Bob Newhart
September 1987
Birth name	George Robert Newhart
Born	(1929-09-05) September 5, 1929 (age 82) Oak Park, Illinois, U.S.
Medium	Stand-up, film, television, books
Nationality	American
Years active	1958–present
Genres	Deadpan, satire
Subject(s)	American culture
Influences	Jack Benny, Robert Benchley, H. Allen Smith, James Thurber, Max Shulman, Michael Gough, Donald Pleasence[1]
Influenced	Ellen DeGeneres,[2] Lewis Black,[3] Norm Macdonald,[4] David Steinberg, Johnny Carson,[5] Ray Romano,[6] Tom Rhodes,[7] Conan O'Brien, Jay Leno
Spouse	Virginia Quinn (January 1963 - present) (4 children)
Notable works and roles	The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart Major Major in Catch-22 Dr. Robert Hartley in The Bob Newhart Show Dick Loudon in Newhart
Website	www.bobnewhart.com
Golden Globe Awards
Best TV Star - Male 1962
Grammy Awards
Album of the Year 1961 The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart Best New Artist 1961 Best Comedy Performance 1961 The Button-Down Mind Strikes Back!

George Robert "Bob" Newhart (born September 5, 1929), is an American stand-up comedian and actor. Noted for his deadpan and slightly stammering delivery, Newhart came to prominence in the 1960s when his album of comedic monologues The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart was a worldwide bestseller and reached #1 on the Billboard pop music charts—it remains the 20th best-selling comedy album in history.^[8] The follow-up album, The Button-Down Mind Strikes Back! was also a massive success, and both albums held the Billboard #1 and #2 spots simultaneously, a feat unequaled until the 1991 release of Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II by hard rock band Guns N' Roses.^[6]

Newhart later went into acting, starring in two long-running and prize-winning situation comedies, first as psychologist Dr. Robert "Bob" Hartley on the 1970s sitcom The Bob Newhart Show and then as innkeeper Dick Loudon on the 1980s sitcom Newhart. He also had a third, short-lived sitcom in the nineties titled Bob. Newhart also appeared in film roles such as Major Major in Catch-22, and Papa Elf in Elf. He provided the voice of Bernard in the Walt Disney animated films The Rescuers and The Rescuers Down Under. One of his most recent roles is the library head Judson in The Librarian. In 2011, Newhart appeared in the film Horrible Bosses.

Early life[link]

Newhart was born in Oak Park, Illinois and raised on the west side of Chicago. His parents were Julia Pauline (née Burns; 1900–1993), a housewife, and George David Newhart (1900–1985), a part-owner of a plumbing and heating-supply business. His mother was of Irish descent and his father had Irish, German, and English ancestry.^[6][9] One of his grandmothers was from St. Catharines, Canada.^[10] Newhart has three sisters, Virginia, Mary Joan (a nun, who taught at a Chicago high school), and Pauline.

He was educated at Roman Catholic schools in the area, including St. Catherine of Siena grammar school in Oak Park, and attended St. Ignatius College Prep, where he graduated in 1947. He then enrolled at Loyola University of Chicago where he graduated in 1952 with a bachelor's degree in business management.

He was drafted into the U.S. Army and served stateside during the Korean War as a personnel manager until discharged in 1954. Newhart briefly attended Loyola Law School but did not complete a degree, in part, he says, because he was asked to behave unethically during an internship.^[6]

Career[link]

After the war he got a job as an accountant for United States Gypsum. He later claimed that his motto, "That's close enough," and his habit of adjusting petty cash imbalances with his own money shows he didn't have the temperament to be an accountant.^[6] He also claimed to have been a clerk in the unemployment office who made $55 a week but who quit upon learning weekly unemployment benefits were $45 a week and he "only had to come in to the office one day a week to collect it."^[11]

Comedy albums[link]

About 1991, in Norfolk, Virginia

In 1958, Newhart became an advertising copywriter for Fred A. Niles, a major independent film and television producer in Chicago. It was here that he and a coworker would entertain each other with long telephone calls about absurd scenarios, which they would later record and send to radio stations as audition tapes. When his coworker ended his participation, Newhart continued the recordings alone, developing the shtick which was to serve him well for decades. In addition to his various standup bits, he incorporated that shtick into his television series at appropriate times. The auditions led to his break-through recording contract. A disc jockey at the radio station—Dan Sorkin, who later became the announcer-sidekick on his NBC series—introduced Newhart to the head of talent at Warner Bros. Records, which signed him in 1959—only a year after the label was formed—based solely on those recordings. He expanded his material into a stand-up routine which he began to perform at nightclubs.^[6]

Newhart became famous mostly on the strength of his audio releases, in which he became the world's first solo "straight man". This is a seeming contradiction in terms—by definition, a straight man is the counterpart of a more loony comedic partner. Newhart's routine, however, was simply to portray one end of a conversation (usually a phone call), playing the straightest of comedic straight men and implying what the other person was saying. Newhart told a 2005 interviewer for PBS's American Masters that his favorite standup routine is "Abe Lincoln vs. Madison Avenue," in which a slick promoter has to deal with the reluctance of the eccentric President to agree to efforts to boost his image. The routine was suggested to Newhart by a Chicago TV director and future comedian—Bill Daily, who would be Newhart's castmate on the 1970s Bob Newhart Show for CBS. Newhart became known for using an intentional stammer, in service of his unique combination of politeness and disbelief at what he was supposedly hearing. Newhart has used the delivery throughout his career. In his 2006 book I Shouldn't Even Be Doing This, he included the following anecdote:

When I was doing The Bob Newhart Show, one of the producers pulled me aside and said that the shows were running a little long. He wondered if I could cut down the time of my speeches by reducing my stammering. 'No, that stammer bought me a house in Beverly Hills.'^[12]

His 1960 comedy album, The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart, went straight to number one on the charts, beating Elvis Presley and the cast album of The Sound of Music. It was the first comedy album to make #1 on the Billboard charts.^[13] Button Down Mind received the 1961 Grammy Award for Album of the Year. The album peaked at #2 in the UK Albums Chart.^[14] Newhart also won Best New Artist, and his quickly released follow-on album, The Button-Down Mind Strikes Back, won Best Comedy Performance - Spoken Word that same year. Subsequent comedy albums include Behind the Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart (1961), The Button-Down Mind on TV (1962), Bob Newhart Faces Bob Newhart (1964), The Windmills Are Weakening (1965), This Is It (1967), Best of Bob Newhart (1971), and Very Funny Bob Newhart (1973). Years later he released Bob Newhart Off the Record (1992), The Button-Down Concert (1997) and Something Like This (2001), an anthology of his 1960s Warner Bros. albums.

