Kathryn Grayson
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Kathryn Grayson (born February 9, 1922) is an American actress and singer who was born Zelma Kathryn Hedrick. She married twice, first to actor John Shelton, second to actor/singer Johnnie Johnston. She has one daughter. Throughout the 1950's, had an affair with Howard Hughes and was briefly engaged to him.
One of the most controversial sopranos with a high, if painfully aspirated, coloratura, Miss Grayson seems to have few admirers in the world of professional vocalists. Though she started out MGM's answer to Deanna Durbin (with films such as Seven Sweethearts and Anchors Aweigh), she proved herself a decent star in the film versions of the Broadway hits Show Boat (1951) and Kiss Me, Kate (1953). Grayson also appeared in a duo of films with tenor Mario Lanza.
With the end of MGM's great era of musicals, so ended Miss Grayson's film career. She took over for Julie Andrews on Broadway in Camelot, but flopped in the part. Although she had a lifelong dream of being an opera star, she never had much success with it, appearing in only a small handful of operas in the '60s.
Despite being overshadowed these days by MGM contemporaries such as Jane Powell, Ann Miller, Cyd Charisse, Esther Williams and Ann Blyth, Miss Grayson (and her ample figure) seems to have gained cult status among a small, but wildly devoted, crowd of fans.
Filmography
- Andy Hardy Gets Spring Fever (1939)
- Andy Hardy's Private Secretary (1941)
- The Vanishing Virginian (1942)
- Rio Rita (1942)
- [[[Seven Sweethearts]] (1942)
- Thousands Cheer (1943)
- Anchors Aweigh (1945)
- Ziegfeld Follies (1946)
- Two Sisters from Boston (1946)
- Till the Clouds Roll By (1946)
- It Happened to Brooklyn (1947)
- The Kissing Bandit (1948)
- That Midnight Kiss (1949)
- The Toast of New Orleans (1950)
- Grounds for Marriage (1951)
- Show Boat (1951)
- Lovely to Look At (1952)
- The Desert Song (1953)
- So This Is Love (1953)
- Kiss Me, Kate (1953)
- The Vagabond King (1956)
- The Amazing World of Psychic Phenomena (1977) (documentary)
- A Century of Cinema (1994) (documentary)de:Kathryn Grayson