Dean Martin (born Dino Paul Crocetti; June 7, 1917 – December 25, 1995) was an American singer, actor and comedian. Nicknamed the "King of Cool", he is regarded as one of the most popular entertainers of the mid-20th century.[2][3] Martin gained his career breakthrough together with comedian Jerry Lewis, billed as Martin and Lewis, in 1946. They performed in nightclubs and later had numerous appearances on radio and television and in films.
Following an acrimonious ending of the partnership in 1956, Martin pursued a solo career as a performer and actor. He established himself as a singer, recording numerous contemporary songs as well as standards from the Great American Songbook. Martin became one of the most popular acts in Las Vegas and was known for his friendship with fellow artists Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr., who together with several others formed the Rat Pack.
Martin was born Dino Paul Crocetti on June 7, 1917, in Steubenville, Ohio, to Italian father Gaetano Alfonso Crocetti (1894–1967) and Italian-American mother Angela Crocetti (née Barra; 1897–1966). Gaetano, who was a barber, was originally from Montesilvano, Pescara, and Angela was born December 18, 1897, in Fernwood, Ohio. Angela's father, Domenico Barra, emigrated from Monasterolo, Bergamo. Martin had an older brother Guglielmo "William" Antonio Crocetti (1916–1968).[4][5] At 15, Martin billed himself as "Kid Crochet". His prizefighting earned him a broken nose (later straightened), a scarred lip, many broken knuckles (a result of not being able to afford tape used to wrap boxers' hands), and a bruised body. Of his 12 bouts, Martin said that he "won all but 11."[6] For a time, he shared a New York City apartment with Sonny King, who was also starting in show business and had little money. The two reportedly charged people to watch them bare-knuckle box each other in their apartment, fighting until one was knocked out. Martin knocked out King in the first round of an amateur boxing match.[7] Martin gave up boxing to work as a roulette stickman and croupier in an illegal casino behind a tobacco shop, where he had started as a stock boy. At the same time, he sang with local bands, calling himself "Dino Martini" (after the Metropolitan Opera tenor Nino Martini). Martin got his break working for the Ernie McKay Orchestra. He sang in a crooning style influenced by Harry Mills of The Mills Brothers and Perry Como.[8] By late 1940, Martin had begun singing for Cleveland bandleader Sammy Watkins,[9] who suggested he change his name to Dean Martin. He stayed with Watkins until at least May 1943.[10] By fall 1943, Martin had begun performing in New York.[11] He was drafted into the U.S. Army during World War II but was discharged after 14 months due to a hernia.[12]
In October 1941, Martin married Elizabeth "Betty" Anne McDonald in Cleveland, and the couple had an apartment in Cleveland Heights for a while.[13] They eventually had four children before divorcing in 1949.[14]
Martin attracted the attention of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Columbia Pictures, but a Hollywood contract was not forthcoming. Martin met comic Jerry Lewis at the Belmont Plaza Hotel in New York City in August 1944.[15][16] According to Lewis, the two men met initially in the lobby, where Martin approached him and said, "Hey, I saw your act, you're a funny kid."[17] Martin was singing at the hotel's famous Glass Hat Club at the time and the two happened to be on the same bill.[18][17]Martin and Lewis formed a fast friendship which led to their participation in each other's acts and the formation of a music-comedy team. Their debut together occurred at Atlantic City's 500 Club on July 24, 1946, and they were not well received. The owner, Skinny D'Amato, warned them that if they did not come up with a better act for their second show that night, they would be fired. Huddling in the alley behind the club, Lewis and Martin agreed to "go for broke", they divided their act between songs, skits, and ad-libbed material.[19] Martin sang and Lewis dressed as a busboy, dropping plates and making a shambles of Martin's performance and the club's decorum until Lewis was chased from the room as Martin pelted him with bread rolls.[20]
They performed slapstick, reeled off old vaudeville jokes and did whatever else popped into their heads; the audience laughed. This success led to a series of well-paying engagements on the Eastern seaboard, culminating in a run at New York's Copacabana. The act consisted of Lewis interrupting and heckling Martin while he was trying to sing, with the two ultimately chasing each other around the stage. The secret, both said, is that they ignored the audience and played to each other. The team made its television debut on the first broadcast of CBS-TV network's The Ed Sullivan Show (then called The Toast Of The Town) on June 20, 1948, with composers Rodgers and Hammerstein also appearing. Hoping to improve their act, the two hired young comedy writers Norman Lear and Ed Simmons to write their bits.[21] With the assistance of both Lear and Simmons, the two would take their act beyond nightclubs.[22]
A radio series began in 1949, the year Martin and Lewis signed with Paramount producer Hal B. Wallis as comedy relief for the movie My Friend Irma. Their agent, Abby Greshler, negotiated one of Hollywood's best deals: although they received only $75,000 between them for their films with Wallis, Martin and Lewis were free to do one outside film a year, which they would co-produce through their own York Productions.[23]
They also controlled their club, record, radio, and television appearances, and through these they earned millions of dollars. In Dean & Me, Lewis calls Martin one of the great comic geniuses of all time. They were friends, as well, with Lewis acting as best man when Martin remarried in 1949.