Television[link]

Newhart's success in stand-up led to his own NBC variety show in 1961, The Bob Newhart Show. The show lasted only a single season but earned Newhart an Emmy Award nomination and a Peabody Award. The Peabody Board cited him as:

... a person whose gentle satire and wry and irreverent wit waft a breath of fresh and bracing air through the stale and stuffy electronic corridors. A merry marauder, who looks less like St. George than a choirboy, Newhart has wounded, if not slain, many of the dragons that stalk our society. In a troubled and apprehensive world, Newhart has proved once again that laughter is the best medicine.

In the mid-1960s, Newhart appeared on The Dean Martin Show 24 times, and The Ed Sullivan Show eight times.^[6] He appeared in a 1963 episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour and The Judy Garland Show. Newhart guest-hosted The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson 87 times, and hosted Saturday Night Live twice, 15 years apart (1980 and 1995).

In addition to stand-up comedy, Newhart became a dedicated character actor, including a guest role on an episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. That led to other series such as: Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre, Captain Nice, 2 episodes of Insight, and It's Garry Shandling's Show. He reprised his role as Dr. Bob Hartley on Murphy Brown and The Simpsons, and as a retired forensic pathologist on NCIS.

Newhart guest-starred on three episodes of ER, for which he was nominated for an Emmy award,^[6] as well as on Desperate Housewives (see below in "Other Appearances"). He also appeared on Committed.

Films[link]

Primarily a television star, Newhart has been in a number of popular films, beginning with the 1962 war story Hell Is for Heroes starring Steve McQueen. His films have ranged from 1970's Barbra Streisand musical On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, the 1971 Norman Lear comedy Cold Turkey, the Mike Nichols-directed war satire Catch-22, to the 2003 Will Ferrell holiday comedy Elf.

Newhart played the President of the United States in a 1980 comedy, First Family. He appeared as a beleaguered school principal in 1997's In & Out, starring Kevin Kline.

His most recent film appearance was a cameo appearance as a sadistic CEO at the end of the 2011 film Horrible Bosses.

Sitcoms[link]

[edit] The Bob Newhart Show

Newhart's most notable exposure on television came from two long-running programs that centered on him. In 1972, soon after Newhart guest-starred on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, he was approached by his agent and his managers, producer Grant Tinker and actress Mary Tyler Moore (the husband/wife team who founded MTM Enterprises), to work on a pilot series called The Bob Newhart Show, to be written by Davis and Music. He was very interested in the starring role of dry psychologist Bob Hartley, with Suzanne Pleshette playing his wryly loving wife, Emily, and Bill Daily as neighbor and friend Howard Borden.

The Bob Newhart Show faced heavy competition from the beginning, launching at the same time as the popular shows M*A*S*H, Maude, Sanford And Son, and The Waltons. Nevertheless, it was an immediate hit. The show eventually referenced what made Newhart's name in the first place—apart from the first few episodes, it used an opening-credits sequence featuring Newhart answering a telephone in his office. According to co-star Marcia Wallace, the entire cast got along well, and Newhart became close friends with both Wallace and co-star Suzanne Pleshette.

The cast also included unfamiliar actors. Marcia Wallace as Bob's wisecracking, man-chasing receptionist, Carol Kester; Peter Bonerz as dentist Jerry Robinson, whose offices were on the same floor as Newhart's Hartley; Jack Riley as Elliot Carlin, the most misanthropic among members of Dr. Hartley's most frequently seen group therapy sessions; legendary character actor and voice artist, John Fiedler (the voice of Piglet); Florida Friebus (once the mother on The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis) as another group member; and, scattered over two seasons, Pat Finley as Hartley's sister, Ellen, a love interest for Howard Borden. Future Newhart regular Tom Poston had a briefly recurring role as Cliff Murdock; veteran stage actor Barnard Hughes appeared as Hartley's father for three episodes spread over two seasons, and studio film veteran Martha Scott appeared in several episodes as Hartley's mother. Actress Teri Garr appeared twice in the 1973-74 season.

By 1977, the show was suffering lackluster ratings and Newhart wanted to end it, but was under contract to do one more season. The show's writers tried to rework the sitcom by adding a pregnancy, but Newhart objected: "I told the creators I didn't want any children, because I didn't want it to be a show about 'How stupid Daddy is, but we love him so much, let's get him out of the trouble he's gotten himself into'." Nevertheless, the staff wrote an episode that they hoped would change Newhart's mind. Newhart read the script and he agreed it was very funny. He then asked, "Who are you going to get to play Bob?"^[15] Ironically, Newhart's wife gave birth to their daughter Jenny late in the year, which caused him to miss several episodes.

Marcia Wallace spoke of Newhart's amiable nature on set: "He's very low key, and he didn't want to cause trouble. I had a dog that I used to bring to the set by the name of Maggie. And whenever there was a line that Bob didn't like—he didn't want to complain too much—so, he'd go over, get down on his hands and knees, and repeat the line to the dog, who invariably yawned; and he'd say, 'See, I told you it's not funny!'" Wallace has also commented on the show's lack of Emmy recognition: "People think we were nominated for many an Emmy, people presume we won Emmys, all of us, and certainly Bob, and certainly the show. Nope, never!"

