The late Dean Martin was born as Dino Paul Crocetti on June 7th, 1917. He grew up in Steubenville, Ohio. He is of Italian descent and the son of immigrant barber Gaetano and Angela Crocetti. He was the subject of ridicule in school for his broken English and eventually quit school at age 16 and took up various odd jobs. He worked at steel mills, delivery boy for bootleg liquor and even as a boxer where he picked up the nickname Kid Crochet. He worked as a dealer in local clubs and reincarnated himself as Dean Martini after the then famous opera tenor Nino Martini.
In the early 1940s, he started singing for the bandleader Sammy Watkins. He finally settled with the name Dean Martin and enjoyed minor success for his mellow vocal style. He was in the army for some time during World War II. He met budding comedian Jerry Lewis at the Glass Hat Club in New York and that was the start of a growing friendship and a music-comedy team. They officially debuted together at 500 Club in Atlanta in 1946 and they eventually became the most popular comedy duo in the nation. They were signed on by Paramount for the film My Friend Irma. They slowly captured the nightclubs, films and television scenes during the 1950s. The team eventually broke up with each one of them going solo. He received acclaim for his role in ‘The Young Lions’ (1957), co-staring Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift as well as for his performance in ‘Rio Bravo’ (1959) starring John Wayne and Ricky Nelson. He has recorded more than 100 albums and 600 songs, with major hits like That's Amore", "Volare", "You're Nobody Till Somebody Loves You" and "Everybody Loves Somebody".
Dean Martin was a chain smoker and suffered from lung cancer and emphysema. He died on December 25th, 1995. |
