Aram Khachaturian
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Background information
Birth name Aram Il'yich Khachaturian
Born June 6, 1903(1903-06-06)
Tbilisi, Georgia, Imperial Russia
Died May 1, 1978 (aged 74)
Moscow, Soviet Union (buried in Yerevan, Armenia)
Occupation(s) Composer
Conductor
Aram Khachaturian (Armenian: Արամ Խաչատրյան, Aram Xačatryan; Russian: Аpaм Ильич Xaчaтypян, Aram Il'ič Hačaturjan) (June 6, 1903-May 1, 1978) was a Soviet-Armenian composer whose works were often influenced by Armenian folk music.
Life
Aram Khachaturian was born in Tbilisi, Georgia, Imperial Russia to a poor Armenian family. In his youth, he was fascinated by the music he heard around him, but at first he did not study music or learn to read it. In 1921, he travelled to Moscow to join his brother, unable to speak a word of Russian. Although he had almost no musical education, Khachaturian showed such great talent that he was admitted to the Gnessin Institute where he studied cello under Mikhail Gnessin and entered a composition class (1925).
In 1929, he transferred to the Moscow Conservatory where he studied under Nikolai Myaskovsky. In the 1930s, he married the composer Nina Makarova, a fellow student from Myaskovsky's class. In 1951, he became professor at the Gnessin State Musical and Pedagogical Institute (Moscow) and the Moscow Conservatory. He also held important posts at the Composers' Union, which would later severely denounce some of his works as being "formalist" music, along with those of Sergei Prokofiev and Dmitri Shostakovich. These three composers became the so called "titans" of Soviet music, enjoying world-wide reputation as some of the leading composers of the 20th century.
Music
Khachaturian's works include concertos for violin (also transcribed for flute), cello, and piano (the latter originally including an early part for the flexatone), concerto-rhapsodies for the same instruments, three symphonies?-the third containing parts for fifteen additional trumpets and organ, and the ballets Spartak (AKA Spartacus) and Gayane (the adagio was used in Stanley Kubrick's film 2001: A Space Odyssey). The latter ballet features in its final act what is probably his most famous movement, the "Sabre Dance." He also wrote some piano music such as the song "Two Ladies Gossiping," a quick and lively song.
He also composed some film music and incidental music for plays such as the 1941 production of Mikhail Lermontov's Masquerade. The cinematic quality of his music for Spartacus was clearly seen when it was used as the theme for a popular BBC drama series, The Onedin Line, during the 1970s. Since then, it has become one of the most popular of all classical pieces for UK audiences. Joel Coen's The Hudsucker Proxy also prominently featured music from Spartacus and Gayane (Sabre Dance included) mixed with the original compositions by Carter Burwell. He was also the composer for the state anthem of the Armenian SSR, whose tune is one of the five current choices to become the next state anthem of Armenia. The climax of Spartacus' second movement was also used in Ice Age: The Meltdown.
Khachaturian and Communism
Khachaturian was enthusiastic about communism. In 1920, when Armenia was declared a Soviet republic, Khachaturian joined a propaganda train touring Armenia, populated by Georgian-Armenian artists. The composer joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1943. His communist ideals, along with his Armenian nationalism, are apparent in his works, especially Gayane (which takes place on a collective farm) and the Second Symphony. It was the Symphonic Poem, later titled the Third Symphony, that earned Khachaturian the wrath of the Party. Ironically, Khachaturian wrote the work as a tribute to communism: "I wanted to write the kind of composition in which the public would feel my unwritten program without an announcement. I wanted this work to express the Soviet people's joy and pride in their great and mighty country." Perhaps because Khachaturian did not include a dedication or program notes, his intentions backfired. Andrei Zhdanov, secretary of the Communist Party's Central Committee, delivered the so-called Zhdanov decree in 1948. The decree condemned Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Khachaturian, and other Soviet composers as "formalist" and "antipopular." All three accused composers were forced to apologize publicly. The decree affected Khachaturian profoundly: "Those were tragic days for me... I was clouted on the head so unjustly. My repenting speech at the First Congress was insincere. I was crushed, destroyed. I seriously considered changing professions."
He died in Moscow on May 1, 1978, just short of his 75th birthday. He was buried in Yerevan, Armenia, along with other distinguished Armenians who made Armenian art accessible for the whole world. In 1998, he was honored by appearing on Armenian paper money (50 dram).
Robert Englund
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Born Robert Barton Englund
June 6, 1949 (1949-06-06) (age 59)
Glendale, California, U.S.
Years active 1974 - present
Spouse(s) Nancy Booth (1988 - present)
Robert Barton Englund (born June 6, 1949) is an American actor, perhaps best known for playing the fictional serial killer, Freddy Krueger, in the A Nightmare on Elm Street film series. He received a Saturn Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors in 1987 and A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master in 1988. Englund is a classically trained actor.[1]
Biography
Personal life
Englund was born in Glendale, California, the son of Janis (née McDonald) and C. Kent Englund, an aeronautics engineer who helped develop the Lockheed U-2.[2][3] He has Swedish ancestry.[4] Englund began studying acting at age twelve.[1] He attended California State University Northridge for three years before transferring to Michigan's Oakland University, where he trained at the Meadow Brook Theatre,[5] at the time a branch of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.[1] Englund has been married three times and has no children. He currently resides in Laguna Beach, California.
Career
Since his first film, Buster and Billie, in 1974, Englund has made over 100 appearances on film and television. His early film roles usually typed him as a nerd or a redneck. Before the Nightmare on Elm Street series, his most notable part was that of Willie, the lovably innocent alien in the 1983 miniseries V, the 1984 sequel V: The Final Battle, and V: The Series.
