Kathryn Grayson
b. Zelma Kathryn Hedrick, 9 February 1922, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA. An actress and singer with a spectacular soprano voice and a charming and ingenuous personality who was popular in MGM musicals in the '40s and '50s. She is said to have been discovered while singing on Eddie Cantor's radio show in the late '30s, and made her film debut in 1941 with Mickey Rooney in ANDY HARDY'S PRIVATE SECRETARY. After being teamed with the comedy duo Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in RIO RITA (1942), during the rest of the '40s, and in the '50s, she co-starred with major stars such as Frank Sinatra, Mario Lanza, and Howard Keel in a string of musicals which included SEVEN SWEETHEARTS, Thousands Cheer, TWO SISTERS FROM BOSTON, Ziegfeld Follies, Till The Clouds Roll By, It Happened In Brooklyn, THE TOAST OF NEW ORLEANS, Show Boat, LOVELY TO LOOK AT, THE DESERT SONG, Kiss Me Kate, and THE VAGABOND KING (1956). In SO THIS IS LOVE (1953), she portrayed opera singer Grace Moore, and in some of the other films she played characters attempting to audition for maestros such as José Iturbi with the intention of making a career as a classical singer. As the golden age of movie musicals drew to a close, Grayson played concert and clubs for a time, and in the '60s toured in revivals of well-known stage musicals. She emerged from retirement in 1989 to join Dorothy Lamour, June Allyson, Ann Miller, and Alice Faye and others in London for a one-night extravaganza called THE MGM LADIES AND THE HOLLYWOOD GREAT STARS.