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(Karen Kay Sharpe)
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| 20 September 33 |
is born in San Antonio, Texas, to Kirk Howard Sharpe and his wife Dorothy, nee Shrout
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| ? |
graduates from high school in San Antonio
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in summer, she goes to California to study skating / goes to Hollywood as a professional ice skater
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attends Hollywood Professional School
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| 46 |
sees The Jolson Story forty-eight times. Eventually, lead Larry Parks signs her autograph book at the Beverly Hills Hotel.
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tries to be discovered at Schwab's Drug Store like Lana Turner allegedly was
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| c. 50 |
tests for MGM at age 16 or 17 and fails
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tests at Columbia for Saturday's Hero, but the producer eventually casts his wife, actress Donna Reed, for the part
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tests for Universal and fails
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her agent, Leon Lance, has several photos of her done, and she becomes a cover girl
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| 52 |
her magazine photos get her a part in Army Bound
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meets casting director Lynn Stalmaster while testing for the television series "Big Town" and falls for him. They almost marry.
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| 53 |
meets actress Jan Sterling while filming The Vanquished. She will become her mentor.
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| January 53 |
poses with 82-year-old actress Gertrude W. Hoffman, who's with her in the TV series "My Little Margie." Hoffman began her acting career the same year Karen was born.
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| 54 |
tests opposite young actor John Smith for The High and the Mighty
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is the favorite photographic subject of glamour photographer Paul Hesse
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| November 54 |
is a newcomer to stardom on the Wayne-Fellows contract list. She admits she didn't get her breaks through TV, "but I learned how to be at ease before the camera. I learned how to come through as an actress in the shortest time possible. They throw a script at you two days before they're ready to shoot. You have to be good."
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| December 54 |
columnist Walter Winchell announces her photo in the upcoming Pageant with "Danger! Curves Ahead!"
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receives a mink stole for Christmas, presented by her real daddy
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| January 55 |
is escorted by Smith to the premiere of A Star is Born
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gives rule for a happy marriage: "Right now, as an actress, I wouldn't make a good wife."
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| August 55 |
dates Mark Damon, newest sigh of Hollywood's cutest bobby-soxers, like fellow starlets Beverly Tyler and Natalie Wood
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| 1 October 55 |
is named a "Deb Star of 1955," together with Cathy Crosby, Anita Ekberg, Lilian Montevecchi, Jody Lawrence, Mara Corday, Lori Nelson, Tracey Morgan, Marisa Pavan, Kip Hamilton, and Gloria Thomas
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| November 55 |
is still the favorite girl of actor Perry Lopez, who was also recently seen with actress Marisa Pavan
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| January 56 |
returns to New York
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| June 56 |
is a veteran of the NBC daytime "Matinee Theater" shows, having already starred in eight of them
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| December 56 |
actor Victor Mature proposes to her
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| July 57 |
columnist Lee Mortimer thinks her blaze with Mark Damon "lights up the coast"
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sees actor Chet Marshall again even though she sent back his ring
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is an item with Bob Neal before his shift to socialite-actress Pamela Curran
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| December 57 |
plans to marry Marshall on December 28. Chet decided to give up grease paint and go into the automobile business with his father.
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| End 57 |
marries bit actor Chester Stevens, "Chet," Marshall. He's 25; she's 20.
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| 18 March 58 |
she and actress Natalie Wood assist at the opening of Wil Wright's new ice-cream parlor
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| August 58 |
columnist Lee Mortimer reports that she's "sharp about Martin Miller, and I promise, never again"
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| 59 |
is cast by her old friend, producer Aaron Spelling, for the female lead in his upcoming television series "Johnny Ringo"
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| September 59 |
she and actor George Nader enjoy luncheon at the Tahitian in Studio City
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| February 60 |
gives beauty hints advising "Let moderation be your guide."
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| 28 January 61 |
she and Marshall separate
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| 1 May 61 |
for the second time in two years, she files suit for divorce against Marshall in Los Angeles Superior Court. She charges Marshall with cruelty and demands all the community property and reasonable support.
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| ? |
is in court to obtain an order restraining Marshall from bothering her
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| Early August 61 |
is served with an application for $613 monthly alimony by her estranged husband, Marshall, in Los Angeles. Marshall says he wants the alimony so he can live in the style in which he and his wife were accustomed during their marriage. He testifies that he sacrificed his own career to promote hers.