Newhart finally pulled the plug on his own sitcom in 1978 after six seasons and 142 episodes. Wallace said of its ending, "It was much crying and sobbing. It was so sad. We really did get along. We really had great times together." Of Newhart's other long-running sitcom, Newhart, Wallace said, "But some of the other great comedic talents who had a brilliant show, when they tried to do it twice, it didn't always work. And that's what... but like Bob, as far as I'm concerned, Bob is like the Fred Astaire of comics. He just makes it looks so easy, and he's not as in-your-face as some might be. As so, you just kind of take it for granted, how extraordinarily funny and how he wears well." She was later reunited with Newhart twice, once in a reprise of her role as Carol on Murphy Brown in 1994, and on an episode of Newhart's short-lived sitcom, George & Leo, in 1997.

[edit] Newhart

In 1982, Newhart was interested in a new sitcom. After he had discussions with Barry Kemp and CBS, the show Newhart was created, in which Newhart played Vermont innkeeper Dick Loudin. Inexperienced, struggling actress Mary Frann was cast as his wife, Joanna Loudin, and another unfamiliar prime-time actress and soap star (who had been a fan of Newhart's since she was 21), Julia Duffy joined the cast as Dick's inn maid and spoiled rich girl, Stephanie Vanderkellen. A familiar actor (who had been a fan of Newhart's since he was 17), Peter Scolari was also cast as Dick's manipulative TV producer, Michael Harris. Well known actor Tom Poston played the role of handyman George Utley on "Newhart" and received three Emmy Award Nominations for his role in "Newhart" as Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series, 1984, 1986 and 1987. Like The Bob Newhart Show, Newhart was an immediate hit, and like the show before that, it was also nominated for Emmys, but it didn't win any awards. During the time Newhart was working on this show, in 1985, his smoking habits finally caught up to him, and he was taken to the emergency room for polycythemia. The doctors ordered him to stop smoking.

Newhart himself "warmed up" the studio audience with a five-to-eight-minute routine before the filming of every episode.

In 1987, ratings began to drop. Newhart ended in 1990 after eight seasons and 182 episodes. The last episode ended with a scene in which Newhart wakes up in bed with Suzanne Pleshette, who had played Emily, his wife from The Bob Newhart Show. He realizes (in a satire of a famous plot element in the TV series Dallas a few years earlier) that the entire eight-year Newhart series had been a single nightmare of Dr. Bob Hartley's, provoked by "eating too much Japanese food before going to bed." Recalling Mary Frann's buxom figure, Bob closes the segment and the series by telling Emily, "You really should wear more sweaters" before the typical closing notes of the old Bob Newhart Show theme played over the fadeout. The twist ending was later chosen by TV Guide as the best finale in television history.

Julia Duffy, who played Stephanie Vanderkellen beginning in season two, said, "Well, he always had this hipness from not being him. I mean, during that time, when somewhat are overlooked, some frenzy for NBC's Thursday night shows, we were Letterman's favorite show. Talked about it all the time, Rolling Stone did a huge article on our show, unsolicited article, praising it. Time Magazine did as well, because they loved the timelessness of it, our jokes had absolutely nothing to do with anything current." The last thing Duffy said about the cancellation of Mr. Newhart's second TV series of the decade when she was ready to move onto other projects was, "It was really good for me to see that it got to him, as much as it got to me." After the series' cancellation, Duffy remained friends with Newhart.

Peter Scolari, who played conniving, hyperactive TV producer, Michael Harris, for six of the eight seasons, said of his idol/future TV producer and friend, about looking for another woman who preceded Suzanne Pleshette (who died in 2008, a decade after Frann): "I think Bob was right to find a woman, who was, you know, a completely different kind of woman. I mean, I hate to say it, but demographically, you don't have this. You get the sense that Suzanne Pleshette, you know, had played some poker in her time, maybe knocked back a couple of cigarettes, in her life, and you'd be right to assume that Mary Frann did none of those things. Mary Frann was such a dedicated actor that this one, I don't think she missed a mark or screwed up a line in like 60 or 70 performances of her own, that were flawless."

When Newhart's co-star had found out Newhart (himself) was trying to stop smoking was, "And the Pepsi was gone and the cigarettes were finally gone. And he did a great... you know, he would do a five- to eight-minute routine in front of our live audience, every single show night; every Friday night for eight years, he did excerpts and new material. And he did the smoking, and he would start playing the spotlight. The follow spot was on him. 'And I haven't had any of the problems that people usually talk about having with the... with the smoking—impatience, outbursts of anger, appetite. I haven't really... look, put it on me or get it off me! Just make up your mind!' And he'd freaked out on the follow spot guy. So, he did this for about eight to ten weeks."

The last thing Peter also said despite of Mr. Newhart's second show not winning any Emmys, it also gained recognition for the eight seasons that stayed on the air, "I think Julia Duffy and I (at the Emmys), lost Bob and Tom, I think in 8 years, would collectively lost 15 Emmys, lost by 4 cast members, and we just couldn't get arrested, no matter how great a year, we had, it's great to be nominated, to lose again." After the series' cancellation, Scolari is still good friends with Newhart, who also plays golf with him.

Other TV series[link]

In 1992, Newhart returned to television with a series called Bob, about a cartoonist. An ensemble cast included a pre-Friends Lisa Kudrow, but the show did not develop a strong audience and was canceled shortly after the start of its second season, despite good critical reviews. In 1997, Newhart returned again with George and Leo on CBS with Judd Hirsch and Jason Bateman; the show was canceled during its first season.

Other TV appearances[link]

In 2001, Newhart made an appearance on MADtv (Season 6), playing a psychiatrist who yells "Stop it!" in a skit. Other television work includes:

• The Entertainers (regular performer in 1964)
• Thursday's Game (1974) (made-for-TV film)
• Marathon (1980)
• Ladies and Gentlemen... Bob Newhart (1980)
• Ladies and Gentlemen... Bob Newhart Part II (1981)
• The Entertainers (1991)
• The Sports Pages (2001) (made-for-TV film)
• The Librarian: Quest for the Spear (2004)
• The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines (2006)
• The Librarian: Curse of the Judas Chalice (2008)
• NCIS, season 8: "Recruited" (2011)
• The Simpsons, season 7: "Bart the Fink" (1996)

In 1995, 64 year old Newhart was approached by the Showtime cable network to do his very first comedy special in his 35 year career. His special Off The Record consisted of him doing material from his first and second albums in front of a live audience in Pasedena, California. In 2003, Newhart guest-starred on three episodes of ER in a rare dramatic role that earned him an Emmy Award nomination, his first in nearly 20 years. In 2005, he began a recurring role in Desperate Housewives as Morty, the on-again/off-again boyfriend of Sophie (Lesley Ann Warren), Susan Mayer's (Teri Hatcher) mother. in 2009, He received another Emmy Award nomination for reprising his role as Judson in The Librarian: Curse of the Judas Chalice.

