Kathryn Grant
Acting • Born 1933-11-25 – Died 2024-09-20
Biography
Kathryn Crosby (November 25, 1933 - September 20, 2024) was an American actress and singer who also performed under the stage-name Kathryn Grant. Born Olive Kathryn Grandstaff in Houston, Texas, she graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1955. Two years later she became Bing Crosby's second wife. The couple had three children, Harry, Mary Frances, and Nathaniel. She appeared as a guest star on her husband's 1964–1965 ABC sitcom The Bing Crosby Show. She largely retired after their marriage, but did have a featured role in the courtroom drama Anatomy of a Murder. She also played the part of "Mama Bear" alongside her husband and children in Goldilocks and starred with Jack Lemmon in Operation Mad Ball in 1957. 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. For 16 years ending in 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 Crosby. On November 4, 2010, Crosby was seriously injured in an automobile accident in the Sierra Nevada that killed her 85-year-old husband, Maurice William Sullivan.
Filmography
41 credits
Anatomy of a Murder
Movie • 1959
Mary Pilant
Rear Window
Movie • 1954
Girl at Songwriter's Party (uncredited)
The Initiation of Sarah
Movie • 1978
Mrs. Goodwin
Cell 2455 Death Row
Movie • 1955
Jo-Anne
Bing Crosby's Sun Valley Christmas Show
Movie • 1973
The Brothers Rico
Movie • 1957
Norah Malaks Rico
The Phenix City Story
Movie • 1955
Ellie Rhodes
Gunman's Walk
Movie • 1958
Cecily "Clee" Chouard
Operation Mad Ball
Movie • 1957
Lt. Betty Bixby
The Night the World Exploded
Movie • 1957
Laura 'Hutch' Hutchinson
The 7th Voyage of Sinbad
Movie • 1958
Princess Parisa
1001 Arabian Nights
Movie • 1959
Princess Yasminda (voice)
5 Against the House
Movie • 1955
Jean, Young Woman in Nightclub (uncredited)
Storm Center
Movie • 1956
Hazel Levering
Queen of the Lot
Movie • 2010
Elizabeth Lambert
Goldilocks
Movie • 1970
Self / Mama Bear (voice)
The Wild Party
Movie • 1956
Honey
Mister Cory
Movie • 1957
Jen Vollard
The Big Circus
Movie • 1959
Jeannie Whirling
Casanova's Big Night
Movie • 1954
Girl on Bridge (uncredited)
Reprisal!
Movie • 1956
Taini
Tight Spot
Movie • 1955
Girl Honeymooner (uncredited)
The Guns of Fort Petticoat
Movie • 1957
Anne Martin
A Bing Crosby Christmas
Movie • 1998
Self / Narrator
A Princess for Magoo
Movie • 1959
Bing Crosby: The Television Specials Volume 2 – The Christmas Specials
Movie • 2010
Self
The Magic of Bing Crosby
Movie • 1991
Self
Bing Crosby: Rediscovered
Movie • 2014
Self
So This Is Love
Movie • 1953
Showgirl (uncredited)
Bing Crosby's Merrie Olde Christmas
Movie • 1977
Self
Living It Up
Movie • 1954
Manicurist (uncredited)
Bing Crosby: The Christmas Years
Movie • 1978
Herself
Preminger: Anatomy of a Filmmaker
Movie • 1991
actress 'Anatomy of a Murder' (archive footage) (uncredited)
Unchained
Movie • 1955
Sally Haskins
The Tony Danza Show
TV • 2004
Self
Ben Casey
TV • 1961
The Bing Crosby Show
TV • 1964
The Mike Douglas Show
TV • 1961
Self - Co-Host
What's My Line?
TV • 1950
Self - Mystery Guest
Father Knows Best
TV • 1954
Maxine
The Mike Douglas Show
TV • 1961
Self