Gary Crosby (actor)


Gary Evan Crosby was an American actor and singer. His parents were Bing Crosby, and the singer and actress Dixie Lee.

Biography

Gary Crosby was born in Los Angeles, California, and attended Stanford University. He entered the entertainment business and performed in a harmony singing group, the Crosby Boys, with his three brothers, Philip, Lindsay, and Dennis, during the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. As a teenager, he duetted with his father on two songs, "Sam's Song" and "Play a Simple Melody", which became the first double-sided gold record in history. He also recorded duets with Louis Armstrong and at least one 45-single with Sammy Davis Jr. He also performed on several variety programs, including ABC's The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom and NBC's The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford.

Radio star

In the mid-1950s, he had his own radio program, The Gary Crosby Show, on CBS. The musical variety program debuted June 6, 1954, as a summer replacement for Bing Crosby's show.

Actor

As an actor, Crosby appeared in many television programs. On March 20, 1955, he appeared on The Jack Benny Program Season 5, Episode 13. Later, he was briefly under contract to 20th Century-Fox in the late 1950s. He appeared in a number of supporting roles for the studio, normally comedies in which Crosby played a soldier: Mardi Gras with Pat Boone; Holiday for Lovers, as Carol Lynley's love interest; A Private's Affair, with Sal Mineo; The Right Approach with Frankie Vaughan.
He is perhaps best remembered for his recurring roles as Eddie the scheming bellhop on The Bill Dana Show and Officer Ed Wells on NBC's Adam-12 from 1968 to 1975, as well as appearances on several other shows produced by Jack Webb's Mark VII Limited. In addition to the aforementioned, he also appeared in three episodes of The Rockford Files. Crosby appeared in In the Heat of the Night in the episode "When The Music Stopped". He played Mal Tabert, the manager of a singer played by Robert Goulet, who shoots and kills a stalker.
Crosby performed in the series premiere of The Hollywood Palace hosted by his father on January 4, 1964.
In 1964, Crosby appeared in the last filmed episode of The Twilight Zone. Entitled "Come Wander with Me", the episode co-starred Bonnie Beecher and was directed by Richard Donner.
In 1965, he made a guest appearance on Perry Mason as singer Jazbo Williams in "The Case of the Frustrated Folk Singer". He appeared in Girl Happy, starring Elvis Presley, with whom he had been stationed in the Army in Germany.
Gary also made an appearance in his father's 1964 sitcom, The Bing Crosby Show, in the second episode as a lookalike. In the 1970s, he appeared occasionally on game shows such as Match Game and Tattletales as a guest panelist. He married and divorced three times; he had one stepchild as a result.

Memoir

In 1983, six years after his father's death, Crosby published an autobiography, Going My Own Way, which revealed the effects of his alcoholism and his difficult childhood as a result of his mother's alcoholism and his father's alleged emotional and physical abuse.
Shortly before Gary's book was published, his brother Lindsay said, "I'm glad did it. I hope it clears up a lot of the old lies and rumors." Unlike Gary, Lindsay stated that he preferred to remember "all the good things I did with my dad and forget the times that were rough".
Bing's younger brother, jazz bandleader and singer Bob Crosby, recalled at the time of Gary's revelations that Bing was a "disciplinarian", as their mother and father had been. He added, "We were brought up that way." In an interview for the same article, Gary clarified that Bing "was like a lot of fathers of that time. He was not out to be vicious, to beat children for his kicks."
The author of the most recent biography on Bing Crosby, Gary Giddins, said that Gary Crosby's memoir is not reliable on many instances and cannot be trusted on the abuse stories.
Gary Crosby's adopted son, Steven, stated in a 2003 interview:

Death

Gary Crosby died of lung cancer in Burbank, California, in 1995, and is interred at Forest Lawn-Hollywood Hills Cemetery.

Family relations

Discography

Singles

Albums

A Crosby Christmas – with Dennis Crosby, Phillip Crosby, Lindsay Crosby and Bing Crosby Gary Crosby and Friend – with Bing Crosby Gary Crosby Judy, Judy Rocking the Blues Breezin' Along Belts The Blues The Happy Bachelor Dos billetes Para Paris – with Joey Dee and Jeri Lynne Fraser

Filmography