On the 2006 Emmy Awards, hosted by Conan O'Brien, Newhart was placed in a supposedly airtight glass prison that contained three hours of air. If the Emmys went over the time of three hours, he would die. This gag was an acknowledgment of the common frustration that award shows usually run on past their allotted time (which is usually three hours). Newhart "survived" his containment to help O'Brien present the Emmy Award for Best Comedy Series (which went to The Office).

During an episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live, Newhart made a comedic cameo with members of ABC's show Lost lampooning an alternate ending to the series finale. In 2011, Newhart appeared in a small but pivotal role as a doctor in Lifetime's anthology film on breast cancer Five.

Personal comedic style[link]

Newhart is known for his deadpan delivery and a slight stammer which early on he incorporated into the persona around which he built a successful career.^[6] On his TV shows, although he got his share of funny lines, often he worked in the Jack Benny tradition of being the "straight man" while the sometimes somewhat bizarre cast members surrounding him got the laughs.

Several of his routines involve hearing one half of a conversation as he speaks to someone over the phone. In a bit called King Kong, a rookie security guard at the Empire State Building seeks guidance as to how to deal with an ape who is "18 to 19 stories high, depending on whether we have a 13th floor or not". He assures his boss he has looked in the guards manual "under 'ape' and 'ape's toes'". Other famous routines include "The Driving Instructor," "The Mrs. Grace L. Ferguson Airline (and Storm Door Company)", "Introducing Tobacco To Civilization", "Abe Lincoln vs. Madison Avenue," "Defusing a Bomb" (in which an uneasy security division commander tries to walk a new and nervous security guard through defusing a live shell discovered on a California beach), "The Retirement Party," "A Neighbour's Dog," "Ledge Psychology," and "The Khrushchev Landing Rehearsal."

Quotations[link]

On pleasure: "All I can say about life is, Oh God, enjoy it!"

On his ritual: "This stammer got me a home in Beverly Hills, and I'm not about to screw with it now."

"Laughter gives us distance. It allows us to step back from an event, deal with it and then move on."

"It's getting harder and harder to differentiate between schizophrenics and people talking on a cell phone. It still brings me up short to walk by somebody who appears to be talking to themselves."

On drinking alcoholic beverages on airplanes: "I'm one of those passengers who arrives at the airport five or six hours early so I can throw back a few drinks and muster up the courage to board the plane. Apparently I'm not alone because I've never been in an empty airport bar. I don't care what time you get there. Even at 8:00 a.m. you have to fight your way to the bar. At that hour, everyone drinks Bloody Marys so no one can tell it's booze -- at least until they fall off their chair."

When asked to do a new sitcom: "My manager, I was surprised was one of the founders of MTM Enterprises, by Mary Tyler Moore and Grant Tinker, and Mary's show was such a big hit. He came to me and said, 'Would you like to do a sitcom?' I was traveling on the road a lot, so, the sitcom I could stay home, and said, yeah!"

"I don't have a show anymore. I don't have a check coming in every week. This is important to me, I got to score a million tonight or it could all be over."

"My friends were getting married, buying houses, buying cars, and I wasn't doing anything. There was the point was I talk to myself to you, every screw up nature, look at what you've done with your life. But there was always something on the horizon, that was holding, maybe, you know, this will make you different."

Writings[link]

On September 20, 2006, Hyperion Books released Newhart's first book, I Shouldn't Even Be Doing This. The book is primarily a memoir, but features comic bits by Newhart as well. As comedian David Hyde Pierce notes, "The only difference between Bob Newhart on stage and Bob Newhart offstage – is that there is no stage."^[16]

Honors[link]

In addition to his Peabody Award and several Emmy nominations, Newhart's recognitions include:

• Three Grammy awards in 1961: Best New Artist, Best Comedy Performance (Spoken Word) and Album of the Year for The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart (the first comedy record to be honored as Album of the Year).
• In 1993 Newhart was inducted into the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame.
• In 1998, Billboard magazine recognized Newhart's first album as #20 on their list of most popular albums of the past 40 years, and the only comedy album on the list.
• On January 6, 1999 Newhart received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
• In 2002 he won the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.
• In 2004, Newhart was #14 on Comedy Central Presents: 100 Greatest Stand-Ups of All Time.
• On July 27, 2004, the American cable television network TV Land unveiled a statue of Newhart on the Magnificent Mile in his native Chicago, depicting Dr. Robert Hartley from The Bob Newhart Show. The statues depict Dr. Hartley sitting in his therapy practice chair with a pencil held between his hands, and a patients' sofa next to him. The bronze set is now located in the small park in front of the entrance of Navy Pier.

Personal life[link]

Newhart was introduced by Buddy Hackett to Virginia "Ginnie" Quinn, the daughter of character actor Bill Quinn (who died in 1994).^[6] They were married on January 12, 1963. The couple have four children (Robert, Timothy, Jennifer and Courtney), and several grandchildren. They are Catholic and raised their children as such, but Ginnie said they did not want them to have "the fears" that came from their upbringing.^[17] His son Rob (who portrayed his father in 1993's Heart & Souls, with Robert Downey Jr.) maintains his father's official website. Newhart is a good friend of comedian Don Rickles.

In 1985, Newhart was rushed to the emergency room, suffering with polycythemia, after years of heavy smoking. He made a recovery, several weeks after, and has since quit smoking.^[6]

Newhart is the uncle of former Saturday Night Live castmember Paul Brittain.

