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Dean Martin Biography

(1917–1995)

Related Works

1964 Robin and the 7 Hoods
1965 The Dean Martin Show (TV series)
1973 Showdown

1975 Mr. Ricco
1967 Movin' with Nancy
1968 How to Save a Marriage (And Ruin Your Life)
1964 What a Way to Go!
1953 The Stooge
1967 The Ambushers
1966 Murderers' Row
1963 4 for Texas
1950 My Friend Irma Goes West
1968 Bandolero!
1963 Come Blow Your Horn
1955 You're Never Too Young
1949 My Friend Irma
1960 Bells Are Ringing
1981 The Cannonball Run
1963 Toys in the Attic
1951 That's My Boy
1965 The Sons of Katie Elder
1953 Money from Home
1973 The Dean Martin Comedy Hour (TV series)
1953 The Caddy
1962 Something's Got to Give
1958 The Young Lions
1968 5 Card Stud
1960 Who Was That Lady?
1961 Ada
1958 Some Came Running
1954 Three Ring Circus
1951 Sailor Beware
1971 Something Big
1957 Ten Thousand Bedrooms
1956 Pardners
1965 Marriage on the Rocks
1959 Career
1966 Texas Across the River
1953 Scared Stiff
1961 All in a Night's Work
1959 Rio Bravo
1952 Jumping Jacks
1952 Road to Bali
1962 Who's Got the Action?
1964 Kiss Me, Stupid
1955 Artists and Models
1956 Hollywood or Bust
1963 Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed?
1962 Sergeants 3
1962 The Road to Hong Kong
1963 Canzoni nel mondo
1954 Living It Up
1960 Ocean's Eleven
1970 Airport
1950 At War with the Army
1960 Pepe
1969 The Wrecking Crew
1967 Rough Night in Jericho
1968 Rowan & Martin at the Movies (TV series)
1984 Cannonball Run II
1966 The Silencers

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Actor, singer; born Dino Paul Crocetti, in Steubenville, Ohio on June 7, 1917, the younger of two sons born of Italian immigrants. Had one brother, Bill.

Best known for his comedic partnership with Jerry Lewis, as well as for his participation in the "Rat Pack," a group of entertainers—including Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr., Joey Bishop, and Peter Lawford—who performed together in Las Vegas and teamed up in several films in the early 1960s.

Martin attended Grant Elementary School in Steubenville, Ohio, and took up the drums as a hobby as a teenager. After dropping out of Steubenville High School in the tenth grade, he worked odd jobs, including part-time as an amateur welterweight boxer under the name "Kid Crochet." Martin also dabbled in illegal activities, including driving liquor across state lines during prohibition, selling lottery tickets, acting as a bookie, and working as a card dealer and croupier in local gambling joints.

Martin began his show business career at age seventeen, singing in Ohio nightclubs near his hometown. During a stint with the Ernie McKay band, he was noticed by Cleveland bandleader Sammy Watkins, who hired him as the band's featured vocalist. He began touring with Watkins in 1938, and in 1940, changed his name to Dean Martin. In September 1943, Martin signed an exclusive contract with MCA to sing at the Riobamba Room in New York, and in 1944 he was given his own fifteen-minute radio program broadcasting from New York City, Songs by Dean Martin. In 1946 he signed a contract and recorded four songs with Diamond Records.

During a club engagement in 1946, Martin met Jerry Lewis and the two began joking around with each other during their respective acts. They teamed up in 1947, with Martin playing the straight man to Lewis's clown. NBC broadcast a regular thirty-minute radio program featuring the pair in 1949, and they made their television debut in the Colgate Comedy Hour in 1950. The immensely popular Martin and Lewis team made sixteen films together between 1949 and 1956.

Martin and Lewis last performed together at the Copacabana in New York, on July 24, 1956. After ten years as a team, they split up due to creative differences. Martin struck out on his own and resumed his singing career, recording such hit records for Capitol as "That's Amore," "Memories are Made of This," "When You're Smiling," and "Oh Marie." He also resumed acting in films, and in 1958, Martin received critical acclaim after appearing with Montgomery Clift and Marlon Brando in The Young Lions.

It was around this time that Martin began performing in Las Vegas with a group of close friends who were members of a Hollywood clique known as "The Rat Pack." The group, which included Martin, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr., Joey Bishop, and Peter Lawford, soon branched out from Vegas to the movies. They starred as an ensemble cast in the caper film Ocean's Eleven (1960), followed by Sergeants Three (1962) and Robin and the Seven Hoods (1964).