But harsh comments from critics, as well as frustration with the similarity of Martin and Lewis movies, which producer Hal Wallis refused to change, led to Martin's dissatisfaction.[24] He put less enthusiasm into the work.
Martin soldiered on during the production of the Martin & Lewis feature 3 Ring Circus (1954), when a publicity photo of Martin, Lewis, and actress Sheree North was published on the cover of Look magazine. Martin was shocked to see Lewis and North pictured but Martin cropped off the page. The team's publicity manager, Jack Keller, remembered Martin walking on the set "with a copy of Look and he threw it right in my face and called me every vile name he could think of."[25] Lewis recalled Martin "saying he was fed up to the ears playing a stooge. One morning he arrived an hour late on the set and stared daggers at me. 'Anytime you wanta call it quits, just let me know.'"[26] Martin was chagrined by the situation: "Why the hell should I come in on time? There's not a damn thing for me to do."[27]
In later years Martin reflected on the working conditions during 3 Ring Circus: "There was no sense of me being in that picture at all. The picture was on 35 minutes before I sang one song. Then it was an old one, 'It's a Big, Wide Wonderful World', and I sang it to animals."[28]
Martin lived up to his contract and remained with Lewis until the agreement expired on July 25, 1956, 10 years to the day from the first teaming.[29]
Martin's first solo film, Ten Thousand Bedrooms (1957), was a box-office failure.[30] Although "Volare" reached number 15 in the U.S. and number 2 in the UK, the era of the pop crooner was waning with the advent of rock and roll. Martin wanted to become a dramatic actor, known for more than slapstick comedy films. Though offered a fraction of his former salary to co-star in a war drama, The Young Lions (1958), Martin's part would be with Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift.[31]Tony Randall already had the part, but talent agency MCA realized that with this film, Martin would become a triple threat: they could make money from his work in nightclubs, films, and records. Randall was paid off to relinquish the role, Martin replaced him and the film turned out to be the beginning of Martin's comeback.[32] He starred alongside Frank Sinatra for the first time in the Vincente Minnelli drama, Some Came Running (1958).[33]
The image of Martin as a Vegas entertainer in a tuxedo has been an enduring one. "Ain't That a Kick in the Head?", a song Martin performed in Ocean's 11, did not become a hit at the time, but has enjoyed a revival in the media and pop culture and has been his most frequently played song in media for two decades.[53] For three decades, Martin was among the most popular acts in Las Vegas, where he sang and was a comedian, benefiting from the decade of comedy with Lewis. Martin's daughter, Gail, also sang in Vegas and on many TV shows including his, co-hosting his summer replacement series on NBC. Daughter Deana Martin continues to perform, as did youngest son Ricci Martin until his death in August 2016.[54] Eldest son Craig was a producer on Martin's television show and daughter Claudia was an actress in films such as For Those Who Think Young.[55] Though thought of as promiscuous, Martin spent much time with his family; as second wife Jeanne put it, prior to the couple's divorce, "He was home every night for dinner."[56]
The Rat Pack at the Sands Casino. From left to right: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop.
