Kathryn Crawford

Acting

Kathryn Crawford

Born 1908-10-05 · Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, USA

From Wikipedia 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 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. Crawford's final acting part came in 1941, when she was credited under the name "Katherine Crawford" in City of Missing Girls, and which starred H. B. Warner and John Archer. She retired from acting after that film, and moved to Pasadena, California. Crawford turned to interior decorating, which she pursued for 40 years. She designed the interiors for the homes and apartments of famous people like Baron Hilton, Douglas MacArthur and President Herbert Hoover. She was the consulting designer for Mary Pickford's Pickfair estate for 20 years. A member of the founding friends of Harvey Mudd College, Claremont,she also was a member of the founders of the Los Angeles Music Center and the Blue Ribbon 400. She was a member of the Society for Preservation of Variety Arts,the Los Angeles County Museum and the Society of American Interior Designers. Crawford died of cancer at the Las Encinas Hospital in Pasadena, California, on December 10, 1980. She was 72 years old.

Acting credits

Señor Americano poster
7.0

A U.S. soldier goes after bandits in California, although it is still owned by Mexico.

Señor Americano

1929

Red Hot Rhythm poster
9.0

Walter, a songwriter who is in love with Mary, a nightclub singer, prefers to make a living by fleecing crackpot songwriters and promoting their creations. When Walter writes "At Last I'm in Love" for Mary, she promises to plug the song at the Frivolity Club, but he leaves in a huff when she flirts with Sam, a legitimate song publisher. On the street, he gives refuge to Claire, a girl accused of a theft, and hires her as his secretary. Mrs. Fioretta gives Walter a large sum to publish her song, "The Night Elmer Died," but Sam induces Mary to get Walter to stop the deal. When Walter discovers that Claire is having an affair with Sam, he returns to Mary at the club. A lost film.

Red Hot Rhythm

1929

King of Jazz poster
6.3

A large-scale revue musical built around Paul Whiteman and his orchestra, presenting a series of musical performances, sketches, and staged tableaux in early two-color Technicolor, emblematic of Hollywood’s early sound-era “all-star” musical productions.

King of Jazz

1930

Emma poster
6.6

After decades of raising the motherless Smith children, housekeeper Emma Thatcher is faced with resentment when she marries their father.

Emma

1932

The Climax poster
8.0

Young Italian girl wants to become a great opera singer.

The Climax

1930

New Morals for Old poster
4.5

Proper parents who treat their adult children as teenagers have a son who wants to go to Paris to study art, and a daughter in love with a married man.

New Morals for Old

1932

The Concentratin' Kid poster
7.0

A cowboy who loves a radio singer he's never met makes a bet that he can meet and win her.

The Concentratin' Kid

1930

Flying High poster
5.8

An inventor and his lanky girlfriend set an altitude record in his winged contraption.

Flying High

1931

City of Missing Girls poster
4.7

A female reporter goes undercover to investigate the series of mysterious disappearances of young women, who were all linked to a local drama school.

City of Missing Girls

1941

Safety in Numbers poster
5.5

Before handing over a large inheritance, a guardian hires three chorus girls to educate his charge about the "underside" of big-city life.

Safety in Numbers

1930

Mountain Justice poster
7.5

In the Kentucky mountains, Ken McTavish comes to Kettle Creek looking for the killer of his father. Pretending to be deaf so he can investigate, he arouses the suspicions of the Harland clan, a family in a longstanding feud with his own.

Mountain Justice

1930

Skyway poster
5.8

A cocky young pilot, at the urging of his girlfriend, takes a nice, "safe" job at the bank where her father is president.

Skyway

1933

King of the Rodeo poster
7.0

A Montana cowboy battles lowlifes while preparing for a competition in Chicago.

King of the Rodeo

1929

Hide-Out poster
10.0

A bootlegger on the run from the law hides out on a college campus. He disguises himself as a student and soon becomes the school's star athlete and the most popular man on campus.

Hide-Out

1930

Modern Love poster
10.0

In order to keep her job, a young dress designer must keep her recent marriage a secret from her boss. An important client arrives from Paris and her boss decides to hold a dinner party for the man at the girl's house. When her husband finds out that the client wants to take her back to Paris so she can "study," he comes up with a plan to stop it, and it begins with his being the "server" at the dinner party.

Modern Love

1929