Home> Facts and Trivia > Stars > Bing Crosby
Bing Crosby Facts
| Sign | Taurus |
| Born |
May 3, 1903 Tacoma, WA |
| Died |
Oct 14, 1977 Madrid, Spain |
| Age | Died at 74 |
| Total Facts | 84 |
"White Christmas" became the bestselling single for more than 50 years until overtaken in 1997 by "Candle in the Wind", Elton John's tribute to the late Princess Diana.
Mary Carlisle, who worked with him in films, noticed he was self-conscious about his height, and he wore lifts. Crosby once told Alan Ladd how pleased he was that Ladd was shorter than him at 5'5". Bing maintained he was 5' 9", but an office secretary named Nancy Briggs recalled a visit to his home when he wore slippers and she realized he was her height - 5' 7".
Stagecoach (1966) was his last major film. Though it did not get good reviews, his performance as the drunken doctor was praised. Crosby felt the movies had changed a lot since his heyday, although he let it be known that he was still open to offers.
A longtime supporter of the Republican Party, Crosby campaigned for Wendell Willkie in the 1940 Presidential election, because he strongly believed President Franklin D. Roosevelt should only serve two terms of office. When Roosevelt was easily re-elected, Crosby vowed never to become publicly involved in partisan politics again.
According to the Guinness Book of Records, his "White Christmas" has sold over 100 million copies around the world, with at least 50 million sales as singles.
According to ticket sales Crosby is, at 1,077,900,000 tickets sold, the third most popular actor of all time after Clark Gable and John Wayne. He is also, according to Quigley Publishing Company's International Motion Picture Almanac, tied for second on the "All Time Number One Stars List" with three other actors - Clint Eastwood, Tom Hanks and Burt Reynolds. Crosby was the #1 box office attraction for five years, beaten only by Tom Cruise who was #1 for seven years.
After Judy Garland was fired from MGM about 1950, he was one of the first to offer her work on his radio show to help her out of her financial woes. The two had marvelous chemistry as a comedy duo, and many of these audio recordings still survive today.
As a young adult he enjoyed carousing and drinking and actually received another nickname: "Binge" Crosby. He once spent two months in jail (weekends only) for DUI after a minor car accident, and surprised and shocked interviewers by advocating that pot be decriminalized.
At the time of his death he was considering buying an eighteen hole golf course in Kent, England.
At the time of his death in 1977, he was the biggest selling recording artist of all time.
Became seriously ill around Christmas 1973, with chest pains and respiratory problems. Both Bing and wife Kathryn Grant thought he had lung cancer. In January 1974 he felt so ill he consented to be hospitalized, and a large tumor was found in his left lung. The tumor and three-fifths of the lung were removed, and over the next months he slowly recovered. Since the tumor was benign, it was believed his illness was caused by a fungal infection from a recent safari in Africa.
Between 1915 and 1980 he was the only motion-picture star to rank as the #1 box-office attraction five times (1944-48). Between 1934 and 1954 he scored in the top ten 15 times.
Bing Crosby is caricaturized in a Merrie Melodies short cartoon called Hollywood Steps Out directed by Tex Avery (Warner Brothers 1941). The action takes place in the famed Ciro's nightclub where the Hollywood stars are having dinner. Bing Crosby announces the first act that evening. During his speech he is interrupted by a jockey on a race horse (a reference to his fondness for horse racing - he owned several race horses). Jokes about Crosby's horse racing passion would be referenced in other Warner Brothers cartoons as well, such as The Old Grey Hare.
Bing Crosby married his first wife (Dixie Lee) in September of 1930 at the Blessed Sacrament Church at 6657 W. Sunset Blvd. in North Hollywood, CA. Established back in 1904, Blessed Sacrament was the first Catholic church in the Hollywood area. Other celebrity members of the congregation were Irene Dunne and Loretta Young.
Bing Crosby was inducted into the Western Music Associaton Hall of Fame in 2008.
Biography in: "Who's Who in Comedy" by Ronald L. Smith, pg. 122-124. New York: Facts on File, 1992. ISBN 0816023387
Brother of bandleader Bob Crosby.
Delayed his marriage to Kathryn Grant until 1957 due to his long affair with Grace Kelly.
During the Vietnam War, a secret code was to have been broadcast informing all US personnel that an immediate evacuation had been ordered. The code was the playing of Crosby's "White Christmas" twice on the Armed Forces Vietnam Network (AFVN), followed by the announcement "The temperature in Hanoi is 105 and rising.".
Father, with actress Kathryn Grant, of sons Harry Crosby and Nathaniel Crosby, and of actress Mary Crosby.
