Getty Images
Katharine Crosby, an actress and singer from Hollywood’s Golden Age and widow of crooner Bing Crosby, died Friday evening surrounded by friends.
Thursday According to reports, Crosby, 90, was at his home in Hillsboro, California at the time of his death.
Known in Hollywood as Katharine Grant, she married Bing Crosby, more than 30 years her senior, on October 24, 1957, and remained with him until his death 20 years later.
Crosby wrote about his time with Bing in the books Bing and Other Things (1967), My Life with Bing (1983) and The Last Years with Bing (2002).
Crosby was born on November 25, 1933 in West Columbia, Texas, and made her film debut in 1953. She is best known for her role in Ray Harryhausen’s Dynamation special effects Technicolor fantasy epic The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958).
Other film appearances included an uncredited appearance in Hitchcock’s Rear Window (1954) and roles in Mad Balls (1957) and Anatomy of a Murder (1959).
She appeared with her husband on his sitcom The Bing Crosby Show in 1965 and in a television Christmas special, but otherwise made only sporadic television appearances, including a role in the made-for-TV horror film Sarah Speaks (1978).
One of her most high-profile jobs in decades was the 1996 Broadway revival of “State Fair,” producer David Merrick’s final show. It was nominated for two Tony Awards but closed after 118 performances.
Having not appeared in a feature film since 1959, she appeared in Henry Jaglom’s Queen of the Lot in 2010, which was her final film and television appearance.
Getty Images
In 2000, she remarried Maurice Sullivan, but lost him in a car accident in 2010 in which Crosby was also seriously injured.
Crosby is survived by his three children with Bing, Harry and Nathaniel, and “Dallas” actress Mary, as well as grandchildren.