After his huge success as Freddy Krueger, Englund became the first new horror movie star since Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing in the 1960s. His association with the genre led him to top-billed roles in The Phantom of the Opera (1989), The Mangler (1995), and 2001 Maniacs (2005). While no longer a headliner, today he is revered by horror fans as an elder statesman of the genre.
He is one of only two actors to play a horror character eight consecutive times, the other being Doug Bradley, who portrayed the Pinhead character eight times. Englund has said that he enjoys the role of Freddy as it gives him a break from always playing the nice guy; indeed, many people who have worked with Englund attest to his congeniality. Makeup artists responsible for the Kruger makeup have commented that Englund was so friendly and talkative that it made the lengthy makeup application slightly more challenging.
Englund's TV appearances include guest spots on the science fiction series Babylon 5 and Sliders, as well as Knight Rider, where he played a phantom haunting a film studio. He provided the voice of magician Felix Faust in Justice League, The Riddler on The Batman and The Vulture on the new show The Spectacular Spider-Man. On the TV witch drama Charmed (Episode: "Size Matters"), he played a demon who used the services of a lackey to lure people into a decrepit household (of which he lived in the walls) and shrank them down to action figure size.
Englund made his directorial début with the 1989 horror film 976-EVIL. His second feature, Killer Pad, was released direct-to-DVD in 2008. He is currently in pre-production to direct The Vij, about a young priest who is lead by an evil genie to commit murder and falls in love with an old witch who is not what she seems.
Harvey Fierstein
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Born Harvey Forbes Fierstein
June 6, 1952 (1952-06-06) (age 56)
Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Years active 1980s - 2000s
Awards won
Emmy Awards
Won: Outstanding Interview/Interviewer - Programs
1986 The Times of Harvey Milk
Nominated: Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series
1992 Cheers
Tony Awards
Best Leading Actor in a Musical
2003 Hairspray
Harvey Forbes Fierstein (born June 6, 1952) is an American Tony Award-winning and Emmy Award-winning[1] actor, playwright, and screenwriter.
Biography
Personal life
Fierstein was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Jacqueline Harriet (née Gilbert), a school librarian, and Irving Fierstein, a handkerchief manufacturer.[2] He is Jewish.[3]
Playwriting career
The gravelly-voiced actor perhaps is known best for the play and film Torch Song Trilogy, which he wrote and starred in. The 1982 Broadway production won him two Tony Awards, for Best Play and Best Actor in a Play, two Drama Desk Awards, for Outstanding New Play and Outstanding Actor in a Play, and the Theatre World Award, and the film earned him an Independent Spirit Award nomination as Best Male Lead.
Fierstein also wrote the book for La Cage aux Folles (1983), winning another Tony Award, this time for Best Book of a Musical, and a Drama Desk nomination for Outstanding Book. Legs Diamond, his 1988 collaboration with Peter Allen, was a critical and commercial failure, closing after 72 previews and 64 performances. His other playwriting credits include Safe Sex, Spookhouse, and Forget Him.
In 2007, Fierstein wrote the book to the musical A Catered Affair in which he also stars. After tryouts at San Diego's Old Globe Theatre in the fall of 2007, it began previews on Broadway in March 2008 and opened on April 17. He received a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Book of a Musical, and the show won the Drama League Award for Distinguished Production of a Musical.
Acting
Fierstein made his acting debut at La MaMa, E.T.C. in Andy Warhol's only play, Pork. Fierstein continued to appear at La MaMa and other venues but also, having some aspirations to become a painter, enrolled at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. He received a B.F.A. degree from Pratt in 1973.
In addition to Torch Song Trilogy, La Cage aux Folles and A Catered Affair, Fierstein's Broadway acting credits include Edna Turnblad in Hairspray (2003), for which he won a Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical (joining Tommy Tune as the only people to win the award in four different categories), and Tevye in the 2005 revival of Fiddler on the Roof.
Fierstein's film roles include Woody Allen's Bullets Over Broadway, Robin Williams' mask maker brother in Mrs. Doubtfire, a Parade of Hope spokesman in Death to Smoochy, Garbo Talks, Duplex, and the blockbuster hit Independence Day. He narrated the documentary The Times of Harvey Milk, for which he won a News & Documentary Emmy Award. He also voiced the role of Yao in Walt Disney's animated feature Mulan, a role he later reprised for the video game Kingdom Hearts II and the direct-to-DVD sequel Mulan II.
On television, Fierstein was featured as the voice of Karl, Homer Simpson's assistant, in the "Simpson and Delilah" episode of The Simpsons, and the voice of Elmer in the 1999 HBO special based on his children's book The Sissy Duckling, which won the Humanitas Prize for Children's Animation. Additional credits include Miami Vice, Murder, She Wrote, the Showtime TV movie Common Ground (which he also wrote), and Cheers, which earned him an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. On May 31, 2006, her last day as anchor, he sang a tribute to Katie Couric on the Today Show. He appeared as Heat Miser in the television movie remake of The Year Without a Santa Claus in December 2006.
Other endeavors
Fierstein is an occasional columnist writing about gay issues. He was openly gay at a time when very few celebrities were. Because of this he never needed to "come out," as it was simply "known" that he was gay. His careers as a stand-up comic and female impersonator are mostly behind him. Fierstein resides in Ridgefield, Connecticut.
Terrible world history
The following is a "history" collected by teachers throughout the United States, from eighth grade through college level. Read carefully, and you will learn a lot of incorrect information.
The inhabitants of ancient Egypt were called mummies. They lived in the Sarah Dessert and traveled by Camelot. The climate of the Sarah is such that the inhabitants have to live elsewhere, so areas of the dessert are cultivated by irritation. The Egyptians built the Pyramids in the shape of a huge triangular cube. The Pyramids are a range of mountains between France and Spain.
