Deaths 2022

Deaths 2021

Deaths 2020

Deaths 2019

Deaths 2018

Deaths 2017

Deaths 2016

Deaths 2015

Deaths 2014

Deaths 2013

Deaths 2012

Deaths 2011

Deaths 2010

Deaths 2009


Full list by date of death

Kathryn Grayson

Singer/actress

Born - 9 February 1922, Winston-Salem, N Carolina, USA
Died - 17 February 2010

Dark-haired, apple-cheeked, bow-lipped, petite musical star with hour-glass figure and soaring coloratura voice. MGM signed the drop-dead-gorgeous Grayson (born Zelma Kathryn Hedrick) at 18, sidetracking her from a budding operatic career, and kept her on for 12 years. She debuted as Mickey Rooney's girlfriend in Andy Hardy's Private Secretary (1941), but shot to stardom in Anchors Aweigh (1945). She made two films with Mario Lanza - their voices dovetailed perfectly - but did her best work later, most notably in Show Boat (1951) and Kiss Me Kate (1953), both opposite Howard Keel, with whom, no longer with the svelte figure of MGM days, she later toured nightclubs. Her last cinema film was The Vagabond King in 1956. Her two marriages, to actor John Shelton and actor-crooner Johnnie Johnston, both ended in divorce.