As Martin's solo career grew, he and Frank Sinatra became friends. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Martin and Sinatra, along with friends Joey Bishop, Peter Lawford, and Sammy Davis Jr., formed the Rat Pack, so-called after an earlier group of social friends, the Holmby Hills Rat Pack centered on Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, of which Sinatra had been a member (The Martin-Sinatra-Davis-Lawford-Bishop group referred to themselves as "The Summit" or "The Clan" and never as "The Rat Pack", although this has remained their identity in popular imagination). The men made films together, formed part of the Hollywood social scene, and were politically influential (through Lawford's marriage to Patricia Kennedy, sister of President John F. Kennedy).[57]
The Rat Pack was legendary for its Las Vegas Strip performances. For example, the marquee at the Sands Hotel might read "DEAN MARTIN—MAYBE FRANK—MAYBE SAMMY". Their appearances were valuable because the city would flood with wealthy gamblers. Their act (always in tuxedo) consisted of each singing individual numbers, duets and trios, along with seemingly improvised slapstick and chatter. In the socially charged 1960s, their jokes revolved around adult themes, such as Sinatra's womanizing and Martin's drinking, as well as Davis's race and religion. Sinatra and Martin supported the civil rights movement and refused to perform in clubs that would not allow black American or Jewish performers.[58] Posthumously, the Rat Pack has experienced a popular revival, inspiring the George Clooney/Brad PittOcean's Trilogy.[59]
In 1965, Martin launched his weekly NBC comedy-variety series, The Dean Martin Show, which ran for 264 episodes until 1974. He won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Television Series Musical or Comedy in 1966 and was nominated again the following three years.[60] The show exploited his image as a carefree boozer. Martin capitalized on his laid-back persona of the half-drunk crooner, inappropriately hitting on women, and making snappy if slurred remarks about fellow celebrities during his roasts. During an interview on the British TV documentary Wine, Women and Song, aired in 1983, Martin stated, perhaps tongue-in-cheek, that he had someone record them on cassette tape so he could listen to them. Martin's TV show was a success. The show's loose format featured quick-witted improvisation from Martin and his weekly guests. This prompted a battle between Martin and NBC censors, who insisted on more scrutiny of the content. He later had trouble with NBC for his off-the-cuff use of obscene Italian phrases, which brought complaints from viewers who spoke the language. The show was often in the Top Ten. Martin, appreciative of the show's producer, his friend Greg Garrison, made a handshake deal giving Garrison, a pioneer TV producer in the 1950s, 50% of the show. However, the validity of that ownership is the subject of a lawsuit brought by NBCUniversal.
Despite Martin's reputation as a drinker—perpetuated via his vanity license plate "DRUNKY"—his alcohol use was quite disciplined.[61] Martin was the first to call it a night and, when not on tour or on a film location, liked to go home to see his family.[62] Martin borrowed the lovable-drunk shtick from Joe E. Lewis, but his convincing portrayals of heavy boozers in Some Came Running and Howard Hawks' Rio Bravo led to unsubstantiated claims of alcoholism. Martin starred in and co-produced four Matt Helmsuperspy comedy adventures during this time, as well as a number of Westerns. By the early 1970s, The Dean Martin Show was still earning solid ratings, and although he was no longer a Top 40 hitmaker, his record albums continued to sell. He found a way to make his passion for golf profitable by offering a signature line of golf balls, and the Dean Martin Tucson Open was an event on golf's PGA Tour from 1972 to 1975. At his death, Martin was reportedly the single largest minority shareholder of RCA stock.[citation needed]
Martin began reducing his schedule once comfortable financially. The final (1973–1974) season of his variety show was retooled into one of celebrity roasts, requiring less involvement. In the roasts, Martin and his panel of pals made fun of a variety of popular entertainment, athletic, and political figures.[63] After the show's cancellation, NBC continued to air The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast as a series of TV specials through 1984.[64]
For nearly a decade, Martin had recorded as many as four albums a year for Reprise Records. Martin recorded his final Reprise album, Once in a While in 1974, which was not issued until 1978. His final recordings were made for Warner Bros. Records. The Nashville Sessions was released in 1983, from which he had a hit with "(I Think That I Just Wrote) My First Country Song", which was recorded with Conway Twitty and made a respectable showing on the country charts. A follow-up single, "L.A. Is My Home"/"Drinking Champagne", came in 1985. The 1974 film drama Mr. Ricco marked Martin's final starring role, in which he played a criminal defense lawyer.[citation needed]