Filmography[link]

• Hell Is for Heroes (1962) — a World War II drama with a comedic monologue by Newhart
• Hot Millions (1968)
• On A Clear Day You Can See Forever (1970)
• Catch-22 (1970)
• Cold Turkey (1971)
• The Rescuers (1977) (voice)
• Little Miss Marker (1980)
• First Family (1980)
• The Rescuers Down Under (1990) (voice)
• Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Movie (1998) (voice of Leonard the polar bear)
• In & Out (1997)
• Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde (2003)
• Elf (2003)
• The Librarian: Quest for the Spear (2004)
• The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines (2006)
• The Librarian: Curse of the Judas Chalice (2008)
• Horrible Bosses (2011) (cameo)
• Happy Feet Two (2011) (voice)

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Newhart, Bob (2006). I Shouldn't Even Be Doing This!. New York: Hyperion. pp. 256p.. ISBN 1-4013-0246-7. 
• Mayerly, Judine (1989). "The Most Inconspicuous Hit on Television: A Case Study of Newhart". Washington, D.C.: Journal of Popular Film and Television. 
• Sorenson, Jeff (1988). Bob Newhart. New York: St. Martin's. 
• Reilly, Rick. Who's Your Caddy: Looping for the Great, Near Great, and Reprobates of Golf. 

External links[link]

Biography portal

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Bob Newhart

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Bob Newhart

• Official website
• Bob Newhart at the Internet Movie Database
• Bob Newhart on National Public Radio in 2001
• Bob Newhart profile from American Masters
• Archive of American Television Interview with Bob Newhart May 29, 2001 on Google Video
• Bob:The Last Interview
• Bob Newhart four-part interview with Horace J. Digby on A3Radio

Don Rickles
Rickles on stage at the Tropicana Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City on January 12, 2008
Birth name	Donald Jay Rickles
Born	(1926-05-08) May 8, 1926 (age 86) Queens, New York, U.S.
Medium	Stand-up, Television, Film
Nationality	American
Years active	1948–present
Genres	Improvisational comedy, Observational comedy, Musical comedy, Insult comedy
Subject(s)	United States culture, Racism, Self-deprecation, Everyday life, Religion, Current events
Influences	Milton Berle
Influenced	Jay Leno, David Letterman, Howard Stern, Russell Peters,[1] Dave Attell,[2] Lisa Lampanelli[3] Jerry Seinfeld, Norm Macdonald, Larry the Cable Guy
Spouse	Barbara Sklar (1965–present) (2 children)
Notable works and roles	Hello Dummy! Q M 1/C Ruby in Run Silent, Run Deep Sgt. Crapgame in Kelly's Heroes Billy Sherbert in Casino Mr. Potato Head in the Toy Story franchise

Donald Jay "Don" Rickles (born May 8, 1926)^[4] is an American stand-up comedian and actor. A frequent guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, Rickles has acted in comedic and dramatic roles, but is best known as an insult comic.

Early life[link]

Rickles was born in the New York City borough of Queens to Max Rickles, who had emigrated in 1902 with his parents Joseph and Frances Rickles from Kaunas, Lithuania^[5] (then in the Russian Empire), and Etta (Feldman) Rickles, born in New York to immigrant parents from the Austrian Empire.^[6][7][8][9] His family was Jewish and spoke Yiddish at home. Rickles grew up in the Jackson Heights area.^[4]

After graduating from Newtown High School, Rickles enlisted in the U.S. Navy and served during World War II on the USS Cyrene as a seaman first class. He was honorably discharged in 1946. Two years later, he studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and then played bit parts on television. Frustrated by a lack of acting work, Rickles began doing stand-up comedy. He became known as an insult comedian by responding to his hecklers. The audience enjoyed these insults more than his prepared material, and he incorporated them into his act. When he began his career in the early 1950s he started calling ill-mannered members of the audience a "hockey puck".^[10] His style was similar to an older insult comic, "Mr. Warmth" Jack E. Leonard, though Rickles denies that Leonard influenced his style.^[11]

Career[link]

1950s–1960s[link]

While working in a Miami Beach nightclub known as "Murray Franklin's" early in his career, he spotted Frank Sinatra and remarked to him, "I just saw your movie, The Pride and the Passion and I want to tell you, the cannon's acting was great." He added, "Make yourself at home, Frank. Hit somebody!"^[4][12] Sinatra, whose pet name for Rickles was "bullet-head", enjoyed Rickles so much that he encouraged other celebrities to see Rickles' act and be insulted by him. Sinatra's support helped Rickles become a popular headline performer in Las Vegas.^[12]

Rickles earned the nicknames "The Merchant of Venom" and "Mr. Warmth" for his insult comedy, in which he pokes fun at people of all ethnicities and walks of life. When he is introduced to an audience or on a television talk show, Spanish matador music, "La Virgen de la Macarena", will usually be played, subtly foreshadowing that someone is about to be metaphorically gored. Rickles has said, "I always pictured myself facing the audience as the matador."^[11]

In 1958, Rickles made his film debut in a serious part in Run Silent, Run Deep starring Clark Gable and Burt Lancaster. Throughout the 1960s, he appeared frequently on television in sitcoms and dramatic series. Rickles guest-starred in Get Smart as "Sid", an old war buddy of Max who comes to stay with him. In an episode of the 1960s drama series Run for Your Life, Rickles played a distressed comedian whose act culminates when he strangles a patron while imploring the patron to "Laugh!" Rickles took a dramatic turn in the Roger Corman film X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes as a carnival barker out to exploit the title character.^{[citation needed]}

Rickles also appeared in the popular Beach Party film series. He recalled in his memoirs that at a White House dinner, Barbara Bush teased him about his decision to appear in those films, and remarked "Was your career really going that badly?"^{[citation needed]}. Rickles' agent, Jack Gilardi, was married to Annette Funicello when Rickles was cast in the Beach Party films.

