Dennis Crosby; Son of Famed Singer, Actor

Dennis M. Crosby, one of Bing Crosby’s twin sons by his first marriage, has committed suicide, police said Monday.

Crosby, 56, was found dead in his home in Novato in Northern California late Saturday by his roommate, said Marin County Sheriff’s Lt. William Donovan. He was shot in the head, Donovan added, and a 12-gauge shotgun lay near the sofa where his body was found.

There were no signs of foul play, and his death is being treated as a suicide.

Dennis Crosby became the second of four sons born to Crosby and his first wife, Dixie Lee Crosby, also known as Wilma Wyatt, to commit suicide. Lindsay Crosby, their youngest son, shot himself to death in 1989 at age 51 after learning that the oil investments his mother had made for her four sons were worthless.

Their difficulties in growing up in the Crosby household were detailed in a 1983 book “Going My Own Way,” by eldest son Gary, who portrayed his father as inattentive and cruel. Gary Crosby, who recorded a few songs with his famous father, said it was a “house of terror.”

Although Dennis’ twin, Philip, criticized Gary as “a whining, bitching crybaby,” Dennis himself said Gary suffered the most from their famous father, who sold more than 300 million records and made 70 films, winning an Oscar for best actor in “Going My Way.”

“He got the first licking, and we got the second,” Dennis Crosby once said.

Friends said he had drinking problems early in life but had been sober for some time.