Kathryn Crosby, who has starred in films such as Operation Mad Ball, The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad AND Anatomy of a Murder before ending her acting career as the wife of Hollywood legend Bing Crosby, she died. She was 90.
Crosby died Friday evening surrounded by family at her home in Hillsborough, California, a family spokeswoman said.
Presented under her stage name, Kathryn Grant, the Houston native has made five feature films for famed film noir director Phil Karlson, including Tight point (1955), The History of Phenix City (1955) and The Rico Brothers (1957).
She also played the younger sister of Martha Hyer's character in another film noir, the film directed by Blake Edwards Mr. Cory (1957), with Tony Curtis, and played an up-and-coming trapeze artist in The big circus (1959), with Victor Mature.
Soon after wrapping production in Spain on her role as damsel in distress Princess Parisa in Ray Harryhausen's fantasy The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad (1958), became Bing's second wife when they married in a Las Vegas church on October 24, 1957. She was 23, he was 54.
“I'm glad I married 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 defined. In other words, I knew what to expect. With a younger man, you can't tell how he'll develop as he gets older.”
Kathryn has pretty much put acting on the back burner as she has three children with the famous singer and Oscar-winning actor: Harry (born 1958), Mary (born 1959), and Nathaniel (born 1961). All survive her.
However, she often appeared with her husband and children on Christmas specials, ABC variety shows The Hollywood Palace and in Minute Maid orange juice commercials, the image of the all-American family. (Bing was a longtime promoter and shareholder of Minute Maid.)
After her death at the age of 74, on October 14, 1977, of a heart attack following a round of golf in Spain, Kathryn appeared on stage in such productions as Same time, next year AND Charley's Auntand worked alongside John Davidson and Andrea McArdle in the 1996 Broadway revival State Fair.
Her given name was Olive Kathryn Grandstaff, born in Houston on November 25, 1933, and raised in West Columbia, Texas.
Shortly after placing second in the Miss Texas beauty pageant, Kathryn dropped out of the University of Texas in 1952 to go to Hollywood with the help of Roy Rogers' agent, Art Rush. Paramount quickly signed her to a contract after she screen-tested with William Holden.
He was writing a weekly column called Texas Girl for newspapers at home and working a temp job in Paramount's wardrobe department when he first met Bing in 1953 while he was finishing work on Lost Child.
They met again a few months later while she was escorting visitors to the set of White Christmasand interviewed him for his column.
(Bing had been married to actress and dancer Dixie Lee from 1930 until her death from ovarian cancer at age 42 in 1952. He and Dixie had four children: Gary, Dennis, Phillip and Lindsay.)
Bing and Kathryn had set several wedding dates over the course of three years before actually saying “I do,” but he kept putting it off because he was romantically involved with two of his co-stars, Grace Kelly and Inger Stevens.
The Crosby family in the early 1970s, clockwise from top left: Kathryn, Bing, Harry, Mary, and Nathaniel.
Courtesy of Everett
Kathryn had begun her acting career with uncredited roles in films such as So 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 in an episode of the NBC television series The father knows everything as she returned to Texas that year to complete her bachelor of fine arts degree. (In 1963, she graduated with a bachelor of science degree in nursing.)
She played a nurse and Jack Lemmon's love interest in Richard Quine's film Operation Mad Ball (1957), James Darren's mobster's wife in The Rico Brothers and the daughter of the murdered innkeeper in Otto Preminger's novel Anatomy of a Murder (1959), with James Stewart.
In one of her rare on-screen acting jobs while married to Bing, she guest-starred in a 1966 episode of ABC (and Bing Crosby Productions) Ben CaseyIn the 1970s, she remained near their home outside San Francisco hosting a morning talk show on KPIX-TV and also working as an assistant at the American Conservatory Theater.
Bing “was a pretty sweet kid when it came to convincing a girl that what he really wanted was to stay home and wash floors,” Kathryn said in an interview shortly after his death. “He didn't know he was a male chauvinist pig, but he was!” she added with a laugh.
She wrote three series of memoirs about her life with him: the 1967 one Bing and other things1983 years My Life with Bing and 2002 My Last Years with Bing.
In 2000, she married longtime partner Maurice William Sullivan, an educator she and Bing had hired to tutor their children. He later became a trustee of the Crosby estate.
In November 2010, Sullivan, 85, was killed and Kathryn was seriously injured in a car crash in the Sierra Nevada. He was driving when their vehicle went off the road, overturned, and struck a boulder.
As for her children, Harry became an investment banker; Mary is an actress known for her role as Kristin Shepard, J.R. Ewing's shooter in Dallas; and Nathaniel was an excellent amateur golfer. He also leaves behind several nieces and nephews.