In 1972, Martin filed for divorce from his second wife, Jeanne. A week later, his business partnership with the Riviera hotel in Las Vegas dissolved amid reports of the casino's refusal to agree to Martin's request to perform only once a night. Martin joined the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino, where he was the featured performer on the hotel's opening night of December 23, 1973, and Martin's contract required him to star in a film (Mr. Ricco) for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios.[citation needed]
Martin also made a public reconciliation with Lewis on his partner's Labor Day telethon, benefiting the Muscular Dystrophy Association, in September 1976. Sinatra shocked Lewis by bringing Martin out on stage and as the two men embraced, the audience gave them a standing ovation and the phones lit up, resulting in one of the telethon's most profitable years up to that time. Lewis later reported the event was one of the three most memorable of his life. Lewis quipped, "So, you working?" Martin, playing drunk, replied that he was appearing "at the 'Meggum'" (meaning the MGM Grand Hotel). This, with the death of Martin's son Dean Paul Martin more than a decade later, helped bring the two men together. They maintained a quiet friendship, but only performed again once, on Martin's 72nd birthday in 1989.[65]
Martin returned to films briefly with appearances in the star-laden, critically panned but commercially successful The Cannonball Run and its sequel Cannonball Run II.[66][67] He also had a minor hit single with "Since I Met You Baby" and made his first music video, which appeared on MTV and was created by Martin's youngest son, Ricci. On March 21, 1987, Martin's son, actor Dean Paul Martin (formerly Dino of the 1960s "teeny-bopper" rock group Dino, Desi & Billy), died when his F-4 Phantom II jet fighter crashed while flying with the California Air National Guard. Martin's grief over his son's death left him depressed and demoralized. Lewis stated in an on-stage interview in 2005 that subsequent to his son's death Martin became a reclusive alcoholic.[68] Later, a tour with Davis and Sinatra in 1988, undertaken in part to help Martin recover, sputtered.[69]
Personal life
Martin was married three times. He wed Elizabeth Anne "Betty" McDonald, (July 14, 1922 – July 11, 1989) of Ridley Park, Pennsylvania in 1941. The couple had four children:[70]
Craig Martin (born 1942).
Claudia Martin (March 16, 1944 – February 16, 2001).
Martin then married Dorothy Jean "Jeanne" Biegger (March 27, 1927 – August 24, 2016), a former Orange Bowl queen from Coral Gables, Florida. Their marriage lasted 24 years (1949–1973) and produced three children:[71]
Less than a month after his second marriage had dissolved, Martin, at 55, married 26-year-old Catherine Hawn on April 25, 1973. Hawn had been the receptionist at the chic Gene Shacove hair salon in Beverly Hills.[73] They divorced November 10, 1976. He was also briefly engaged to Gail Renshaw, Miss World–U.S. 1969.[74] Eventually, Martin reconciled with Jeanne, though they never remarried.[citation needed]
Martin and Hawn had no biological children of their own, but Martin adopted Hawn's daughter, Sasha.[75] After their divorce, Martin had a brief relationship with model and longtime friend Patricia Sheehan.[76]
Martin's uncle was Leonard Barr, who appeared in several of his shows.[77] In the 1960s and early 1970s Martin lived at 363 Copa De Oro Road in Bel Air, Los Angeles,[78] before selling it to Tom Jones for $500,000 in June 1976.[79]
Martin's son-in-law was the Beach Boys' Carl Wilson, who married Martin's daughter Gina.[80] Figure skater Dorothy Hamill and actress Olivia Hussey were his daughters-in-law during their marriages to Martin's son, Dean Paul Martin.[81] Craig, Martin's elder son, was married to Lou Costello's daughter Carole (1938–1987) until her death from a stroke at age 48.[82]
Dean Martin bred Andalusian horses at his Hidden Valley Ranch, Thousand Oaks, Ventura County, California.[83]
Martin volunteered to perform fundraisers for the Bergson Group in the late 1940s.[84]
Although a Republican, Martin supported Democratic candidate Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964.[85]
Martin, a lifelong heavy smoker, was diagnosed with lung cancer at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in September 1993. He was told that he would require surgery to prolong his life, but he rejected it. Martin retired from public life in early 1995 and died of acute respiratory failure resulting from emphysema at his Beverly Hills home on Christmas Day, 1995, at the age of 78.[86] The lights of the Las Vegas Strip were dimmed in his honor. Martin was interred at the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.[87] The crypt features the epitaph "Everybody loves somebody sometime", the first line of his signature song.[88]
Tributes and legacy
In 1997, Ohio Route 7 through Steubenville was rededicated as Dean Martin Boulevard. Road signs bearing an Al Hirschfeld caricature of Martin's likeness designate the stretch with a historical marker bearing a small picture and brief biography in the Gazebo Park at Route 7 and North Fourth Street.
