Gary Crosby

One of four sons born to legendary crooner/actor Bing Crosby and singer/actress Dixie Lee, Gary Crosby was probably the most successful of the couple's troubled children, following in his father's footsteps as a singer and actor in TV and films. Crosby performed with his brothers as the marginally successful Crosby Boys, but by the late 1950s he got his screen career out of the gate, helped along by his close resemblance to his father. He played a variety of roles early on, memorably appearing in the World War II-set "Battle at Bloody Beach" alongside Audie Murphy, and in the light-hearted musical romp "Mardi Gras." One of his biggest film parts was opposite Elvis Presley in the mobster-themed rock-&-roll romance "Girl Happy." Crosby steadily appeared on TV throughout the '60s, notably on a "Twilight Zone" episode entitled "Come Wander with Me." In 1969 he was cast in what would be his best-remembered part, as Officer Ed Wells on the L.A. cop show "Adam-12," a part he kept until 1975. Crosby--along with his brothers, two of whom eventually committed suicide--struggled with lifelong alcohol problems. To reignite his career, he published a tell-all book in 1983 about growing up with a distant father.