Catherine Craig

There was a time when Catherine Craig was known in Hollywood as a promising and talented "B"-level actress as opposed to being simply Mrs. Robert Preston. All in all, she handled it with grace, poise and wifely dedication. Born Catherine Jewel Feltus on January 18, 1915, in Bloomington, Indiana, she was the daughter of a circus proprietor and cinema owner who piqued her initial interest in the arts. Although she attended school in the States (in her native Bloomington), she spoke Spanish fluently as a result of her childhood trips with her family to South America (including Santiago, Chile). Graduating from the University of Indiana in 1936, she was a speech instructor's assistant for a time while appearing on the local stage in Indiana. Eventually relocating to Los Angeles in search of a professional career, her well-modulated voice and crisp diction came in handy when radio work came her way. She met actor Preston while both were fellow students at the Pasadena Playhouse. The lovely blue-eyed, chestnut-haired Catherine initially earned studio interest interest after being spotted by a 20th Century Fox talent agent. She promptly apprenticed with the films Doomed to Die (1940), Murder Over New York (1940) and Manhattan Heartbeat (1940). Catherine, however, earned a contract at her husband's studio, Paramount, but remained relatively obscure with a trail of decorative bit roles in such dubiously-titled "B" hokum as Las Vegas Nights (1941), West Point Widow (1941), Parachute Nurse (1942), Showboat Serenade (1944) and The Bride Wore Boots (1946). In the post-war years the blue-eyed, chestnut-haired beauty finally began to earn more noticeable assignments such as her lifeboat survivor in Seven Were Saved (1947), her wealthy fiancé menaced by a conniving Albert Dekker in the superb "B" crime thriller The Pretender (1947), and her innocent-eyed prairie flower opposite Randolph Scott in Albuquerque (1948). Following a few stage endeavors (she appeared with Preston in the plays "Girl of the Golden West" and "The Play's The Thing" in the late 1940s), she appeared in a few more films, the best being The Pretender (1947). By 1950 Catherine had drifted back to minor status and retired from films after a nothing part in No Man of Her Own (1950). From then on she completely avoided the limelight in support of her husband's career. Preston himself became disillusioned with films and the couple moved to New York wherein he became a Tony-winning Broadway performer of musicals and legit plays. Catherine appeared in an occasional play such as "Bell, Book and Candle" and "Inherit the Wind". After living in Greenwich, Connecticut, then Montecito, California, Preston's film career was rejuvenated when he transferred his Harold Hill success to the big screen in The Music Man (1962). He won an Oscar nomination decades later with Victor Victoria (1982). Following Preston's death from lung cancer in 1987, Catherine, along with former theater co-stars Mary Martin and Bernadette Peters, paid tribute to him at the Tony Awards presentation that year. Catherine settled in Santa Barbara and passed away at age 88 in 2004.