Karen Sharpe

Karen Sharpe
Sharpe with daughter Katharine, 2011
Born	Karen Kay Sharpe (1934-09-20) September 20, 1934 (age 82) San Antonio, Texas, U.S.
Residence	Los Angeles, California
Occupation	Film and television actress and producer
Years active	1952-1966
Television	Johnny Ringo
Spouse(s)	Chester Stevens (1957-62; divorced) Stanley Kramer (1966-2001; his death)
Children	Jennifer Kramer Katharine Kramer

Karen Sharpe (born September 20, 1934) is an American former actress of film and television, who appeared on screen from 1952 to 1966. She is the surviving third wife of producer/director Stanley Kramer, to whom she was married from 1966 until his death in 2001. She has since been the caretaker of the Kramer estate and legacy.

Karen Kay Sharpe was born in San Antonio, Texas and studied ballet and theater as a child. In 1952, she appeared in Kramer's production of The Sniper, directed by Edward Dmytryk. She spoke three lines in the film while sitting on a drugstore stool and did not personally meet Kramer at that time. That same year, she was cast uncredited as the younger sister of Janice Rule in the film Holiday for Sinners, opposite William Campbell. In 1953, she appeared as Lucy Colfax in the John Payne-Jan Sterling film, The Vanquished.

Director William A. Wellman cast Sharpe in the 1954 Warner Brothers airline disaster film The High and the Mighty as Nell Buck, a young bride who overcomes fear of death through passion for her new husband, Milo, played by John Smith. Her performance in The High and the Mighty propelled Sharpe to the 1954 Golden Globe Award for "New Star of the Year". In 1955, she played Stella Atkins in the western film, Man with the Gun.

In 1959-60, Sharpe was cast in eighteen episodes as the girlfriend, Laura Thomas, in the CBS western series, Johnny Ringo, starring Don Durant in the title role of a fictitious gunfighter turned small-town sheriff. Johnny Ringo was the first series produced by Aaron Spelling. In 1961, she appeared in the episode "Never Walk Alone" of ABC's western series, Stagecoach West as Ruby Walker.