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Kathryn Crosby

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American actress (1933–2024)

For the woman crowned Miss Alabama 2003, see Catherine Crosby.
Kathryn Crosby
Crosby in 1976
BornOlive Kathryn Grandstaff
(1933-11-25)November 25, 1933
West Columbia, Texas, U.S.
DiedSeptember 20, 2024(2024-09-20) (aged 90)
Hillsborough, California, U.S.
Resting placeHoly Cross Cemetery
Other names
  • Kathryn Grandstaff
  • Kathryn Grant
EducationUniversity of Texas at Austin (BFA)
Occupations
  • Actress
  • singer
Years active
  • 1953–1979
  • 2010
Spouses
Bing Crosby
​ ​(m. 1957; died 1977)​
Maurice William Sullivan ​ ​(m. 2000; died 2010)​
Children

Olive Kathryn Crosby (née Grandstaff; November 25, 1933 – September 20, 2024) was an American actress and singer who performed in films under the stage names Kathryn Grant and Kathryn Grandstaff.

Early life and education

Born Olive Kathryn Grandstaff on November 25, 1933, in West Columbia, Texas, to Delbert Emery Grandstaff Sr. and Olive Catherine Grandstaff (née Stokely). Kathryn had four siblings. She graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1955. Two years later, she married widower Bing Crosby, 30 years her senior. The couple had three children: Harry, Mary Frances, and Nathaniel.

Career

Crosby with her husband Bing Crosby, 1958
Kathryn and Bing Crosby in 1960

Kathryn's film career began in 1953. She had featured roles such as Princess Parisa in The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958) and in the courtroom drama Anatomy of a Murder (1959). She also played the part of Mama Bear with her husband and children in Goldilocks, and she co-starred with Jack Lemmon in the comedy Operation Mad Ball (1957), with Tony Curtis in the drama Mister Cory (1957), and as a trapeze artist in The Big Circus (1959). However, Crosby largely retired from acting by the 1960s.

On June 16, 1963, Crosby became a registered nurse after studying at Queen of Angels Hospital in Los Angeles.

Crosby appeared as a guest star on her husband's 1964–1965 sitcom The Bing Crosby Show.

In the mid-1970s, she hosted The Kathryn Crosby Show, a 30-minute local talk show on KPIX-TV in San Francisco. Husband Bing appeared as a guest occasionally. After Bing Crosby's death in 1977, she took on a few smaller roles and the lead in the short-lived 1996 Broadway musical State Fair.

From 1985-2001, Crosby hosted the Crosby National Golf Tournament at Bermuda Run Country Club in Bermuda Run, North Carolina. A nearby bridge carrying U.S. Route 158 over the Yadkin River is named for Kathryn Crosby.

On November 4, 2010, Crosby was seriously injured in an automobile accident in the Sierra Nevada that killed her second husband, 85-year-old Maurice William Sullivan, whom she had married in 2000.

On June 1, 2014, Crosby sang in a Rodgers and Hart tribute.

Death

Crosby died on September 20, 2024, at the age of 90. She is interred in the family plot at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City.

Filmography

Crosby with Vince Edwards as a guest star on Ben Casey, 1965

References

  1. "Kathryn Grant". Retrieved September 1, 2014.
  2. "Kathryn Grant". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved July 10, 2022.
  3. "Bing Crosby's Former California Estate Is for Sale for $13.8 Million". People. March 29, 2021. Retrieved October 3, 2023.
  4. Harris, Beth (September 21, 2024). "Kathryn Crosby, actor and widow of famed singer and Oscar-winning actor Bing Crosby, dies at 90". Associated Press. Retrieved September 21, 2024.
  5. "1963 Press Photo Kathryn Crosby wife Bing Crosby nurse cap Queen Angels School". Historic Images. Archived from the original on October 15, 2019. Retrieved December 14, 2019.
  6. West, Richard; Thackrey, Ted Jr. (October 15, 1977). "From the Archives: Bing Crosby Dies at 73 on Golf Course". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on December 17, 2019. Retrieved December 17, 2019.
  7. Jim Sparks, "Crews to Start Work on Bridge," Winston-Salem Journal, November 21, 2007.
  8. Martin Griffith (December 2, 2010). "Bing Crosby's widow recovering from accident". Associated Press. Archived from the original on February 21, 2011. Retrieved March 10, 2011.
  9. "Saratoga: Kathryn Crosby to sing in Rodgers and Hart tribute". The Mercury News. May 21, 2014. Retrieved March 24, 2023.
  10. Buenahora, Andrés (September 21, 2024). "Kathryn Crosby, Actor and Widow of Bing Crosby, Dies at 90". Variety. Retrieved September 21, 2024.

External links

Bing Crosby
Albums
Family
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