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Dean Martin: 'King of Cool' (Bio)

posted 3 years ago by Satan2016 (25821)
2 replies | jump to latest

Article from Palm Springs, not related to recent movie. I was checking if he had mob connections - nope, only Sinatra did. The "drunk womanizer" persona was just an act.

https://www.desertsun.com/story/life/entertainment/2015/10/17/king-cool-dean-martin-stood/74079420/

He was the wingman to “Ol’ Blue Eyes” and MVP of the Rat Pack.

Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra were more than compadres, they were brothers who found each other at a time when Hollywood was seeping with glitz and glamor and clamored for larger than life personalities to entertain.

Ask anyone who saw the two Rat Packers perform together. They had a natural chemistry that came from a deep place. They fed off each other and spun gold every time. Dean with a perpetual twinkle in his eyes and Frank with a mischievous grin.

[–] Fillums21 (219) 3 years ago

As Dean said in several interviews, no one could be a drunk or an alcoholic and have such a successful career as he did.

Yes, he liked to drink, but he was not a drunk.

[–] Otter (24464) 3 years ago

I read a biography of the man, and he came out of the New York nightclub world, where you couldn't avoid the mob or dealing with mobsters, but he didn't keep lifelong connections with those people the way Sinatra did. And he wasn't as close with Sinatra as Sinatra wished they were, he was one of the few members of the Rat Pack who was his own man, and not Sinatra's stooge. Sinatra was kind of nonplussed that Martin maintained his personal and professional independence, he was happy to work with Sinatra and hang out with him, but he was his own man.

That's the thing about Martin, he was kind of a loner, the kind of person who didn't really need anyone, and that saved him from Sinatra at least. But Martin ended up very much alone at the end.