Kathryn Crawford

Kathryn Crawford, also spelled Katherine Crawford, (October 5, 1908 – December 7, 1980) was an American film and theatre actress of the 1920s and 1930s.

Born Katherine Moran in Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, Crawford had a somewhat tumultuous childhood. Her parents divorced when she was four years old; she and her sister stayed with her mother. In 1917, her mother was hospitalized after an accident. While her mother was in the hospital an aunt took Kathryn and her sister, Margaret (1907-1975) away from their mother's house to live with their father.

Soon after Crawford's mother fell ill, her father moved the family to Los Angeles, California. She didn't get along with her stepmother, and at the age of 15, Crawford eloped with her sister's boyfriend to get out of the house. After a year and a half of marriage, the two separated. Her mother, who later remarried and was working as a hotelmaid, searched 12 years for her daughters and found them after she saw Kathryn in a movie magazine in 1929.

Crawford worked as a shop assistant for some time but was determined to make use of her singing voice and decided to pursue musical comedy. She began performing in jobs across the Pacific Coast until she finally got her big break, as the ingenue in the play Hit the Deck. The play was successful and she attracted the attention of director Wesley Ruggles, who gave her a screen test that won her a contract with Universal Pictures. They would later marry.

Crawford starred in her first film in 1929, when she appeared opposite Hoot Gibson in King of the Rodeo. She would star in seven films that year, and in 1930 she appeared in another six films, including Safety in Numbers (1930) alongside Carole Lombard and up and coming actress and "WAMPAS Baby Star" Josephine Dunn.

Her only starring role on Broadway was in the Cole Porter musical The New Yorkers in which she was the original singer of "Love for Sale". However, by 1931 her career had cooled. She would star in only one film that year, and only three between 1932 and 1933, only one of which would be a starring lead role.

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