As his career progressed, Rickles began appearing more frequently on television talk shows, first appearing on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in 1965. He became a frequent guest and guest host, appearing more than 100 times on The Tonight Show during Carson's era. An early Carson-Rickles Tonight highlight occurred in 1968 when, while two Japanese women treated Carson to a bath and massage by foot, Rickles walked onto the set. At one point, he decided to play massage therapist to the prone and towel-clad Carson. Rickles leaned over and wrapped his arms around Carson, ad-libbing, "I'm so lonely, Johnny!" Carson broke into hysterical laughter, got up, grabbed Rickles, and tossed the suit-clad comedian into the bathtub. Rickles also made frequent appearances on The Dean Martin Show and became a fixture on The Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts specials, which continued until 1984.

In 1968, Rickles released a live comedy album, Hello, Dummy!, which reached #54 on Billboard's Hot 100.^[13] The same year he starred in his own variety show on ABC, The Don Rickles Show, with comedy writer Pat McCormick as his sidekick. The show lasted one season. During the 1960s, Rickles made guest appearances on The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Munsters, The Addams Family, The Mothers -in- Law, Gilligan's Island, Get Smart, The Andy Griffith Show and I Dream of Jeannie.

1970s–1980s[link]

This biographical section of an article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (April 2011)

In 1970, Rickles had a notable role as the con man Sgt. Crapgame in the hit film Kelly's Heroes with Clint Eastwood. In 1972, he starred in the sitcom The Don Rickles Show which lasted for thirteen episodes. He also starred in a series of television specials. In his memoir, Rickles acknowledged that a scripted sitcom was not well-suited to his ad-lib style of performing. In 1973 Don Rickles was a popular comedian at The Dean Martin Roasts.

In 1976, he starred in the sitcom C.P.O. Sharkey, which lasted two seasons. The show is primarily remembered for the cigarette box incident when Johnny Carson visited during an episode's taping because he was "incensed" that Rickles broke his cigarette box while Bob Newhart was guest-hosting. The incident was often replayed in Tonight Show retrospectives and was considered a highlight of the 1970s era of the show.

Rickles occasionally appeared as a panelist on Hollywood Squares and was depicted in comic book form by Jack Kirby during his work on the Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen series.

1980s–1990s[link]

In the early 1980s, Rickles began performing with singer Steve Lawrence in concerts in Las Vegas. In 1983, the duo co-hosted the short-lived ABC-TV series Foul-Ups, Bleeps & Blunders, an imitation of NBC's TV's Bloopers & Practical Jokes.

In 1985, when Frank Sinatra was asked to perform at Ronald Reagan's Second Inaugural Ball, he stipulated he would not perform unless Rickles was allowed to perform with him. Rickles considers this performance the highlight of his career.^[14]

In 1990, he appeared in the second season of Tales From the Crypt in the episode "The Ventriloquist's Dummy".

In 1992, he was cast in the film Innocent Blood, directed by John Landis. In his memoir, Rickles wrote that he recalled that Landis was once a "Production Assistant" to director Brian G. Hutton during the filming of Kelly's Heroes. During the filming of Innocent Blood, Rickles would kid Landis by ordering him to get coffee or to run other errands befitting his one-time "gofer" status.

In 1993, Rickles starred in another short-lived sitcom, Daddy Dearest, with comedian Richard Lewis. In 1995, he made a return to film in two high-profile projects: a dramatic role as Robert De Niro's trusted colleague in Martin Scorsese's Casino, and voicing Mr. Potato Head in the Pixar computer-animated film Toy Story. He reprises the latter role in Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3. In 1998 he portrayed a movie theater manager in Dirty Work, starring Norm Macdonald and Artie Lange. Again in 1998, he was the voice of Cornwall, one of the heads of a two-headed dragon, in the movie "Quest for Camelot".

2000s–present[link]

Rickles continued to be very active on the stand-up comedy scene, and is still a popular performer in Las Vegas.^[15] He has no plans to retire as he recently said in an interview: "I'm in good health. I'm working better than I ever have. The audiences are great. Why should I retire? I'm like a fighter. The bell rings and you come out and fight. My energy comes alive. And I still enjoy it."^[14]

In February 2007, Rickles made a cameo appearance as himself in a strange, recurring dream sequence that was woven through an episode titled "Sub Conscious" of the CBS dramatic series, The Unit.^[16]

Rickles' memoir, titled Rickles' Book, was released on May 8, 2007 by Simon & Schuster. Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project, a documentary about Rickles directed by John Landis, made its debut on HBO on December 2, 2007. Rickles won two Emmys for the documentary, including one for "Individual Performance" besting a number of notable comics, including David Letterman, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. To this Rickles remarked, "Stephen Colbert's a funny man, but he's too young. He has got plenty of time to win awards, but this may be my last year and I think that I made it count. On second thought it was probably just a mercy award for an old man."^[17]

Rickles reprised the role of Mr. Potato Head in the Toy Story Midway Mania! attraction at Disney California Adventure Park and Disney's Hollywood Studios.^[18] He voiced the character again in Toy Story 3.

In 2009, Rickles appeared on Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List and met Griffin's mother, Maggie, to fulfill one item on Maggie's "bucket list".

In 2010, he appeared in a commercial during Super Bowl XLIV as a talking rose.

On June 27, 2010, he appeared on the 37th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards on CBS TV.

In 2011, Rickles joined Joe Pesci in a Snickers advertisement highlighting the actors known for their "short fuses."^[19] Also in 2011, he made a surprise appearance as the late husband of Elka (Betty White) on the TV Land original comedy Hot in Cleveland -- a "surprise" because Rickles' character was thought to be dead.