Father, with singer Dixie Lee, of sons Gary Crosby, Phillip Crosby & Dennis Crosby (twins) and Lindsay Crosby. All 4 deceased. Both Dennis and Lindsay died due to suicide.
Four songs Crosby sang in movies - "Sweet Leilani" (1937), "White Christmas" (1942), "Swinging on a Star" (1944), and "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening" (1951) - won Oscars.
From the 1940s to the 1960s he owned 15% of the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team. His cameo in Angels in the Outfield (1951) was as part-owner of the team.
Grandfather of Denise Crosby
Grandfather of L. Chip Crosby Jr.
Has a street named after him in Iowa City, Iowa.
He and his second wife and younger children did TV commercials for Minute Maid orange juice, because he owned considerable stock in the company.
He appeared on approximately 4,000 radio broadcasts, nearly 3,400 of them his own programs, and single-handedly changed radio from a live-performance to a canned or recorded medium by presenting, in 1946, the first transcribed network show on ABC, thereby making that also-ran network a major force.
He is estimated to have sold between 600 million and 900 million records worldwide. Most of these sales were singles.
He is only one of five actors to be nominated for an Oscar twice for playing the same role in two separate films. He played Father O'Malley in Going My Way (1944) (for which he won the Oscar) and The Bells of St. Mary's (1945). The others are Paul Newman as Fast Eddie Felson in The Hustler (1961) and The Color of Money (1986), Peter O'Toole as Henry II in Becket (1964) and The Lion in Winter (1968), Al Pacino as Michael Corleone for The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather: Part II (1974) and Cate Blanchett as Elizabeth I in Elizabeth (1998) and Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007).
He is the most electronically recorded voice in history.
He received 23 gold records and was awarded platinum discs for his two biggest selling singles, "White Christmas" in 1960 and "Silent Night" in 1970.
He sang on 4,000 radio shows from 1931 to 1962 and was the top-rated radio star for eighteen of those years.
He was awarded 3 Stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Motion Pictures at 1611 Vine Street, for Radio at 6769 Hollywood Boulevard, and for Recording at 6751 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.
He was the 20th century's first multi-media entertainer: a star on radio, in movies and in chart-topping recordings. He had 38 No. 1 singles, which surpassed even Elvis Presley and The Beatles.
His eldest son Gary Crosby was vocal in criticizing Bing's violent ways as a father. He wrote a sensationalist tell-all biography titled "Going My Own Way" in 1983 which was touted as a "Daddy Dearest" about Bing. Though Lindsay Crosby and Dennis Crosby fluctuated between agreeing and disagreeing with Gary's criticisms of their father, Phillip Crosby defended Bing after the book was published. Two of the sons suffered bouts of depression, much as their mother Dixie Lee had, throughout their lives and committed suicide(Lindsay and Dennis, in 1989 and 1991, respectively). Gary died of lung cancer in 1995. Phillip died of a heart attack in 2004, having defended his father to the end. Bing's children from his second marriage, including daughter and actress Mary Crosby, praised him as a kind and loving father in later life.
His estate was valued at $150 million, making him one of the wealthiest entertainers in Hollywood, along with his friends Bob Hope and Fred MacMurray.
His father was of Irish Descent and his mother was Irish-American.
His favorite performer was Al Jolson.
His large ears were pinned back during his early films, until partway through She Loves Me Not (1934).
His last TV appearance was in Bing Crosby's Merrie Olde Christmas (1977) (TV) which was taped in London and broadcast, after his death, in the USA on 30 November 1977, and in the United Kingdom on 24 December 1977. This show has also been made available on commercial video. It is memorable for Crosby and David Bowie singing a duet.
His mother was of Irish and Finnish descent, while his father's family was English.
His son Gary accused him of domestic violence.
In 1948 a poll declared Crosby the most admired man in the world, ahead of President Harry S. Truman, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Jackie Robinson and Pope Pius XII.
In 1960 he received a platinum record as First Citizen of the Record Industry for having sold 200 million discs, a number that doubled by 1980.
In 1962 Crosby was the first recipient of the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
In 1969, it was reported that he was worth an estimated $75 million.
In a great many of his films, he played lighthearted comedy and musical roles as a singer or songwriter. His usual casual approach belied the fact that Crosby was a fine dramatic actor, as witnessed by his portrayals in Little Boy Lost (1953), The Country Girl (1954), Man on Fire (1957), and his last major film Stagecoach (1966). He also starred in the television movie Dr. Cook's Garden (1971) (TV) and won much critical acclaim for his performance.
In March 1977, after videotaping a concert for CBS to commemorate his 50th anniversary in show business, Crosby backed off the stage into an orchestra pit, rupturing a disc in his back that required a month of hospitalization.
In March of 1950, he had his appendix removed.