Kathryn Crosby was the wife of actor and crooner Bing Crosby (1903–1977) for the last 20 years of his life, and she starred in such movies as “The 7th Voyage of Sinbad.”
- Died: September 20, 2024 (Who else died on September 20?)
- Details of death: Died at her home in Hillsborough, California at the age of 90.
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Kathryn Crosby’s legacy
Born Olive Kathryn Grandstaff in Texas, Crosby loved acting from a young age. After competing in beauty pageants as a child and a teen, she was advised she might excel in Hollywood, so she made her way to California and landed a contract at Paramount Pictures. Among her early roles was a small, uncredited part in “Rear Window.” As she began securing credited roles – in such films as “The Phenix City Story,” “Storm Center,” and “The Wild Party” – she went by the name Kathryn Grant.
While she was a starlet, just 19 years old, Crosby met her future husband on the Paramount lot. He was 30 years older and a major star, and though she was a bit starstruck when they first met, she agreed to go on a date with him. A four-year courtship followed, but it wasn’t always smooth. Once they were engaged, they set several wedding dates that her fiancé then broke, and he would often disappear from her life for months. When they finally married in 1957, it was at a Las Vegas courthouse.
Crosby’s movie career didn’t continue long after her wedding; her husband preferred a stay-at-home wife. But some of her most prominent roles were in films that came out in the early years of their marriage. They included “The 7th Voyage of Sinbad,” “Anatomy of a Murder,” and “The Big Circus.” But by the beginning of the 1960s, Crosby had largely retired to concentrate on her family and raise their three children, Harry, Mary, and Nathaniel. She did appear with Bing on the annual Crosby family Christmas TV specials and in Minute Maid orange juice commercials.
After her spouse’s 1977 death, Crosby occasionally returned to acting. Her later work included the TV movie “The Initiation of Sarah” and the 2010 film “Queen of the Lot.” In 2000, she married Maurice Sullivan; he died in a 2010 car accident that also seriously injured Crosby.
Notable quote
“By the time we had courted, I knew I liked [Bing] very much, and he liked me very much. By the time we married, I realized I could survive without him, and he realized he didn’t want to survive without me. I liked that. That’s a good attitude to enter a marriage with.” — from a 2014 interview for Smashing Interviews
Tributes to Kathryn Crosby
Full obituary: The New York Times