Style[link]

It is well known that Rickles has nothing against the people that he insults during his routine, and that it is all just part of the act. Although sarcastically nicknamed "Mr. Warmth" due to his offensive and insensitive stage personality, in reality most know him to be actually quite genial and pleasant. It has been said that being insulted by Rickles is like "wearing a badge of honor".^[20]

When asked by an interviewer if he ever worried that his insult comedy might ever become too offensive, Rickles replied, "You know, every night when I go out on stage to do my comedy routines, there's always one nagging fear in the back of my mind. I'm always afraid that somewhere out there, there is one person in the audience that I'm NOT going to offend!"^{[citation needed]}

Rickles is known for lackadaisically saying the word "anyway" and "let me tell ya this", following most of his comedic insults, in order to appear nonchalant about the comic volley he had just thrown at an audience member, show host, etc. This is widely regarded as one of Rickles' classic comedic tactics that contribute to his impeccable sense of timing.^{[citation needed]}

Personal life[link]

Rickles has been married for more than 45 years to his wife, Barbara, who was raised in Philadelphia. The couple had two children; a daughter Mindy, and a son, producer Larry Rickles, who died in December 2011 at the age of 41.^[21] According to Rickles' memoir, his grandchildren, Ethan and Harrison Mann, are much more impressed by his role as "Mr. Potato Head" than by any of his other achievements. Rickles is a life-long Democrat. However, he performed at the inaugurations of Republican presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush with his friend Frank Sinatra.^[22]

Rickles considers comedian Bob Newhart to be his best friend. Rickles, Newhart, and their wives often vacation together. Rickles and Newhart appeared together on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on January 24, 2005, the Monday following Johnny Carson's death, reminiscing about their many guest appearances on Carson's show, including footage of the "cigarette box incident".^{[citation needed]}

Works[link]

Filmography[link]

• Run Silent, Run Deep (1958)
• The Rabbit Trap (1959)
• The Rat Race (1960)
• X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes (1963)
• Muscle Beach Party (1964)
• Bikini Beach (1964)
• Pajama Party (1964)
• Beach Blanket Bingo (1965)
• Enter Laughing (1967)
• The Money Jungle (1968)
• Where It's At (1969)
• Kelly's Heroes (1970)
• The Love Machine (1971)
• Keaton's Cop (1988)
• Innocent Blood (1992)
• Casino (1995)
• Toy Story (1995) (voice)
• Redux Riding Hood (1997) (short subject) (voice)
• Off the Menu: The Last Days of Chasen's (1997) (documentary)
• Quest for Camelot (1998) (voice)
• Dirty Work (1998)
• Dennis the Menace Strikes Again (1998)
• Toy Story 2 (1999) (voice)
• Goodnight, We Love You (2004) (documentary)
• The J-K Conspiracy (2004) (documentary)
• The Aristocrats (2005) (documentary)
• The Last Laugh (2006) (documentary)
• Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project (2007) (documentary)
• Toy Story 3 (2010) (voice)
• Hawaiian Vacation (2011) (voice)
• Zookeeper (2011) (voice)
• Small Fry (film) (2011) (voice)
• Vacation in India with Amruth raj (2012) (voice)

Selected television work[link]

• The DuPont Show with June Allyson (1959 episode – "No Place to Hide and the 1960 episode – "The Women Who")
• The Twilight Zone (1961 episode – Mr. Dingle, the Strong)
• The Addams Family (1964 episode – Hallowe'en With the Addams Family)
• The Dick Van Dyke Show (1964 episodes - "4 1/2" and "The Alan Brady Show Goes to Jail")
• The Dean Martin Show (1965–1974) (Guest Star)
• Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. (1965) (Guest Star)
• The Andy Griffith Show (1965) (Guest Star)
• F-Troop (1965 episode - The Return of Bald Eagle) (Guest Star)
• The Munsters (1965 episode – Dance With Me, Herman)
• Kibbee Hates Fitch (1965) (unsold pilot)
• Gilligan's Island (1966) (Guest Star)
• The Lucy Show (1967)
• Get Smart (1968 episode – The Little Black Book, Parts I and II)
• Laugh-In (1968–1969)
• The Don Rickles Show (1968–1969)
• The Don Rickles Show (1972)
• The Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts (1974–1984)
• C.P.O. Sharkey (1976–1978)
• For the Love of It (1980) (TV movie)
• Foul-Ups, Bleeps & Blunders (1984–1985)
• Don Rickles: Rickles on the Loose (1986) (television special)
• Tales from the Crypt (The Ventriloquist's Dummy) (1990)
• Daddy Dearest (1993)
• Mike & Spike (1995) Episode: "Person To Shoe" as Ace Feathers
• The Larry Sanders Show (1997)
• Muppets Tonight (1997)
• The Bernie Mac Show (2002)
• The Wool Cap (2004) (TV movie)
• The Catch (2005) (unsold pilot)
• Live with Regis and Kelly (2007)
• The Daily Show (2007)
• Jimmy Kimmel Live (2007)
• Late Show with David Letterman (2008)
• The Daily Show (2008)
• Late Night with Conan O'Brien (2008)
• Jimmy Kimmel Live (2009)
• The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (2009)
• Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List (2009)
• Late Show with David Letterman (2009)
• Jimmy Kimmel Live (2009)
• Jimmy Kimmel Live (2010)
• Late Show with David Letterman (2010)
• Tonight Show with Jay Leno (2010)
• The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (2010)
• Jimmy Kimmel Live (2011)
• Late Show with David Letterman (2011)
• Jimmy Kimmel Live (2011)
• The Tonight Show With Jay Leno (2011)
• The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (2011)
• Hot in Cleveland (2011)

Discography[link]

• Hello Dummy! (1968)
• Don Rickles Speaks! (1969)

Books[link]

• Rickles' Book: A Memoir by Don Rickles with David Ritz (Simon & Schuster, 2007), ISBN 978-0-7432-9305-1
• Rickles' Letters by Don Rickles with David Ritz (Simon & Schuster, 2008), ISBN 978-1-4165-9663-9

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Rickles' Book: A Memoir by Don Rickles with David Ritz (Simon & Schuster, 2007), ISBN 978-0-7432-9305-1

External links[link]

Biography portal

• Official website
• Don Rickles at the Internet Movie Database
• Don Rickles at TVGuide.com
• Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project full length feature film at Hulu (link is only accessible from within the United States)
• Don Rickles Mr. Warmth App - iTunes Store

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2008)

Dean Martin
Photo 1960
Background information
Birth name	Dino Paul Crocetti
Also known as	Dean Martin The King of Cool Dino Dino Martini
Born	(1917-06-07)June 7, 1917 Steubenville, Ohio, U.S.
Died	December 25, 1995(1995-12-25) (aged 78) Beverly Hills, California, U.S.
Genres	Big band, easy listening, pop standard, country
Occupations	Musician, singer, actor, comedian, film producer
Years active	1939–1995
Labels	Capitol, Reprise

Dean Martin (born Dino Paul Crocetti; June 7, 1917 – December 25, 1995) was an American singer, film actor, television star and comedian. Martin's hit singles included "Memories Are Made of This", "That's Amore", "Everybody Loves Somebody", "You're Nobody till Somebody Loves You", "Sway", "Volare" and "Ain't That a Kick in the Head?". Nicknamed the "King of Cool",^[1][2] he was one of the members of the "Rat Pack" and a major star in four areas of show business: concert stage/night clubs, recordings, motion pictures, and television.

