Karen Kay Sharpe (born September 20, 1934) is an American former actress of film and television, who appeared on screen from 1952 to 1966. She is the surviving third wife of producer/director Stanley Kramer, to whom she was married from 1966 until his death in 2001. She has since been the caretaker of the Kramer estate and legacy.
Karen Kay Sharpe was born in San Antonio, Texas, in 1934. According to the federal census of 1940, her parents, Howard and Dorothy Sharp (spelled with no "e") were both natives of Indiana. That census also documents that in 1940, the family continued to reside in San Antonio and her father worked then as a sales manager for a local electric company.
As a child, Karen studied ballet and dancing. Her desire to be an actress led her to California, where she hoped "to be discovered on a drug store stool, like Lana Turner ...". In Los Angeles, Sharpe studied dancing with Adolph Bolm.