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| 10 August 61 |
Marshall's lawyer, Irving A. Kanarek, tells the Los Angeles court that "When a wife earns more than her husband, he should be granted alimony." He argues that since women have reached a state of equity, it is not unreasonable that if the wife earns more than her husband, she should pay him support. But Commissioner George M. Dell denies unemployed Marshall's petition for $613 monthly alimony from Karen saying Marshall is "perfectly capable of supporting himself." Marshall's 29; she's 27.
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| 30 March 62 |
attends the party thrown by famed couturier, Princess Marusia, at the Peppermint West in Hollywood. Among the guests are Terry Moore, Eric Fleming, Carolyn Jones and Aaron Spelling, Mrs. Johnny Green, Mrs. Van Johnson, Mickey Callan, Jody McCrea, and Ty Hardin.
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| Early September 62 |
columnist Earl Wilson reports that she's president of three corporations in San Antonio, Texas
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| 14 September 62 |
Marshall asks for $750 monthly alimony from her. She testifies that he struck her and "threatened my life" in their stormy 5-year-marriage, during which they separated 19 times.
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| 18 September 62 |
gets a divorce from Marshall in Los Angeles after testifying he had beaten and had cursed her. Marshall withdraws his plea for $750 monthly alimony. Asked what he did during their three-year marriage, he said: "I did very little, other than working for Karin." He told a judge he went over scripts with her, rehearsed the lines, spoke them himself so she could imitate the nuances of his interpretation, and helped on the set with camera angles. She maintains he gave her only cursory help. Marshall testifies he's now in the advertising business but has no income from it. Marshall will die in 1974.
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| 64 |
meets producer Stanley Kramer while filming The Disorderly Orderly
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| December 64 |
gives a beauty hint saying "Try ice skating if you want pretty legs."
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| June 65 |
the press reports that she left the movies for economic enterprises in West Texas, which she sold at a profit and returned to Hollywood. She inherited an aluminum siding business, a moving and storage company and an air conditioning firm in San Antonio when her father died.
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| September 65 |
will star in the first production of Raquel Welch's new company, No Place for the Dead
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| 1 September 66 |
marries producer-director Stanley Kramer, former husband of Anne Pearce Kramer and Marilyn Erskine, in a small ceremony at Kramer's home in Beverly Hills. He's 50; she's 30. Each has been married before. Kramer brings with him two children, Casey and Larry, from his previous marriage to Anne Pearce. The ceremony is performed by the Reverend John J. Hinkle of Unity Church, Inglewood. The couple delays a honeymoon but will go to Europe later. Announcement of the wedding is made the day after.
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her daughter Katharine, "Kat," Kramer is born. She will become a child actress and later a singer-producer.
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her daughter Jennifer Kramer is born. She will become an actress.
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| 78 |
the Kramers move to the Seattle area
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| 20 February 01 |
becomes the widow of Kramer. Besides her, Kramer is survived by daughters Katherine, Jennifer and Casey; and his son, Larry.
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| ? |
returns to Beverly Hills to oversee their production company, International Films, and the Kramer Library Group
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| September 02 |
reacts with angry criticism to TV's documentary "Darkness at High Noon: The Carl Foreman Documents" made by Emmy-nominated writer-director Lionel Chetwynd about the blacklisted screenwriter, director Stanley Kramer, and the production of High Noon. Drawing heavily on a 1952 letter from Foreman to The New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther, the program alleges that Kramer failed to support Foreman and deprived the imperiled writer of full credit for High Noon. Karen dismisses the film as a "fraud" distorted by politics.
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Sources:
Ladies of the Westerns by Michael G. Fitzgerald and Boyd Magers, Dell's Who's Who on the Screen, Movie Life, The Lima News, Times-Bulletin, The Kerrville Times, The Daily Independent, The Independent Record, Mansfield News-Journal, Oakland Tribune, Nevada State Journal, Walla Walla Union-Bulletin, The Zanesville Signal, Syracuse Herald-Journal, Manitowac Herald-Times, The Sheboygan Press, Reno Evening Gazette, The Valley Independent, The Intelligencer Record, The Lincoln Star, Modern Screen, www.Ancestry.com, Marcia Tracy |
Recommended Books:
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Links:
Filmography |