The Bible is full of interesting caricatures. In the first book of the Bible, Guinesses, Adam and Eve were created from an apple tree. On of their children, Cain, once asked, "Am I my brother's son?" God asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac on Mount Montezuma. Jacob, son of Isaac, stole his brother's birth mark. Jacob was a patriarch who brought up his twelve sons to be patriarchs, but they did not take it. One of Jacob's sons, Joseph, gave refuse to the Israelites.
Pharaoh forced the Hebrew slaves to make bread without straw. Moses led them to the Red Sea, where they made unleavened bread, which is bread made without any ingredients. Afterwards, Moses went up on Mount Cyanide to get the ten commandments. David was a Hebrew king skilled at playing the liar. He fought with the Philatelists, a race of people who lived in the Biblical times. Soloman, one of David's sons, had 500 wives and 500 porcupines.
Without the Greeks we wouldn't have history. The Greeks invented three kinds of columns - Corinthian, Doric, and Ironic. They also had myths. A myth is a female moth. One myth says that the mother of Achilles dipped him in the River Stynx until he became intollerable. Achilles appears in The Iliad, by Homer. Homer also wrote The Oddity, in which Penelope was the last hardship that Ulysses endured on his journey. Actually, Homer was not written by Homer but by another man of that name.
Socrates was a famous Greek teacher who went around giving people advice. They killed him. Socrates died from an overdose of wedlock.
In the Olympic games, Greeks ran races, jumped, hurled the biscuits, the threw the java. The reward to the victor was a coral wreath. The government of Athens was democratic because people took the law into their own hands. There were no wars in Greece, as the mountains were so high that they couldn't climb over to see what their neighbors were doing. When they fought with the Persians, the Greeks were outnumbered because the Persians had more men.
Eventually, the Ramons conquered the Greeks. History calls people Romans because they never stayed in one place for very long. At Roman banquets, the guests wore garlic in their hair. Julius Caesar extinguished himself on the battlefields of Gaul. The Ides of March murdered him because they thought he was going to be made king. Nero was a cruel tyranny who would turture his poor subjects by playing the fiddle to them.
Then came the Middle Ages. King Alfred conquered the Dames. King Arthur lived in the Age of Shivery, King Harold mustarded his troops before the Battle of Hastings, Joan of Arc was canonized by Bernard Shaw, and victims of the Black Death grew boobs on their necks. Finally, Magna Carta provided that no free man should be hanged twice for the same offense.
In medevil time most of the people were alliterate. The greatest writer of the time was Chaucer, who wrote many poems and versus and also wrote literature. Another tale tells of William Tell, who shot an arrow through an apple while standing on his son's head.
The Renaissance was an age in which more individuals felt the value of their human being. Martin Luther was nailed to the church door at Wittenberg for selling papal indulgences. He died a horrible death, being excommunicated by a bull. It was the painter Donatello's interes in the female nude that made him the father of the Renaissance. It was an age of great inventions and discoveries. Gutenberg invented the Bible. Sir Walter Raleigh is a historical figure because he invented cigarettes. Another important invention was the circulation of blood. Sir Francis Drake circumcised the world with a 100 foot clipper.
The government of England was a limited mockery. Henry VIII found walking difficult because he had an abbess on his knee. Queen Elizabeth was the "Virgin Queen." As a queen she was a success. When Elizabeth exposed herself before her troops, they all shouted, "hurrah." Then her navy went out and defeated the Spanish Armadillo.
The greatest write of the Renaissance was William Shakespear. Shakespear never made much money and is only famous because of his plays. He lived at Windsor with his merry wives, writing tragedies, comedies and errors. In one of Shakespear's famous plays, Hamlet rations out his situation by relieving himself in a long soliloquy. In another, Lady Macbeth tried to convince Macbeth to kill the Kind by attack his manhood. Romeo and Juliet are an example of a heroic couplet. Writing at the same time as Shakespear was Miguel Cervantes. He wrote Donkey Hote. The next great author was John Milton. Milton wrote Paradise Lost. Then his wife died and he wrote Paradise Regained.
During the Renaissance America began. Christopher Columbus was a great navigator who discovered America while cursing about the Atlantic. His ships were called the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Fe. Later, the Pilgrims crossed the Ocean, and this was known as Pilgrims Progress. When they landed at Plymouth Rock, they were greeted by the Indians, who came down the hill rolling their war hoops before them. The Indian squabs carried porpoises on their back. Many of the Indian heroes were killed, along with their cabooses, which proved very fatal for them. The winter of 1620 was a hard one for the settlers. Many people died and many babies were born. Captain John Smith was responsible for all this.
One of the causes of the Revolutionary Wars was the English put tacks in their tea. Also, the colonists would send their parcels through the post without stamps. During the War, the Red Coats and Paul Revere was throwing balls over stone walls. The dogs were barking and the peacocks crowing. Finally, the colonists won the War and no longer had to pay for taxis.
Delegates from the original thirteen states formed the Contented Congress. Thomas Jefferson, a Virgin, and Benjamin Franklin were two singers of the Declaration of Independence. Franklin had gone to Boston carrying all his clothes in his pocket and a loaf of bread under each arm. He invented electricity by rubbing two cats backwards and declared, "A horse devided against itself cannot stand." Franklin died in 1790 and is still dead.
George Washington married Martha Curtis and in due time became the Father of Our Country. Then the Constitution of the United States was adopted to secure domestic hostility. Under the Constitution the people enjoyed the right to keep bare arms.
Abraham Lincoln became America's greatest president. Lincoln's mother died in infancy, and he was born in a log cabin which he built with his own hands. When Lincoln was President, he wore only a tall silk hat. He said, "In onion there is strength." Abraham Lincoln wrote the Gettysburg address while traveling from Washington to Gettysburg on the back of an envelope. He also freed the slaves by signing the Emasculation Proclamation, and the Fourteenth Amendment gave the ex-Negroes citizenship. But the Clue Clux Clan would torcher and lynch the ex-Negroes and other innocent victims. It claimed it represented law and odor. On the night of April 14, 1865, Lincoln went to the theater and got shot in his seat by one of the actors in a moving picture show. The believed assinator was John Wilkes Booth, a supposingly insane actor. This ruined Booth's career.