The Dean Martin Hometown Festival is held over a long weekend every June in Steubenville. Led by The Dean Martin Association since 2024, impersonators, friends and family, and entertainers, many of Italian ancestry, appear.
Martin's family was presented a gold record in 2004 for Dino: The Essential Dean Martin, his fastest-selling album, which also hit the iTunes Top 10, and in 2006 it was certified "Platinum".[89]
For the week ending December 23, 2006, the Dean Martin and Martina McBride duet of "Baby, It's Cold Outside" reached No. 7 on the R&R AC chart. It also went to No. 36 on the R&R Country chart – the last time Martin had a song this high in the charts was in 1965, with the song "I Will", which reached No. 10 on the Pop chart. An album of duets, Forever Cool, was released by Capitol/EMI in 2007. It features Martin's voice with Kevin Spacey, Shelby Lynne, Joss Stone, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Robbie Williams, McBride and others. His footprints were immortalized at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in 1964. Martin has three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: one at 6519 Hollywood Boulevard for movies; the second at 1617 Vine for recordings; and a third at 6651 Hollywood Boulevard for television. In February 2009, Martin was honored with a posthumous Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Four of his surviving children, Gail, Deana, Ricci and Gina accepted it on his behalf. In 2010, Martin received a posthumous star on the Italian Walk of Fame in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.[91]
The town of origin of Dean's father, Montesilvano, dedicated to him a square between via Sarca and via Torrente Piomba and a congress palace called Pala Dean Martin congress center in via Aldo Moro adjacent to the Porto Allegro structure (former cinema Warner).[92][citation needed]
Martin is the subject of Dean Martin's Wild Party and Dean Martin's Vegas Shindig, a pair of video slot machines found in many casinos. The games feature songs sung by Martin during the bonus feature and the count-up of a player's winnings. A compilation album called Amore! debuted at Number One on Billboard magazine's Top Pop Catalog Albums chart in its February 21, 2009, issue.[96]
In 1998, The MTV animated show Celebrity Deathmatch had a clay-animated fight to the death between Martin and comedian Jerry Lewis. Martin wins by whacking Jerry out of the ring. The Rat Pack: Live from Las Vegas has been a successful tribute show, featuring Martin impersonators, on stage in Europe and North America since 2000. The popular Las Vegas show, "The Rat Pack is Back" has played The Copa Room at the Tuscany Suites Casino for several years. The walk-up song for Francisco Cervelli, a catcher for the Atlanta Braves, is the Dean Martin tune "That's Amore". In DePatie-Freleng's animated theatrical cartoon series The Ant and the Aardvark, the Ant's voice was performed by John Byner as an imitation of Martin.[97][98]
The list below shows the singer's studio albums only. His full discography, singles, compilations and other releases are described in a separate article.
Arthur Marx. Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime (Especially Himself): The story of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, New York, NY: Hawthorn Books, 1974, ISBN978-0-8015-2430-1
Smith, John L. The Animal in Hollywood: Anthony Fiato's Life in the Mafia. Barricade Books, New York, 1998. ISBN1-56980-126-6
Thorpe, Bernard H. Dean Martin Recollections, Memory Hive Books, 2023. ISBN978-1-7394584-0-9
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