Early life[link]

Martin was born in Steubenville, Ohio, to Italian parents, Gaetano and Angela Crocetti (née Barra). His father was from Montesilvano, Pescara, Abruzzo, Italy, and his mother was an Italian of part Neapolitan and part Sicilian ancestry. Martin was the younger of two sons. His brother was named Bill. Martin spoke only Italian until he started school. He attended Grant Elementary School in Steubenville, and took up the drums as a hobby as a teenager. He was the target of much ridicule for his broken English and ultimately dropped out of Steubenville High School in the 10th grade because he thought that he was smarter than his teachers.^[3] He delivered bootleg liquor, served as a speakeasy croupier, was a blackjack dealer, worked in a steel mill and boxed as welterweight. He grew up a neighbor to Jimmy the Greek.

At the age of 15, he was a boxer who billed himself as "Kid Crochet". His prizefighting years earned him a broken nose (later straightened), a scarred lip, and many sets of broken knuckles (a result of not being able to afford the tape used to wrap boxers' hands). Of his twelve bouts, he would later say "I won all but eleven."^[4] For a time, he roomed with Sonny King, who, like Martin, was just starting in show business and had little money. It is said that Martin and King held bare-knuckle matches in their apartment, fighting until one of them was knocked out; people paid to watch. Martin knocked out King in the first round of an amateur boxing match.^[5]

Eventually, Martin gave up boxing. He worked as a roulette stickman and croupier in an illegal casino behind a tobacco shop where he had started as a stock boy. At the same time, he sang with local bands, calling himself "Dino Martini" (after the famous Metropolitan Opera tenor, Nino Martini). He got his first break working for the Ernie McKay Orchestra. He sang in a crooning style influenced by Harry Mills (of the Mills Brothers), among others. In the early 1940s, he started singing for bandleader Sammy Watkins, who suggested that he change his name to Dean Martin.

In October 1941, Martin married Elizabeth Anne McDonald. During their marriage (ended by divorce in 1949), they had four children. Martin worked for various bands throughout the early 1940s, mostly on looks and personality until he developed his own singing style. Martin famously flopped at the Riobamba, a high class nightclub in New York,^[6] when he followed Frank Sinatra in 1943, but it was the setting for their meeting.

Martin was drafted into the United States Army in 1944 during World War II, serving a year stationed in Akron, Ohio. He was then reclassified as 4-F and was discharged (possibly because of a double hernia; Jerry Lewis referred to the surgery that Martin needed for this in his autobiography).

By 1946, Martin was doing relatively well, but was still little more than an East Coast nightclub singer with a common style, similar to that of Bing Crosby. He drew audiences to the clubs where he played, but he inspired none of the fanatical popularity enjoyed by Sinatra.

Alleged Mafia connections[link]

A biography of Martin titled Dean Martin: King of the Road, by Michael Freedland, alleged that he had links to the Mafia early in his career. According to this book, Martin received help with his singing career from members of the Chicago Outfit, who owned saloons in the city, and later performed in shows hosted by these bosses when he was a star. The mob bosses were Tony Accardo and Sam Giancana. Freedland suggests that Martin felt little sympathy for the Mafia and did small favors for them only if it was not inconvenient for him. Another book, The Animal in Hollywood by John L. Smith, depicted Martin's longtime friendship with Mafia mobsters Johnny Roselli and Anthony Fiato. Smith suggested that Fiato did many favors for Martin, such as recovering money from two swindlers who had cheated his ex-wife Betty out of thousands of dollars of her alimony.^[7]

Career[link]

Teaming with Jerry Lewis[link]

Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis

Martin attracted the attention of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Columbia Pictures, but a Hollywood contract was not forthcoming. He met comic 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.

Martin and Lewis's 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 did not 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 and to improvise. Martin sang and Lewis came out dressed as a busboy, dropping plates and making a shambles of both Martin's performance and the club's sense of decorum until Lewis was chased from the room as Martin pelted him with breadrolls. 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. This success led to a series of well-paying engagements on the Eastern seaboard, culminating in a triumphant run at New York's Copacabana. 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.

The team made its TV debut on the very first broadcast of CBS-TV network's Toast of the Town (later called The Ed Sullivan Show) with Ed Sullivan and Rodgers & Hammerstein appearing on this same inaugural telecast of June 20, 1948. A radio series commenced in 1949, the same year Martin and Lewis were signed by Paramount producer Hal B. Wallis as comedy relief for the movie My Friend Irma.

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 they earned millions of dollars.

In Dean & Me, Lewis 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 and Lewis movies, which producer Hal Wallis stubbornly refused to change, led to Martin's dissatisfaction.^[8] He put less enthusiasm into the work, leading to escalating arguments with Lewis. They finally could not work together, especially after Martin told his partner he was "nothing to me but a dollar sign". The act broke up in 1956, 10 years to the day from the first official teaming.

Martin's first solo film, Ten Thousand Bedrooms (1957), 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 was waning.

Solo career[link]

Dean Martin in the film Ada (1961)

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 a war drama, The Young Lions (1957), he was ecstatic to receive the part because it would be a dramatic showcase with the two most intriguing young actors of the period and 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 and the film turned out to be the beginning of Martin's spectacular comeback. Success would continue as Martin starred alongside Frank Sinatra for the first time in a highly acclaimed Vincente Minnelli drama, