Kathryn Crosby


Olive Kathryn Crosby 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. 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

Kathryn's film career began in 1953. She had featured roles such as Princess Parisa in The 7th Voyage of Sinbad and in the courtroom drama Anatomy of a Murder. 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, with Tony Curtis in the drama Mister Cory, and as a trapeze artist in The Big Circus. 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