- - Meet the Real-Life Loves of the “White Christmas” Cast (Including 1 Couple Who Met on Set!)

Erica MarrisonDecember 21, 2025 at 8:00 AM

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Bing Crosby and Kathryn Grant - Danny Kaye and wife Sylvia Fine

With a star-studded cast that has captured viewers’ hearts for generations, the classic holiday film White Christmas is beloved by millions.

Directed by Michael Curtiz, the 1954 movie musical kicks off in Europe during World War II and stars Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen.

The film then unfolds stateside, following Broadway-bound Captain Bob Wallace (Crosby) and comedic Private Phil Davis (Kaye), who together spin their wartime friendship into a popular song-and-dance act.

A chance connection with the talented Haynes Sisters (Clooney and Vera-Ellen) leads the quartet to a snowy Vermont inn for the holidays, where Bob and Phil discover the struggling property belongs to their beloved former commander, Major General Waverly. Determined to save his livelihood, the duo secretly plan a Christmas show — all the while, romances unfold between the two men and the sisters.

While the film closes with a classic happy ending, featuring two couples in love and singing “White Christmas,” the stars’ real love stories were more complex.

Here’s everything to know about the real-life loves of the White Christmas cast.

01 of 05

Bing Crosby and Kathryn Grant

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Bing Crosby and Kathryn Grant

Bing Crosby found love on-screen and off.

He met his first wife, actress and singer Dixie Lee, in the late 1920s in Hollywood. The pair married and remained together until her death in 1952 due to ovarian cancer. Together, they shared four children: sons Gary, Dennis, Phillip and Lindsay.

Following Lee’s death, Bing met actress Kathryn Grant on the set of White Christmas. The couple married in 1957. Crosby and Grant welcomed three children, Harry Lillis III, Mary and Nathaniel. They were together for 20 years before Crosby’s death at age 74 from a heart attack. Kathryn died of natural causes in September 2024 at 90 years old.

Despite his public persona as a family-oriented figure, according to his son, Gary, Crosby’s relationships were strained.

“There were a few problems with being just an ordinary kid,” Gary claimed in his 1983 memoir Going My Own Way. “For one thing, Dad didn’t seem to be just an ordinary father.”

In the book, Gary accused his father of physically and emotionally abusing him and his brothers. The memoir was met with mixed reactions from the Crosby family.

02 of 05

Danny Kaye and Sylvia Fine

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American actor and comedian, Danny Kaye (1913 - 1987), arrives at London Airport with his wife, Sylvia Fine

Danny Kaye was known for his persistent on-screen warmth and charisma, and off-screen, he upheld the persona.

For nearly 50 years, Kaye was married to writer, lyricist and composer Sylvia Fine. While the couple grew up just blocks apart from one another in Brooklyn, N.Y., they didn’t meet until they were working on an off-Broadway performance, Saturday Night Varieties, in 1939.

They married the following year and welcomed a daughter, Dena, on Dec. 17, 1946. Kaye and Fine were married for life, barring a separation in 1947 and 1948, when his affair with actor Eve Arden became public.

A true show business couple, they were partners in life and work, and Fine wrote much of the comedic work Kaye is famous for. After dedicating her life to the theater, her research on the history of musical theater in America led to a 1979 PBS special, Musical Comedy Tonight.

03 of 05

Rosemary Clooney and Dante DiPaolo

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American singer and actress Rosemary Clooney (1928 - 2002) poses outdoors with her husband, Italian actor Dante DiPaolo

Throughout her lifetime, Rosemary Clooney — aunt of George Clooney — had a highly publicized love life.

The Kentucky-born performer was married twice to actor José Ferrer, with whom she shares five children. The couple first married in 1953 and split in 1961. Clooney and Ferrer later remarried in 1964.

The actress' relationship with Ferrer became tumultuous, culminating in a public divorce in 1967. The 1960s became a period of deep struggle for Clooney, and she struggled with her mental health in 1968, coupled with alleged drug dependency.

Clooney later married Dante DiPaolo, an actor and radio personality, in 1997. They remained married until her death in 2002.

04 of 05

Vera-Ellen and Victor Rothschild

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Actress Vera-Ellen and Victor Rothschild

American dancer, actor and singer Vera-Ellen, who played Judy Haynes in White Christmas, was known for her triple threat skills as a performer.

Throughout her life, she had two marriages, first to dancer Robert Hightower from 1941 to 1946, then to wealthy oilman Victor Rothschild from 1954 to 1966. Both marriages ended in divorce.

Rothschild and Vera-Ellen shared a daughter, Victoria Ellen, who died from SIDS at just three months old in 1963. After the tragedy, Vera-Ellen spent the remainder of her life in California, where she died at age 60 of ovarian cancer.

05 of 05

Dean Jagger and Etta Mae Norton

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Actor Dean Jagger

In White Christmas, Dean Jagger played Major General Waverly. In real life, he was an Academy Award-winning actor, known for his role in Twelve O’Clock High.

Off the clock, Jagger was married three times. His first marriage to Antoinette Lowrance lasted from 1935 until 1943.

Later, Jagger married his second wife, Gloria Ling, in 1947. The pair tried to marry in Santa Monica, Calif., but a law prohibited marriages between "Caucasians and Mongolians" (Ling had Chinese heritage) in the state, so they married in Albuquerque, N.M. The pair later divorced.

Later, Jagger married Etta Mae Norton, a dance teacher, in 1968. They remained together until his death in 1991. He was survived by a daughter and two stepsons.

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