1. Her first dream was to be a teacher

 

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Before she became the famous actress she is today and was in the Sixties and Seventies, Tina Cole wanted to be in the classroom. "You know, my goal in life was to be a teacher," Cole told MeTV. "I always wanted to be an elementary school teacher. I wanted to teach third and fourth grades, because my teacher was such an inspiration to me. I was always good with children." As the daughter of musician Buddy Cole and singer Yvonne King, the entertainment industry eventually got a hold of Tina, and like her parents, she thrived in it. "The Hollywood life was part of my life." Keep reading to see how her teaching dreams eventually came true!

2. Her television career began on Hawaiian Eye at the age of 19

 

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With the help of her uncle Jim Conkling, a legendary recording industry executive that helped create Warner Bros. Records, Tina Cole studied with Warner Bros. drama coaches for four summers starting at the age of 14.  By the time she was 19 and in college, all of the studying paid off. "I was working one semester at my first job ever. I was making $49 a week and I was going to save up for a used Volkswagen," Cole said. "I got a call from one of the executives at Warner Bros. He said 'we'd like you to test for the female lead in Hawaiian Eye.'" She had a schedule conflict with one of her classes and initially asked to postpone a screen test. "They called my mother. She put me on a plane that night." Three weeks later, Cole played the female lead of the series, Sunny Day. She wasn't thrilled about the name, but executives landed on it because of Cole's sunny personality, one that reminded them of Doris Day. "I always wanted to be Doris Day," Cole added. 

3. She appeared on The King Family Show and was one of The Four King Cousins

 

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Tina Cole isn't only a famous name in the world of television, she's also known for her ability to sing and perform in musicals. She was part of The King Family Show, featuring Tina's mother, singer Yvonne King and their entire family. The performance started as a single church benefit, but turned into much more. King wrote and directed the performance while her daughter Tina choreographed it. More and more began requesting the family for performances, until Yvonne King made a call to New York. Cole said of her mother, "I remember her calling from our kitchen phone at six in the morning, in her night gown, peeling an orange saying 'Hi, I have a show that I think you might like.'" Not long after, Cole and 38 other family members were introduced by Bing Crosby on The Hollywood Palace. By 1965, the family had their own series dubbed The King Family Show. In 1966, five members of the King family, including Tina, appeared on The Kraft Summer Music Hall, which featured John Davidson, George Carlin and Richard Pryor, in some of their earliest performances. After that turned out to be a hit, Cole and three of her cousins formed the pop group The Four King Cousins. 

4. Katie Miller Douglas wasn't Cole's first role on My Three Sons

 

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When My Three Sons and Tina Cole are said in the same sentence, her character of Katie Miller Douglas comes to mind. However, her season eight entrance as Katie wasn't the first time she was on the series. She had played a couple of roles in a handful of episodes prior. Perhaps most notably, in the season five episode "The Coffee House Set," Cole plays a friend of Robbie Douglas, a guitar-playing young lady by the name of Sherry, who helps get Robbie a music gig. Cole also played Ina in the season four episode "House for Sale" and Joann in the season six episode "Robbie and the Little Stranger." 

5. Out of 2,000 applicants, she landed the role of Katie Miller Douglas

 

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While Cole was singing and performaing on The King Family Show and with The Four King Cousins, and about a year after her most recent episode of My Three Sons, she got a call from Ed Hartman, the show's producer. "He says, 'why haven't we seen you?,'" Cole said. He and the series were looking for an actress to play the wife of Robbie, and given her familiarity with the show already, Hartman wanted to talk with Cole about it. "They had seen, he said, over 2,000 girls and screen tested like 20. Usually, interviews are maybe five minutes at the most," Cole said. She sat down with director Fred de Cordova for over a half hour. "Then I wandered to another room and there was Fred MacMurray and his wife June [Haver]. I spent another 20 minutes or so with them. [I] left with my audition sides, because I thought I was going to do a screen test, and the casting director ran after me. She said, 'wait, your forgot to sign the contract.' She said, 'you got the part, we are shooting in a week and a half.' It was surreal." 

6. Don Grady initially didn't want Cole to play Katie Douglas

 

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Though she earned the part, co-star Don Grady didn't initally want Tina Cole for his television wife, and even tried to stop the executives from casting her. "Don Grady really was against me being cast as Katie," Cole said. "He thought his wife should be more like a surfer girl. Here I am this bouncy blonde, kind of bubbly, and he just didn't feel that that was who Robbie would have been attracted to." Cole revealed she and Grady had feelings in real life a few years later, and it was only then when she found out this little secret. "We actually fell in love for real, and he then admitted that he tried to stop me from being cast."

7. Her role of Katie Douglas felt totally natural

 

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While Cole and Grady had to develop chemistry once she landed the role of Katie Douglas, Cole had no issues with the actual character. She felt right at home from the beginning. "I think I really was Katie," Cole told MeTV with a laugh. "I didn't really have to do a whole lot." Cole says with her musical background, she knew how to find the character and make that character come to life. "I tell the story with the song. I think that's what I did with my acting and maybe because I had studied for so long. Katie was so natural to me." 

8. She spearheaded a Community School in Sherman Oaks to help keep children safe

 

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We told you earlier in this list Cole initially wanted to be a teacher. Her instincts took over when her son Volney was in the fifth grade. At the time they lived in Sherman Oaks, a neighborhood of Los Angeles. With the region being so spread out, bussing kids to and from school was an issue. "My little boy was going to be bussed an hour and a half from Sherman Oaks to Watts in east LA." Cole and many other parents in the community were worried about safety with that long of a commute. As a result, she and other parents formed the River Oaks School after purchasing old church grounds. The school was kindergarten through eighth grade. Cole led the charge for the music program while other parents took on art and other extracurricular activities. "We had 250 students and accredited teachers. It was a real group effort and it was just one of the most wonderful things I've ever done." 

9. She took over a grammar school music program in Sacramento

 

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15 years later, Cole had three more children who were now at grammar school in Sacramento. The music program at the school was facing a budget cut. Cole, with her love for music still burning, stepped in and took over the program. "I taught kindergarten through I think third grade. We did that for a couple of years... most of the kids were in apartments, broken homes and even homeless. We did a summer program for them and I taught music and drama for them." For Cole, this moment was a full-circle one, as she had always wanted to inspire children. "I became a real teacher." 

10. You can read her book, My Three Lives: A Memoir

 

In November of 2022, Cole released her book My Three Lives: A Memoir. With a play on the name of the series that made her a television star, My Three Lives recaps three phases of Cole's life: "A Daughter of Fame," "My Three Sons Fame," and "Beyond Fame." The "Three" in the book title is even the logo from the show. The book was a long time coming for Cole, and a project she certainly put a lot of thought into. "People have been asking me for years to write a book," Cole said. "I worked on it every day for about a year and a half. The response has been wonderful. I've always teased that I can't even write a grocery list, and here I've got a book," Cole laughed. My Three Lives: A Memoir is available now for purchase on Amazon. Fans can purchase an autographed version of the book through Cole's personal website, which can be found via her official Facebook page. The TV star says she uses her Facebook page to interact with fans on a daily basis.