Karen Sharpe | |
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 Sharpe in 2011 | |
| Born | Karen Kay Sharpe [1] September 20, 1934 San Antonio, Texas, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Film and television actress |
| Years active | 1952–present |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 2 |
Karen Kay Sharpe (born September 20, 1934) [1] is an American film and television actress. [3] [4] She is known for playing Laura Thomas in the American western television series Johnny Ringo . [1]
Sharpe was born in San Antonio, Texas, the daughter of Dorothy Shrout and Kirk Howard Sharpe. [1] Her father was a businessman [1] and oilman. [5] She was an ice skater in Hollywood, California and a student at the Hollywood Professional School. [1] She studied dancing with ballet dancer and choreographer Adolph Bolm in Los Angeles, California. [6]
Sharpe had unsuccessful screen tests while she worked as a model. [1] After she was discovered by a talent scout, she began her career in 1952, starring in the film Army Bound . [1] Sharpe also appeared in the films The Sniper , Bomba and the Jungle Girl , Holiday for Sinners , The Vanquished , Strange Fascination and Mexican Manhunt . [7] She guest-starred in television programs, including Gunsmoke (1957 episode “Sweet and Sour”), Bonanza , Death Valley Days , Perry Mason , The Wild Wild West , The Texan , Rawhide , Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. , Trackdown , Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer , 77 Sunset Strip , The Man from U.N.C.L.E. , The Millionaire and I Dream of Jeannie . [8] In 1955, Sharpe won the Golden Globe Award in the category New Star of the Year – Actress for her acting performance as Nell Buck in the 1954 film The High and the Mighty , [8] along with actresses Shirley MacLaine and Kim Novak. [9]
In 1959, Sharpe starred in the new CBS western television series Johnny Ringo , playing Laura Thomas. [1] She retired in 1966, last appearing in the television film Valley of Mystery, [1] playing Connie Lane. [10]
Sharpe married Chester Stevens Marshall, an actor, in 1957. [1] She later filed for divorce from Marshall, on the grounds that he had physically abused her. According to the Odessa American , due to beatings at the hands of Marshall, her rib cage was contused and her head was smashed into brickwork. [11] The divorce became final on September 18, 1962. [1] [12] Chester Stevens Marshall was murdered at his home in 1974. [1]
In the early 1960s Sharpe inherited her father's business, and spent several years running it in Texas before selling up and returning to California. [13]
Sharpe subsequently married Stanley Kramer, a film director and producer, on September 1, 1966. [1] [8] They were married in Beverly Hills, California. [8] They had two children, Jennifer and Katharine. [1]
Sharpe settled in Seattle, Washington in 1978 [1] and moved to Beverly Hills, California, in 1985. [1]
In 2022, Sharpe revealed that she was sexually assaulted and harassed by comic actor Jerry Lewis on the set of The Disorderly Orderly (1964). [14] [15] She stated that Lewis had sent for Sharpe to come to his office, whereupon he grabbed and fondled her, then unzipped his pants. [14] Sharpe stated that "I was dumbstruck." [14] She rebuffed his advances, which enraged Lewis so much that that was the last time she ever worked with him. [14] Actress Hope Holiday shared that she was similarly sexually assaulted by Lewis. [16]
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