A pert, vivacious and absolutely stunning brunette, the former Kathryn Grant (nee Olive Kathryn Grandstaff) is now known publicly as Kathryn Crosby. She was born in the Deep South in 1933 and appeared on stage from age 3. A graduate of the University of Texas and a student nurse at one point, she found her way into films via the beauty pageant circuit. The fresh-faced hopeful soon rose through the standard starlet ranks from unbilled parts to chipper "sis" types and decorative love interests alongside filmdom's top male stars. She appeared opposite Richard Kiley in The Phenix City Story (1955), Tony Curtis in L'extravagant Mr Cory (1957), Jack Lemmon in Le bal des cinglés (1957), James Stewart in Autopsie d'un meurtre (1959) and Victor Mature in Le cirque fantastique (1959), among others. Her best known role, however, was as the princess-in-distress in the special effects-laden epic fantasy Le septième voyage de Sinbad (1958), which has since reached semi-cult status. For the most part, however, Kathryn was unchallenged as an actress and she retired rather uneventfully after marrying singer Bing Crosby in 1957. They had three children, including actress Mary Crosby of Dallas (1978) fame. Seemingly content with family life, she, along with her children, dutifully appeared opposite her husband singing and lightly joking in his many popular Christmas-special presentations and even hosted a couple of syndicated TV series, but that was about it. After Bing's death in 1977, however, she slowly involved herself in acting again, appearing every now and then on stage in such productions as "Same Time, Next Year", "Charley's Aunt" and a revival of the musical "State Fair" in 1996. In addition to authoring two sets of memoirs ("Bing and Other Things" and "My Life with Bing"), Kathryn annually hosts the Crosby Gold Tournament in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
