Kathryn Grayson
(February 9, 1922 – February 17, 2010)
Kathryn Grayson was an American actress and operatic soprano singer.
She was born Zelma Kathryn Elisabeth Hedrick in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The Hedrick family later moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where she was discovered singing on the empty stage of the St. Louis Municipal Opera House by a janitor, who introduced her to Frances Marshall of the Chicago Civic Opera.
Trained as an opera singer from the age of twelve, Grayson was contracted to MGM and established a career in films from the early 1940s. The actress was among the top movie musical performers of her day, starring opposite Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly in 1945's Anchors Aweigh. Most of her films were musicals and after several supporting roles, she was given lead roles in such films as Show Boat (1951) with Ava Gardner and Howard Keel and Kiss Me Kate (1953). She was paired with Howard Keel and Mario Lanza in some of her films.
When movie musicals fell out of favor with film audiences, she progressed to theatre work, and appeared in several musicals, including the highly successful Camelot from 1962 until 1964. During the 1960s, she performed in several operas, including La bohème, Madama Butterfly, Orpheus in the Underworld and La traviata.
Grayson appeared on television occasionally. Her first TV appearances were in the 1950s, and she received an Emmy nomination in 1956 for her performance in the General Electric Theater episode Shadow on the Heart with John Ericson. More recently, she appeared in several episodes of Angela Lansbury's series Murder, She Wrote in the late 1980s.
In Hollywood she married twice, first to the actor John Shelton and then to the actor/singer Johnnie Johnston with whom she had one daughter, Patricia Kathryn.
Grayson died of natural causes at her home in Los Angeles, California. She is survived by her daughter, two grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
RIP
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