American actor and singer who teamed up with Jerry Lewis from 1950-1954 before going out on his own. He met Lewis while doing an engagement in Atlantic city in 1946 and they were together for 10 years and 16 films. They made up their own material with Martin attempting to sing while being interrupted by Lewis as a bumbling bus-boy. The legendary team was born that was to delight a nation, the handsome Italian crooner and the awkward, goofy kid. They moved on to nightclubs, TV’s “Ed Sullivan Show,” and in 1948, to Hollywood.
Prior to teaming up with Lewis, Martin sang in local clubs and served as a day laborer in steel mills, even trying a stint at becoming a somewhat puny prizefighter at 14. He claimed his own corner of TV fame with “The Dean Martin Show” 1965-1974, as well as becoming a veteran of over 40 films. His manner was totally nonchalant, and his comedy often involved a “happy drunk” stage persona. Eventually, his boozing comedy act ceased to be an act.
Nick Tosches, in his biography “Dino,” described Martin as a smooth, uncaring, unknowable and master showman of a vapid following. According to his second wife, Jeanne, Martin was not the party animal that he was portrayed to be. Claiming that he hated Sinatra’s practical jokes, she remembers a quiet loner who enjoyed sitting home watching westerns and strolling around the boulders while he was on location. He even hated attending the parties that she threw at their home. Once he told an interviewer that if he had one life to live, he’d live it as a golf pro. He admitted for years to having a fear of elevators and once described himself as a “pathological shoplifter.” When he spent some hundreds in a store, he would steal a necktie or a pair of sox, something that he could pocket. “I’m sure the owners knew it,” he said, “but I’m such a good customer they didn’t really care.”
Married and divorced three times, he had seven kids, four with his first wife, Elizabeth MacDonald (1940-49). Married with a growing family, he was drafted in WW II but mustered out after 14 months because of a hernia.
He saw his second wife, Jeanne Biegger, in 1949 while she sat atop a float in a Miami parade. They went on to have three children after their marriage, one of whom, Dean, Jr., was killed in a plane crash on 3/21/1987. She divorced him in 1972, tired of his womanizing. At age 53, Martin married 23 year-old beautician Cathy Hawn (1973-76).
Martin had repeated bouts with ulcers, which belied his relaxed style. He kept himself in relatively good condition with daily golf and exercise plus a reasonable diet. His health began to break down in the 1990s and he stopped working in 1992. Martin died of acute respiratory failure with the complications of emphysema on 12/25/1995, 3:30 AM, Beverly Hills, CA.
Link to Wikipedia biography