Christina Yvonne Cole (born August 4, 1943) is an American actress and singer, best remembered as Katie Miller Douglas on the long-running family sitcom My Three Sons (1967–1972).
Family
Cole is the daughter of Yvonne King and Buddy Cole. She has a sister, Cathy Green, and is also a mother of four (as reported in some sources).
Career
Cole’s screen career began in the early 1960s, when she landed a recurring role as Sunny Day in eight episodes of the detective series Hawaiian Eye (1963). That same year, she appeared—uncredited—as Ruth Stewart in Palm Springs Weekend, the spring-break party film set in Palm Springs, California.
Her signature role arrived with My Three Sons, where she ultimately became a fixture as Katie Miller Douglas. Notably, Cole had already appeared on the series in several earlier, one-off parts before the show created the Katie role for her. Those pre-Katie appearances included Ina (“House for Sale,” 1964), Sherry (“The Coffeehouse Set,” 1964), Joanne Edwards (“Robbie and the Little Stranger,” 1966), and a brief bit as a “Curious Person.” When she returned as Katie, it wasn’t just another guest spot—it was a full landing, the kind of promotion sitcoms rarely handed out unless someone fit the show’s rhythm perfectly.
In the early 1970s, Cole continued working steadily, making single-episode appearances on series including To Rome with Love, The Rookies, and Adam-12. She also leaned into her musical side with on-screen singing appearances in the ABC miniseries Eleanor and Franklin (1976) and its sequel the following year.
Music wasn’t a side note in her life—it ran alongside the acting. Beginning in 1966, Cole was a member of the Four King Cousins, a quartet subgroup associated with the King Family Singers (who had their own ABC series from 1965 to 1969). The connection placed her within a showbiz tradition that valued polish, harmony, and that very particular kind of mid-century American showmanship: bright, precise, and built for television.
Later life
After stepping away from regular television work, Cole shifted toward arts education and mentorship. She later served as director of the Sacramento Children’s Theatre and worked as an acting coach at John Robert Powers schools in Roseville and Elk Grove, California. She returned to on-screen acting in 2013, marking a late-career reappearance after years focused on teaching and training.
Around the same period, she also returned to live performance. In late 2013, she performed with the King Cousins—sister Cathy and cousins Candy and Carolyn—at the Catalina Jazz Club in Hollywood, with additional appearances there in 2014 and 2016.
Cole is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
