Photo: Pinterest
Born in San Antonio on September 20th, 1934, Karen Sharpe, grew up in Willshire Terrace and attended Alamo Heights High School.
Following initial interests in ballet and ice skating, she left San Antonio in 1948 with her mother to pursue an acting career in California.
She got the acting “bug” at an early age, working at the San Antonio Little Theater, and admitted to Lydia Lane at the Express News,”I can’t remember when I didn’t dream of being an actress and coming to Hollywood. When I felt that I wanted more professional training, I persuaded my mother to let me go to California”
Once there, she studied at the Hollywood Professional School from which she graduated in 1952
Each day after her classes, she worked in a Beverly Hills pastry shop to earn money for dramatic lessons and tuition. A frequent customer to the shop, and who was often served by Karen, was talent agent Leon Lance, who had discovered a number of actresses including Kim Hunter.
He also was a consultant at the dramatic school that Karen was attending. One day he overheard her reading a part in another room, and was delighted to see it was the familiar face from his favorite pastry shop.
This led to Karen being offered a part on Ann Sothern’s “Private Secretary” series. Around this time she was also chosen as one of the fifteen most promising screen actresses by Modern Screen Magazine.
Her face was seen on billboards and there were interviews and photo spreads in magazines like “Cosmopolitan” She was also the face of television commercials advertising shampoo where she danced across the screen on giant bottles of the product.
Photo: Tumblr
Numerous movie roles followed as her popularity soared in Tinsel Town. Moviegoers saw her in “Army Bound” “The Sniper” “Holiday for Sinners” “Bomba and the Jungle Girl” “The Vanquished” and “Mexican Manhunt” Her big break came when after being introduced to John Wayne, he signed her for a role in the movie “The High and the Mighty”
Photo: Hamlette’s Soliloquy
She was so impressive in her role in the movie as Nell Buck, an amorous young bride, that she was awarded the Golden Globe in 1954 for “New Star of the Year”
Photo: Amazon
Around this time, her mother, Dorothy, filed for divorce from her Karen’s father on the ground of cruelty, and sought community property to the value of 1.5 million dollars. Her father at the time was an oilman in Texas.
Following a number of standout movie roles, the offers to appear on TV rolled in.
Aaron Spelling took note of her talents, and cast her as Laura Thomas in the television series “Johnny Ringo” which also starred a young Mark Goddard, who later earned fame as Major Don West in “Lost In Space”
Photo: ebay
Karen Sharpe was also often seen on the small screen in classic shows like “Gunsmoke” “Perry Mason” “77 Sunset Strip” “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” “Gomer Pyle USMC” “Rawhide” and alongside fellow Texan, Dan Blocker, in “Bonanza”
Photo: ebay
Photo: Getty Images
Her father, Howard K Sharpe, who was now the owner of the San Antonio Moving and Storage Co. died of a heart attack while at work in 1960. Karen inherited the bulk of her father’s estate, including the company headquarters on Perez Street.
Consequently, in May 1961 she took time away from her TV and movie commitments and returned to San Antonio for the grand opening of the new warehouse of her father’s business. Karen was the principal stockholder and Director of the company.
In September 1962, she was granted a divorce from her husband of 3 years, Chet Marshall, after testifying that he beat her and cursed her. He had applied for $750 a month alimony from her citing that he gave up work in order to assist her acting career. This request was denied in the divorce settlement.
Returning to Los Angeles, she scored a role in the pilot of a brand new show “I Dream of Jeannie” alongside Barbara Eden and Larry Hagman, where she played the role of Major Nelson’s fiancee, Melissa Stone.
Photo: Facebook
Photo: FamousFix
Around this time, Jerry Lewis signed her to appear as the lovestruck nurse Julie Blair in the movie “The Disorderly Orderly”
Photo: IMDb
Photo: IMDb
It was during the filming of this movie that Karen met famed director and producer Stanley Kramer who was overseeing the movie “Ship of Fools” on a nearby Paramount lot. Kramer had a long list of credits including “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” “On the Beach” “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” “Inherit the Wind” “The Caine Mutiny” and “High Noon”
Photo: TCM
However, it was almost a year later that they began dating, eventually marrying in September 1966 and she decided to close the curtain on her acting career at this time, and concentrate on her roles as a mother and as an assistant to her husband.
Photo: Reel Life With Jane
Stanley Kramer passed away in February 2001, and since then, the energetic Karen Sharpe has devoted her time in the promotion of the Stanley Kramer Library.
Over this time she also established the Stanley Kramer Award at the Producer’s Guild, along with the Stanley Kramer Fellowship Award in Directing at UCLA. These prestigious awards recognize young, socially-conscious filmmakers, with Sean Penn, Jane Fonda and Rita Moreno amongst the recipients.
Today we remember the amazing career of San Antonio’s own Karen Sharpe, and we wish her a very happy 90th birthday !
Photo: TV Insider
ADDITIONAL STORIES:
- As mentioned, Karen starred opposite Jerry Lewis in the comedy “The Disorderly Orderly” in 1964. During some interviews, she credited Jerry Lewis for casting her in the movie because it provided the opportunity for her to meet her future husband Stanley Kramer, who was filming on a nearby set. However, in a 2022 interview in “Vanity Fair”, Karen Sharpe claimed that during the filming of “The Disorderly Orderly” after being summonsed to his office, Jerry Lewis had made sexual advances to her, which she rejected. In the interview, another actress, Hope Holiday, made a similar claim against Jerry Lewis who passed away in 2017.
- Karen Sharpe worked alongside her husband Stanley Kramer on a number of projects. One of those was co-producing the movie ”Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” with him. The cast included Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn and Sidney Poitier.
Photo: Art.com
It was to be Spencer Tracy’s last film as he was in very poor health at the time and could only work two to three hours each day, and in an interview in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Karen Sharpe recalled Tracy’s last scene on May 24th, 1967. “When Spencer Tracy delivered the last line of that phenomenal speech — the summation speech I call it (he and Stanley were like brothers by the way) — they looked at each other and Stanley hugged Spence. They knew that was his last line, his last scene, and Stanley began to cry. I had never seen him cry before.” Spencer Tracy died of a heart attack 17 days later.
CREDITS:
Wikipedia
Britannica
IMDb
Newport News
Vanity Fair
People
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
U.S. Sun
Glamor Girls of the Silver Screen
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Memories of San Antonio 