Meanwhile in Europe, the enlightenment was a reasonable time. Voltare invented electricity and also wrote a book called Candy. Graity was invented by Isaac Walton. It is chiefly noticeable in the Autumn, when the apples are falling off trees.
Bach was the most famous composer in the world, and so was Handel. Handel was half German, half Italian, and half English. He was very large. Bach died from 1750 to the present. Beethoven wrote music even though he was deaf. He was so deaf he wrote loud music. He took long walks in the forest even when everyone was calling for him. Beethoven expired in 1827 and later died for this.
France was in a very serious state. The French Revolution was accomplished before it happened. The Marseillaise was the theme song of the French Revolution, and it catapulted into Napoleon. During the Napoleonic Wars, the crowned heads of Europe were trembling in their shoes. The the Spanish gorillas came down from the hills and nipped at Napoleon's flanks. Napoleon became ill with bladder problems and was very tense and unrestrained. He wanted an heir to inherit his power, but since Josephine was a baroness, she couldn't bear children.
The sun never set on the British Empire because the British Empire is in the East and the sun sets in the West. Queen Victoria was the longest queen. She sat on a thorn for 63 years. Her reclining years and finally the end of her life were exemplary of a great personality. Her death was the final event which ended her reign.
The nineteenth century was a time of many great inventions and thoughts. The invention of the steamboat caused a network of rivers to spring up. Cyrus McCormick invented the McCormick raper, which did the work of hundred men. Samuel Morse invented a code of telepathy. Louis Pasteur discovered a cure for rabbis. Charles Darwin was a naturalist who wrote the Organ of the Species.
Jessica Tandy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Born June 7, 1909(1909-06-07)
London, England, UK
Died September 11, 1994 (aged 85)
Easton,Connecticut, USA
Spouse(s) Jack Hawkins (1932-1942)
Hume Cronyn (1942-1994)
Awards won
Academy Awards
Best Actress
1989 Driving Miss Daisy
BAFTA Awards
Best Actress
1989 Driving Miss Daisy
Emmy Awards
Outstanding Lead Actress - Miniseries/Movie
1988 Foxfire
Golden Globe Awards
Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical/Comedy
1990 Driving Miss Daisy
Tony Awards
Best Leading Actress in a Play
1948 A Streetcar Named Desire
1978 The Gin Game
1983 Foxfire
Special Tony Award
1994 Lifetime Achievement
Jessie Alice Tandy (June 7, 1909 - September 11, 1994) was an Emmy-, Academy Award-, Tony-, BAFTA-, and Golden Globe-winning America stage and film actress.
Biography
Early life
Tandy, the last of three children, was born in Geldeston Road in the London Borough of Hackney[1] to Jessie Helen Horspool, the head of a school for mentally handicapped children, and Harry Tandy, a travelling salesman for a rope manufacturer.[2] Her father died when Tandy was 12, and as a result her mother taught evening courses to increase the family's income. Tandy was educated at the Dame Alice Owen's School in the London Borough of Islington.
Career
After an acting career spanning some 65 years, Tandy found latter-day movie stardom in major studio releases and intimate dramas alike. She first appeared on the London stage in 1926, playing, among others, Katherine opposite Laurence Olivier's Henry V, and Cordelia opposite John Gielgud's "King Lear". She also worked in British films. Following the end of her first marriage (to Jack Hawkins), she moved to New York and met Canadian actor Hume Cronyn, who became her second husband and frequent partner on stage and screen. She made her American film debut in The Seventh Cross (1944). She also appeared in The Valley of Decision (1945), The Green Years (1946, as Cronyn's daughter), Dragonwyck (1946) starring Gene Tierney and Forever Amber (1947).
After her Tony-winning performance as Blanche DuBois in the original Broadway production of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire, (she lost the film role to actress Vivien Leigh) she concentrated on the stage. She became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1952. For the next 30 years, she appeared sporadically in films such as The Light in the Forest (1958), The Birds (1963), The World According to Garp (1982, as Glenn Close's mother) and Cocoon (1985, the latter two opposite Cronyn).
Jessica Tandy in Driving Miss Daisy, 1989.The beginning of the 1980s saw a resurgence in her film career, with character roles in The World According to Garp, Best Friends, Still of the Night (all 1982) and The Bostonians (1984), and the hit film Cocoon (1985), opposite Cronyn, with whom she reteamed for *batteries not included (1987) and Cocoon: The Return (1988). She and Cronyn had been working together more and more, on stage and television, notably in 1987's Foxfire which won her an Emmy Award (recreating her Tony winning Broadway role). However, it was her colorful performance in Driving Miss Daisy (1989), as an aging, stubborn Southern-Jewish matron, that earned her an Oscar.
Tandy was chosen by People magazine as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the world in 1990. She earned a Best Supporting Actress nomination for her work in the grassroots hit Fried Green Tomatoes (1992), and co-starred in The Story Lady (1991 telefilm, with daughter Tandy Cronyn), Used People (1992, as Shirley MacLaine's mother), To Dance with the White Dog (1993 telefilm, with husband Hume Cronyn), Nobody's Fool (1994), and Camilla (also 1994, with Cronyn). Camilla was to be her last performance, at the age of 84.
Personal life
Tandy married twice. Her first, to British actor Jack Hawkins, in 1932, produced one daughter, Susan Hawkins (born 1934). The couple divorced in 1942. Tandy remarried, to Canadian-American actor, Hume Cronyn, in 1942. The couple had two children, Tandy Cronyn, also an actress, and son Christopher Cronyn. Tandy and Cronyn remained together until her death in 1994.
