Kathryn Crosby stars in the following movies: Operation Crazy Ball, Sinbad’s seventh voyage and Anatomy of a Murder died before she concluded her acting career as the wife of Hollywood legend Bing Crosby. She is 90 years old.
A Crosby family spokesman said Crosby died Friday night at her home in Hillsboro, Calif., surrounded by her family.
Under her stage name Kathryn Grant, the Houston native made five films for acclaimed film noir director Phil Karlson, including Nervous spot (1955), Phoenix Story (1955) and Rico Brothers (1957).
She also played the sister of Martha Hale’s character in another noir film directed by Blake Edwards Mr Corey (1957), starring Tony Curtis, portraying a budding trapeze artist in “The Trapeze” big circus (1959), starring Victor Mitch.
Shortly after finishing production in Spain, she played the troubled teenage Princess Parisa in Ray Harryhausen’s fantasy Sinbad’s seventh voyage (1958), she became Bing’s second wife when they married in a Las Vegas church on October 24, 1957.
“I’m happy to be married to an older man,” she said in Richard Grudens’ 2003 book, Bing Crosby: Singer of the Century. “When I married Bing, he was already formed, his character was already set. In other words, I knew what I was going to get. For a young man, you can’t predict what will happen to him as the years go by. develop.
Catherine almost put her acting career on the back burner as she had three children with the famous singer and Oscar-winning actor: Harry (born 1958), Mary (born 1959) and Nathaniel (born 1961 born). All survived.
Despite this, she frequently appears on ABC Variety’s Christmas specials with her husband and children hollywood palace Minute Maid orange juice commercials feature photos of families across America. (Bing is a long-time Minute Maid spokesperson and shareholder.)
Catherine died of a heart attack on October 14, 1977, at the age of 74, after a round of golf in Spain. same time next year and charlie’s auntIn 1996, he starred on Broadway in the 1996 revival of ” state fair.
She was born Olive Kathryn Grandstaff on November 25, 1933, in Houston and grew up in West Columbia, Texas.
Shortly after finishing as runner-up in the Miss Texas beauty pageant, Katherine left the University of Texas in 1952 and came to Hollywood with the help of Roy Rogers’ agent Atrush. After her audition with William Holden, Paramount quickly signed her to a contract.
She is writing a weekly column called texas girl When she first met Bing in 1953, she was back in her hometown working for the newspaper and taking a temporary job in the Paramount costume department while he was finishing ” little boy lost.
They met again a few months later when she was escorting tourists to the set. white christmasshe interviewed him for her column.
(Bing was married to actress and dancer Dixie Lee from 1930 until her death from ovarian cancer in 1952 at age 42. He and Dixie had four sons: Gary, Dennis ), Phillip and Lindsay.
Bing and Catherine set several wedding dates over three years before actually exchanging vows, but he kept putting it off because of his relationships with co-stars Grace Kelly and Inger Stevens.
The Crosby family in the early 1970s, clockwise from top left: Catherine, Bing, Harry, Mary and Nathaniel.
Courtesy of Everett
Catherine began her acting career with uncredited roles in the following films: this is love (1953), Casanova’s Big Night (1954) and rear window (1954), before Paramount released her from her contract in 1954.
Undaunted, she appeared in seven films released in 1955 and an episode of NBC’s Father knows best That year she returned to Texas to complete her fine arts degree. (She graduated from nursing school in 1963.)
She played a nurse and Jack Lemmon’s love interest in Richard Quinn’s film Operation Crazy Ball (1957), James Darren’s The Gangster’s Wife Rico Brothers and the daughter of the murdered hotelier at the home of Otto Preminger Anatomy of a Murder (1959), starring James Stewart.
While married to Bing, she made one of her rare on-screen appearances, guest-starring in a 1966 episode of ABC and Bing Crosby Productions. Ben Casey. In the 1970s, she was living near her home outside San Francisco, hosting a morning talk show on KPIX-TV and working part-time at the American Conservatory Theater.
Bing “was a very sweet kid in terms of making a girl believe that all she really wanted to do was stay home and scrub the floors,” Catherine said in an interview shortly after his death. “He doesn’t know he’s a macho pig, but he is!” she added with a laugh.
She wrote three sets of memoirs about her life with him: 1967’s Bing and other stuff1983 My life with Bing and 2002 My last few years using Bing.
In 2000, she married her long-time partner Maurice William Sullivan. He later became a trustee of Crosby’s estate.
In November 2010, 85-year-old Sullivan died in a car accident in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and Catherine was seriously injured. He was driving when their vehicle ran off the road, overturned and hit a boulder.
As for her children, Harry became an investment banker; Mary is an actress best known for playing J.R. Ewing shooter Kristen Shepard on “JR Ewing.” dallas;Nathaniel is an excellent amateur golfer. She is also survived by several grandchildren.
