she was sometimes credited with - she was adept at drama, musicals and comedy - but her offscreen life was just as interesting.

"She had four tumultuous marriages and was divorced three times."

The first, to "insanely jealous" trombonist Al Jorden, lasted two years and produced her only child, Terrence Jorden, a musician and record producer who declined to sign aspiring musician Charles Manson, to whom he had been introduced by Beach Boy Dennis Wilson. Jorden and his girlfriend, actress Candice Bergen, moved out of the house they had been sharing which was subsequently occupied by filmmaker Roman Polanski and his wife Sharon Tate. On August 9, 1969, followers of Manson from his commune murdered the pregnant Tate and three others at the house: whether the target was Jorden or whether it was simply intended to scare him, it certainly accomplished the latter. He died in 2004 at the age of 62.

Day's second marriage, to saxophonist George Weidler, lasted from 1946 to 1949. Her third husband, Martin Melcher, lasted from 1951 to Welcher's death in 1968 but she discovered when he died that he had left her heavily in debt and he had committed her to her TV show without telling her.

Her fourth and final marriage was to Barry Comden, from 1976 to 1981.

"He was insanely jealous and had a scheme to put her face on cans of dog food ... he was an opportunist."

Although Day was, and is, an animal lover and an activist for animal welfare, she baulked at that.

"Now, she lives with 14 dogs in Carmel, California."

Although Schneider has never met Day, she sent the script for Doris to her as a courtesy. Apart from confirming her age, Day only asked for a couple of changes.

"One was a nickname she had as a kid that brought back hurtful memories."

But while Day's life had its ups and downs, it is her singing and screen appearances that live on for her many fans. Schneider will sing 24 Doris Day songs including Autumn Leaves, Everybody Loves a Lover and Wish You Were Here as well as two of her own songs.

Schneider's favourite Day film is still the musical comedy Calamity Jane - she will sing some of the songs from it including The Black Hills of Dakota - and her favourite Day song is It's Magic, "the most romantic song she's ever done", from her first film, Romance on the High Seas (1948).

And Schneider admires Day's dramatic portrayal of singer Ruth Etting and her marriage to gangster Martin Snyder (James Cagney) in Love Me Or Leave Me (1955).

"It shows what it was like to give power away to an abusive man - in real life she was living the part."