Dean Martin

From the boxing ring to the casinos of Atlantic City

Dino Paul Crocetti didn't speak a word of English until he was five years old. Before becoming the most relaxed guy on the planet, he worked as an illegal croupier and boxed under the name Kid Crochet. His nose was broken so many times that he ended up paying for plastic surgery so he could sell his image better in the nightclubs of Ohio.

His luck changed in 1946 when he crossed paths with a shrieking comedian named Jerry Lewis at the Glass Hat in New York. They had no prepared script. They simply interrupted each other and threw food at each other while Martin tried to sing with a drink in his hand. The audience went wild.

And chaos turned into money.

For a decade, they were the most profitable duo in American show business. They made 16 movies together and filled theaters across the country. But the partnership soured over Lewis's ego and Martin's disinterest in rehearsals. In 1956, they split up abruptly after a performance at the Copacabana. The press predicted Martin would fail on his own because he was just the handsome guy who stood at the microphone.

But Martin wanted to be respected as an actor.

The myth of the always-full whiskey glass

In 1958, he accepted a supporting role in Some Came Running for a fraction of his usual salary. He wanted to work with Marlon Brando and prove he could carry a war drama without mugging for the camera. It worked so well that Howard Hawks cast him in Rio Bravo in 1959. His portrayal of an alcoholic deputy sheriff is still his best work on the big screen.

Because Martin understood rhythm better than anyone. While Frank Sinatra worked hard to be the leader of the Rat Pack at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas, Martin simply showed up in an impeccable tuxedo holding a glass that looked full of bourbon. In reality, it was almost always apple juice. He built the image of a carefree drunk so nobody would expect much effort from him offstage.

So NBC's contract to host The Dean Martin Show in 1965 included a non-negotiable clause. He didn't want to rehearse. Martin would arrive at the studio, hop into a golf cart, and read his cue cards for the first time in front of the camera. The show stayed on the air until 1974 and brought in about $7,000,000 per season.

In 1964, his song Everybody Loves Somebody achieved the unthinkable. It knocked the Beatles off the top of the sales charts at the height of the British music explosion. Martin sent a telegram to Elvis Presley saying that if he couldn't do it himself, he was glad an old Italian had pulled it off.

The fall of the house of cards

The 1960s were his best financial era. He starred in the Matt Helm series, a spoof of James Bond that began with Murderers' Row in 1966. The movies were mediocre, but the box office responded enthusiastically. He earned 1,000,000 dollars per film plus a percentage of the profits, an astronomical figure for the time that few actors could demand.

In 1970, he appeared in Airport, the film that launched the modern disaster movie genre. It was his last major box office hit before he gradually withdrew to his golf tournaments and lonely dinners at Italian restaurants. The industry was changing, and the carefree leading man style was starting to feel stale next to the New Hollywood of Coppola and Scorsese.

Nobody ever saw him smile the same way again.

On March 21, 1987, his eldest son, Dean Paul Martin, died in a plane crash while piloting a Air National Guard fighter jet. Martin never fully recovered from the blow. He attempted a comeback tour with Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. in 1988, but quit after a few concerts. He shut himself away in his Beverly Hills home and stopped answering the phone.

In his final years, he watched Westerns on television and dined alone at the restaurant La Famiglia. His last big-screen appearance was a cameo in Cannonball Run II in 1984. He died on December 25, 1995 in Beverly Hills from chronic emphysema.