In 1990, she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer which she battled fiercely for five years, during which she continued to work. She had previously been treated for angina and glaucoma.
She died at home on September 11, 1994, in Easton, Connecticut, of ovarian cancer at the age of 85. Prior to moving to Connecticut, she lived with Cronyn for many years in nearby Pound Ridge, New York.
Dean Martin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Background information
Birth name Dino Paul Crocetti
Also known as Dean Martin
The King of Cool
Dino
Born June 7, 1917(1917-06-07)
Steubenville, Ohio, United States
Died December 25, 1995 (aged 78)
Beverly Hills, California, USA
Genre(s) Big band, pop
Years active 1940-1989
Label(s) Capitol, Reprise
Dean Martin (born Dino Paul Crocetti, June 7, 1917 - December 25, 1995) was an Italian-American singer, film actor, television personality, and comedian. He was one of the most well known musical artists of the 1950s and 1960s. Martin's hit singles included the songs "Memories Are Made Of This", "That's Amore", "Everybody Loves Somebody", "Mambo Italiano", "Sway", "Volare" and "Ain't That a Kick in the Head". One of the organizers of The Rat Pack, he was a major star in four areas of show business: concert stage, recordings, motion pictures, and television.
Early life
Martin was born Dino Paul Crocetti in Steubenville, Ohio. His parents were Gaetano Crocetti, a barber from Abruzzo, Italy, and Angela Barra, an Italian American from Fernwood, Ohio. [1] He spoke only Italian until age five.
Martin dropped out of school in the 10th grade because, in his own words, he thought that he was smarter than the teachers. He delivered bootleg liquor, served as a speakeasy croupier, wrote crafty anecdotes, and was a blackjack dealer, worked in a steel mill and boxed as welterweight. At the age of 15, he was a boxer who billed himself as "Kid Crocett" (Kro-Shey). From his prizefighting years, Martin earned a broken nose (later fixed), a permanently split lip, and many sets of broken knuckles (as a result of not being able to afford the tape used to wrap boxers' hands). He won one of his 12 bouts [2] The prize money was small. For a while, he roomed with Sonny King, who like Martin, was just starting out in show business and had little money. Martin and King held bare-knuckle matches in their apartment, fighting until one of them was knocked out; people paid to watch the sight.
Eventually, Martin gave up boxing. He worked as a roulette stickman and croupier in an illegal casino located behind a tobacco shop where he had started out as a stock boy. At the same time, he sang with local bands. Billing himself as "Dino Martini" (after the then-famous Metropolitan Opera tenor, Nino Martini), he got his first break working for the Ernie McKay Orchestra. He performed in a crooning style heavily influenced by Bing Crosby and Harry Mills (of the Mills Brothers), among others. In the early 1940s, he started singing for bandleader Sammy Watkins, at which time Watkins suggested that he change his name to Dean Martin.
In October of 1941, Martin married Elizabeth Anne McDonald, and during their marriage (ended by divorce in 1949), they had four children. Martin worked for various bands throughout the early 1940s, more on looks and personality than vocal ability until he developed his own smooth singing style. Martin famously flopped at the Riobamba when he succeeded Frank Sinatra there in 1943, but it was the setting for the two men's introduction.
To earn extra money, Martin repeatedly sold 10 percent shares of his earnings for up front cash. Martin apparently did this so often that he found he had sold over 100 percent of his income. Such was the power of his charm that most of his lenders forgave his debts and remained friends.
After being drafted into the United States Army during World War II, Martin served a year (1944-1945) in Akron, Ohio. He was then classified 4-F (possibly due to a double hernia; Jerry Lewis referred to the surgery Martin needed for this in his autobiography) and was discharged.
By 1946, Martin was doing relatively well, but he was still little more than an East Coast nightclub singer with an all-too-common style, similar to that of Bing Crosby. He could draw audiences to the clubs he played, but he inspired none of the fanatic popularity enjoyed by Sinatra.
Mafia connections
A biography on Martin titled Dean Martin: King of the Road by Michael Freedland alleges he had links to the Mafia in his earlier career. Martin was allegedly given help with his early singing career by mob bosses who owned saloons in Chicago, Illinois. In return, he performed in shows hosted by these bosses later when he was a star. The author suggests that Martin felt little loyalty to or sympathy for the Mafia and that he only did such people small favors if it were of little inconvenience to him. Reportedly, the FBI's bugs once picked up a mafioso making plans to injure or kill Martin because of a perceived lack of gratitude. Another book, The Animal in Hollywood by John L. Smith, depicted Dean Martin's longtime friendship with Mafia mobsters Johnny Roselli and Anthony Fiato. Anthony Fiato (a/k/a "the Animal") did Martin many favors, such as getting back money from two swindlers who had cheated Betty Martin, Dean's ex-wife, out of thousands of dollars of her alimony. His daughter Deana Martin was friendly with Detroit mob boss Peter Licavoli.
Teaming with Jerry Lewis
Martin attracted some attention from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Columbia Pictures, but a Hollywood contract was not forthcoming. He appeared destined to remain on the nightclub circuit until he met a young comic named Jerry Lewis at the Glass Hat Club in New York, where both men were performing. Martin and Lewis formed a fast friendship which led to their participation in each other's acts and the ultimate formation of a music-comedy team. More than a few people dubbed them "The Organ Grinder and the Monkey".
Martin and Lewis' official 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 didn't come up with a better act for their second show later that night, they would be fired. Huddling together in the alley behind the club, Lewis and Martin agreed to "go for broke", to throw out the pre-scripted gags that hadn't worked and to basically just improvise. Dean sang and Jerry came out dressed as a busboy, dropping plates and making a shambles of both Martin's performance and the club's sense of decorum. They did slapstick, reeled off old vaudeville jokes, and did whatever else popped into their heads at the moment. This time, the audience doubled over in laughter. Their success at the 500 led to a series of well-paying engagements up and down the Eastern seaboard, culminating with a triumphant run at New York's Copacabana. Club patrons were convulsed by the act, which consisted primarily of Lewis interrupting and heckling Martin while he was trying to sing, and ultimately the two of them chasing each other around the stage and having as much fun as possible. The secret, both said, is that they essentially ignored the audience and played to one another.
A radio series commenced in 1949, the same year Martin and Lewis were signed by Paramount producer Hal Wallis as comedy relief for the motion picture My Friend Irma.
Martin was thrilled to be out of New York. He liked California which, because of its earthquakes, had few tall buildings. Suffering as he did from claustrophobia, Martin almost never used elevators, and climbing stairs in Manhattan's skyscrapers was not his idea of fun.
Their agent, Abby Greshler, negotiated for them one of Hollywood's best deals: although they received only a modest $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. They also had complete control of their club, record, radio and television appearances, and it was through these endeavors that Martin and Lewis earned millions of dollars.
Although there had been a number of hugely successful film teams before, Hollywood had not seen anything like Martin and Lewis. The fun they had together set them apart from everything else being done at the time. Both were talented entertainers, but the fact that they were such good friends on and off stage took their act to a new level.
Martin and Lewis were the hottest act in America during the early 1950s, but the pace and the pressure took its toll. Most critics of the time underestimated Dean's contribution to the team, as he usually had the thankless job of the straight man, and his singing had yet to develop into the unique style of his later years. Most critics praised Lewis, and while they admitted that Martin was the best partner he could have, most claimed Lewis was the real talent of the team and could succeed with anyone. It is worth noting that Lewis always praised his partner, and while he appreciated the attention he was getting, he has always said the act would never have worked without Martin. In the book Dean & Me he calls Martin one of the great comic geniuses of all time. But the harsh comments from the critics, as well as frustration with the formulaic similarity of Martin & Lewis movies which producer Hal Wallis stubbornly refused to change, led to Martin's dissatisfaction with the team. He put less enthusiasm into the work, leading to escalating arguments with Lewis. The two finally couldn't work together, especially when Martin told his partner he was "nothing to me but a dollar sign". The act broke up in 1956, 10 years to the day after the first official teaming.
But splitting up their partnership was not easy. It took months for lawyers to work out the details of terminating many of their club bookings, their television contracts, and the dissolution of York Productions. There was intense public pressure for them to stay together. Dean tired of being second fiddle to Jerry's antics, as when Martin tried to sing and Lewis poured buckets of cold water over his head or slapped him. It took its toll and Dean had had enough.
Lewis had no trouble maintaining his film popularity alone, but Martin, unfairly regarded by much of the public and the motion picture industry as something of a spare tire, found the going hard; his first solo film, Ten Thousand Bedrooms, was a box office failure. He was still popular as a singer, but with rock and roll surging to the fore, the era of the pop crooner appeared to be waning. It looked like Martin's fate was to be limited to nightclubs and to be remembered as Jerry Lewis's former partner.
Solo career
Never totally comfortable in films, Martin wanted to be known as a real actor. Though offered a fraction of his former salary to co-star in the war drama The Young Lions (1957), he eagerly agreed so that he could learn from Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift. Tony Randall already had the part, but talent agency MCA realized that with this movie, Martin would become a triple threat: they could make money from his work in night clubs, movies, and records. Martin replaced Randall in one of the best dramatic roles of the decade and the film turned out to be the cornerstone of Martin's spectacular comeback. Success on the big screen would continue as Martin starred alongside Frank Sinatra for the first time in the highly acclaimed Vincente Minnelli drama Some Came Running. By the mid '60s, he was a top movie, recording, and nightclub attraction, while Lewis's film career declined. Martin was acclaimed for his performance as Dude in Rio Bravo (1959), directed by Howard Hawks and also starring John Wayne and singer Ricky Nelson. He teamed up again with Wayne in The Sons of Katie Elder (1965), somewhat unconvincingly cast as brothers.
Martin played a satiric variation of his own smoothly womanizing persona as Vegas singer "Dino" in Billy Wilder's adult comedy Kiss Me, Stupid (1964) with Kim Novak, and he was never above poking sly fun at his image in films such as the Matt Helm spy spoofs of the 1960s, on which he had status of a co-producer.
As a singer, Martin copied the styles of Bing Crosby and Perry Como until he arrived at his own and he could hold his own in countless duets over the decades with Sinatra and Crosby. Like The Beatles, he couldn't read music, but he recorded more than 100 albums and 600 songs. His signature tune, "Everybody Loves Somebody", knocked The Beatles' "A Hard Day's Night" out of the number-one spot in the USA 1964. Elvis Presley was said to have been influenced by Martin, and patterned "Love Me Tender" after his style. Martin, like Elvis, was influenced by country music. By 1965, some of Martin's albums, such as The Hit Sound Of Dean Martin, Welcome To My World and Gentle On My Mind were composed of popular country and western songs made famous by artists like Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, and Buck Owens. Martin hosted country performers on his TV show and was named "Man Of the Year" by the Country Music Association in 1966. "Ain't That a Kick in the Head," a song Martin performed in Ocean's Eleven that never became a hit at the time, has enjoyed a spectacular revival in the media and pop culture in the mid-2000s (which can be traced back to its usage in 1993's A Bronx Tale).
For three decades, Martin was among the most popular acts in Las Vegas. Martin sang and was one of the smoothest comics around, benefiting from the decade of raucous comedy with Lewis. Martin's daughter Gail occasionally opened for him in Vegas and sang on his TV show. Though often thought of as a ladies' man, Martin spent a lot of time with his family; as second wife Jeanne put it, prior to the couple's divorce, "He was home every night for dinner."
His footprints were immortalized at Grauman's Chinese Theater in 1964. Martin has not one but three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: One at 6519 Hollywood Blvd. (for movies), one at 1817 Vine (for recordings) and one at 6651 Hollywood Boulevard (for television).
The Rat Pack
As Martin's solo career grew, he and Frank Sinatra became close friends. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Martin and Sinatra, along with friends Joey Bishop, Peter Lawford, and Sammy Davis, Jr. formed the legendary Rat Pack, so called by the public 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 the popular culture. The men made films together, formed an important part of the Hollywood social scene in those years, and were politically influential (through Lawford's marriage to Patricia Kennedy, sister of President John F. Kennedy).
The Rat Pack were legendary for their Las Vegas performances, which were almost never preannounced. For example, the marquee at the Sands Hotel might read DEAN MARTIN---MAYBE FRANK---MAYBE SAMMY. Las Vegas rooms were at a premium when the Rat Pack would appear, with many visitors sleeping in hotel lobbies or cars to get a chance to see the three men together. Their act (always in tuxedo) consisted of each singing individual numbers, duets and triplets, along with much seemingly improvised slapstick and chatter. In the socially-charged 1960s, their jokes revolved around adult themes, such as Frank's infamous womanizing and Martin's legendary drinking, as well as many at the expense of Davis' race and religion. Davis famously practiced Judaism and used Yiddish phrases onstage, elicting much merriment from both his stage-mates and his audiences. It was all good-natured male bonding, never vicious, rarely foul-mouthed, and the three had great respect for each other. The Rat Pack was largely responsible for the integration of Las Vegas. Sinatra and Martin steadfastly refused to appear anywhere that barred Davis, forcing the casinos to open their doors to African-American entertainers and patrons, and to drop restrictive covenants against Jews.
Posthumously, the Rat Pack has experienced a popular revival, inspiring the George Clooney/Brad Pitt "Ocean's" trilogy. An HBO film, "The Rat Pack," starred Joe Mantegna as Dean, Ray Liotta as Frank and Don Cheadle as Sammy. It depicted their contribution to JFK's election in 1960.
The 1960s and 1970s
In 1965, Martin launched his weekly NBC comedy-variety series, The Dean Martin Show, which exploited his public image as a lazy, carefree boozer. It was there that he perfected his famous laid-back persona of the half-drunk crooner suavely hitting on beautiful women with hilarious remarks that would get anyone else slapped, and making snappy if slurred remarks about fellow celebrities during his famous roasts. Few entertainers worked as hard to make what they were doing look so easy. During an interview he stated, and this may have been tongue-in-cheek, that although he didn't attend rehearsals he had someone record them on cassette tape so he could listen to them.[citation needed]
The TV show was a huge hit. Dean prided himself on memorizing whole scripts -- not merely his own lines. He disliked rehearsing because he firmly believed his best performances were his first. The show's loose format prompted quick-witted improvisation from Dean and the cast. On occasion, he made remarks in Italian, some mild obscenities that brought angry mail from offended, Italian-speaking viewers. This prompted a battle between Martin and NBC censors, who insisted on more scrutiny of the show's content. The show was often in the Top Ten. Martin, deeply appreciative of the efforts of the show's producer, his friend Greg Garrison, later made a handshake deal giving Garrison, a pioneer TV producer in the 1950s, 50% ownership of the show. However, the validity of that ownership is currently the subject of a lawsuit brought by NBC Universal.
Despite Martin's reputation as a heavy drinker ?- a reputation perpetuated via his vanity license plates reading 'DRUNKY' ?- he was remarkably self-disciplined. He was often the first to call it a night, and when not on tour or on a film location liked to go home to see his wife and children. Shirley MacLaine in her autobiography confirmed that Martin was sipping apple juice (not liquor) most of the time onstage. He borrowed the lovable-drunk shtick from Joe E. Lewis, but his convincing portrayals of heavy boozers in Some Came Running and Howard Hawks's Rio Bravo led to unsubstantiated claims of alcoholism. More often than not, Martin's idea of a good time was playing golf or watching TV, particularly westerns -- not staying with Rat Pack friends Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis, Jr. into the early hours of the morning.
By the early 1970s, Martin seemed to have the Midas touch, 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 well. His name on a marquee could guarantee casinos and nightclubs a standing-room-only crowd. He found a way to make his passion for golf profitable by offering his own signature line of golf balls. Shrewd investments had greatly increased Martin's personal wealth; at the time of his death, Martin was reportedly the single largest minority shareholder of RCA stock. Martin even managed to cure himself of his claustrophobia by reportedly locking himself in the elevator of a tall building and riding up and down for hours until he was no longer panic-stricken.
Despite his enormous success, Martin retreated from show business by the early 1970s. The final (1973-74) season of his variety show would be retooled into one of celebrity roasts, requiring less of Martin's involvement. After the show's cancellation, NBC continued to air the Dean Martin Celebrity Roast format in a series of TV specials through 1984. In those 11 years, Dean and his panel of pals successfully ridiculed and made fun of legendary stars like Bob Hope, Jack Benny, Lucille Ball and Ronald Reagan, to name a few. For nearly a decade, Dean had recorded as many as four albums a year for Reprise Records. That stopped in November of 1974, when Martin recorded his final Reprise album - Once In A While, released in 1978. His last recording sessions were for Warner Brothers Records. An album titled 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 1975 film Mr. Ricco marked Martin's final starring role, and Martin limited his live performances to Las Vegas and Atlantic City.
Martin seemed to suffer a mid-life crisis. In 1972, he filed for divorce from his second wife, Jeanne. A week later, his business partnership with the Riviera was dissolved amid reports of the casino's refusal to agree to Martin's request to perform only once a night. He was quickly snapped up by the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino, and signed a three-picture deal with MGM Studios. Less than a month after his second marriage had been legally dissolved, Martin married 26-year-old Catherine Hawn on April 25, 1973. Hawn had been the receptionist at the chic Gene Shacrove hair salon in Beverly Hills. They divorced November 10, 1976. He was also briefly engaged to Gail Renshaw, Miss USA 1969.
Eventually, Martin reconciled with Jeanne, though they never remarried. He also made a public reconciliation with Jerry Lewis on Lewis' Labor Day Muscular Dystrophy Association telethon in 1976. Frank Sinatra shocked Lewis and the world by bringing Martin out on stage. As Martin and Lewis embraced, the audience erupted in cheers and the phone banks lit up, resulting in one of the telethon's most profitable years. Lewis reported the event was one of the three most memorable of his life. Lewis brought down the house when he quipped, "So, you working?" Martin, playing drunk, replied that he was "at the Meggum" -- this reference to the MGM Grand Hotel convulsed Lewis. This, along with the death of Martin's son Dean Paul Martin a few years later, helped to bring the two men together. They maintained a quiet friendship but only performed together again once, in 1989, on Dean's 72nd birthday.
Later years
On December 1, 1983 while gambling at the Golden Nugget casino in Atlantic City, Martin and Sinatra intimidated the dealer and several employees into breaking New Jersey laws by making the dealer deal the cards by hand instead of by a shoe, as is required by law. Although Sinatra and Martin were implicated as the cause of the violation, neither was fined by the New Jersey Gaming Commission. The Golden Nugget, on the other hand, received a $25,000 fine and four employees including the dealer, a supervisor and pit boss were suspended from their jobs without pay. It's said that Sinatra and Martin picked up the tab for the suspended employees' pay.
Martin returned to films briefly with appearances in the two all-star Cannonball Run movies, but being a movie star no longer excited him and he found life on the set to be more tedious than ever. He did step back into a recording studio to score a minor hit single with "Since I Met You Baby" and made his first music video, which appeared on MTV. The video was created by Martin's youngest son, Ricci.
Decline
Martin's world began to crumble on March 21, 1987, when his son Dean Paul was killed when his jet fighter crashed while flying with the Air National Guard. A much-touted tour with Davis and Sinatra in 1988 sputtered, with Martin's heart just not into it. On one occasion, he infuriated Sinatra when he turned to him and muttered "Frank, what the hell are we doing up here?" Martin, who always responded best to a club audience, felt lost in the huge stadiums they were performing in (at Sinatra's insistence), and he was not the least bit interested in drinking until dawn after their performances. His final Vegas shows were at the Bally's Hotel in 1989. It was there he had his famous final reunion with Jerry Lewis on his 72nd birthday. His last television appearance was in 1990 on the Sammy Davis Jr 60th Anniversary Celebration special (also Sammy's last TV appearance.) By 1991, Martin had unofficially retired from performing.
In addition to never completely recovering from losing his son, Martin was suffering from emphysema. In September 1993, he was diagnosed with lung cancer. He kept his private life to himself, emerging briefly for a public celebration of his 77th birthday with friends and family.
He had been told he needed surgery on his kidneys and liver to prolong his life, but he refused. It was widely reported, though never confirmed, that Martin had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 1991.
At his side in his last years was ex-wife Jeanne (Biegger) Martin, whom he had divorced years earlier. The pair became close again, although they resisted suggestions that they wed.
Martin died of respiratory failure, at his home on Christmas morning 1995. It was widely believed, and perpetuated by Jeanne herself, that she was at his side at his death. However, she was giving her annual Christmas party into the late hours of the night and therefore was at her home with her daughter, Deana until about 4 a.m., with Dean having died about 3:15 am. Deana has attested to this on many occasions, including in her biography of her father.
The lights of the Las Vegas Strip were dimmed in his honor. In 2005, Las Vegas renamed Industrial Road as 'Dean Martin Drive'.
Martin received a gold record in 2004 for his fastest-selling album ever, which also hit the iTunes Top 10. For the week ending December 23, 2006, the Dean Martin and Martina McBride duet of "Baby, It's Cold Outside" reached #7 on the R&R AC chart. It also went to #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 #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 more.
Marriages and children
Martin was married three times. Martin's first wife, Betty McDonald, tried by all accounts to be a good wife and mother to their four children, but her efforts were ultimately undone by her alcoholism. It remains a matter of speculation whether Betty's alcoholism led to the failure of her marriage to Dean, or whether Dean's infidelities led to Betty's alcoholism. Subsequent to their divorce, Martin gained custody of their children; Betty lived out her life in quiet obscurity in San Francisco.
Martin's second wife was Jeanne Biegger. A stunning blonde, Jeanne could sometimes be spotted in Martin's audience while he was still married to Betty. Their marriage lasted twenty-four years (1949-1973) and produced three children.
Martin's third marriage, to Catherine Hawn, lasted three years. One of Dean's managers had spotted the young beauty working the desk at a swank salon on Rodeo Drive, then arranged a meeting. Martin adopted Hawn's daughter, Sasha, but their marriage did not succeed. Dean initiated divorce proceedings.
Martin was the father of seven naturally born children and one adopted child.
First wife: Elizabeth (Betty) Anne McDonald
First child: Stephen (Craig) Martin, born June 29, 1942
Second child: Claudia (Dean) Martin, born March 16, 1944 - died 2001 (breast cancer)
Third child: Barbara (Gail) Martin, born April 11, 1945
Fourth child: Deana (Dina) Martin, born August 19, 1948
Second wife: Jeanne Biegger
Fifth child: Dean Paul Martin (Jr.), born on November 17, 1951 - died March 21, 1987 (plane crash)
Sixth child: Ricci James Martin, born on September 20, 1953
Seventh child: Gina Caroline Martin, born on December 20, 1956
Third wife: Catherine Mae Hawn
Eighth child: Sasha (adopted)
Dean Martin's uncle was Leonard Barr who appeared in several of his shows.
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