| Gary Crosby | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Name: | Gary Evan Crosby |
| Born: | June 27, 1933 |
| Birth Hometown: | Los Angeles, California |
| Died: | August 24, 1995 |
| Place of death: | Burbank, California |
| Occupation: | Actor, singer |
| Years active: | 1945-1955 |
Gary Evan Crosby (June 27, 1933 – August 24, 1995) was an American actor and singer. His parents were Bing Crosby, of whom he wrote a highly critical memoir, and the singer and actress Dixie Lee.
Biography[]
Gary Crosby was born in Los Angeles, California and graduated from Stanford University. He entered the entertainment business and performed in a harmony singing group, The Crosby Boys, with his three brothers, Philip, Lindsay, and Dennis, during the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. As a teenager, he duetted with his father on two songs, "Sam's Song" and "Play a Simple Melody", which became the first double-sided gold record in history. He also recorded duets with Louis Armstrong and at least one 45-single with Sammy Davis Jr. He also performed on several variety programs, including ABC's The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom and NBC's The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford.
In the mid-1950s, he had his own radio program, the Gary Crosby Show on CBS. The musical variety program debuted June 6, 1954, as a summer replacement for Bing Crosby's show.
Actor[]
As an actor, Crosby appeared in many television programs. On March 20, 1955, he appeared on The Jack Benny Program Season 5, Episode 13. Later, he was briefly under contract to 20th Century-Fox in the late 1950s. He appeared in a number of supporting roles for the studio, normally comedies in which Crosby played a soldier: Mardi Gras (1958) with Pat Boone; Holiday for Lovers (1959), as Carol Lynley's love interest; A Private's Affair (1959), with Sal Mineo; The Right Approach (1961) with Frankie Vaughan.
He is perhaps best-remembered for his recurring roles as Eddie the scheming bellhop on The Bill Dana Show and Officer Edward "Ed" Wells on NBC's Adam-12 from 1968 to 1975, as well as appearances on several other shows produced by Jack Webb's Mark VII Limited (including an episode of Dragnet 1969 and five episodes of Emergency!). In addition to the aforementioned, he also appeared in three episodes of The Rockford Files. Crosby appeared in, In The Heat Of The Night, as Mal Tabert, in When The Music Stopped, as manager of Robert Goulet, who shoots and kills a stalker in 1989.
In 1965, he made a guest appearance on Perry Mason as singer Jazbo Williams in "The Case of the Frustrated Folk Singer". He appeared in Girl Happy (1965), starring Elvis Presley, with whom he had been stationed in the Army in Germany.
In 1964, Crosby appeared in the last filmed episode of The Twilight Zone. Entitled "Come Wander with Me", the episode co-starred Bonnie Beecher (in her very first role) and was directed by Richard Donner.
Gary also made an appearance in his father's 1964 sitcom, The Bing Crosby Show (1964 TV series) in the second episode as a lookalike. In the 1970s, he appeared occasionally on game shows such as Match Game and Tattletales as a guest panelist. He married and divorced three times; he had one stepchild as a result.
In 1983, six years after his father's death, Crosby published an autobiography, Going My Own Way, which revealed the effects of his alcoholism and his difficult childhood as a result of his mother's alcoholism and his father's emotional and physical abuse.
All of Gary's immediate siblings disputed the abuse claims. Phillip Crosby vociferously attacked Gary's claims about their father. Around the time Gary published his claims, Phillip stated to the press that "Gary is a whining, bitching crybaby, walking around with a two-by-four on his shoulder and just daring people to nudge it off." Nevertheless, Phillip did not deny that Crosby believed in corporal punishment. In an interview with People magazine, Phillip stated that "we never got an extra whack or a cuff we didn't deserve". During an interview in 1999 by the Globe, Phillip said:
Dennis and Lindsay Crosby confirmed that Bing sometimes subjected his sons to harsh physical discipline when they broke the rules, but they defended their father against Gary's claims. Shortly before Gary's book was actually published, Lindsay said, "I'm glad [Gary] did it. I hope it clears up a lot of the old lies and rumors." Unlike Gary, Lindsay stated that he preferred to remember "all the good things I did with my dad and forget the times that were rough". However, after the book (which, aside of the abuse claims, was largely a self critique) was published, Lindsay commented on it:
Dennis also distanced himself by saying:
Gary's first wife of 19 years, Barbara Cosentino, of whom Gary wrote in his book, "I could confide in her about Mom and Dad and my childhood", and with whom Gary stayed friendly after the divorce, was also critical of Gary's book but suggested that Gary couldn't be made responsible:
Bing's younger brother, singer and jazz bandleader Bob Crosby, recalled at the time of Gary's revelations that Bing was a "disciplinarian", as their mother and father had been. He added, "We were brought up that way." In an interview for the same article, Gary clarified that Bing "was like a lot of fathers of that time. He was not out to be vicious, to beat children for his kicks."
Gary Crosby's adopted son was also critical of his stepfather's abuse claims. He said in a 2003 interview:
Bing Crosby's daughter Mary Crosby said in a 2014 interview that Gary Crosby told her the publishers had encouraged him to exaggerate his claims and he had written the book just for money.
The author of the most recent biography on Bing Crosby, Gary Giddins, claims that Gary Crosby's memoir is not reliable on many instances and cannot be trusted on the abuse stories.
Death[]
Gary Crosby died of lung cancer in Burbank, California in 1995, and is interred at Forest Lawn-Hollywood Hills Cemetery.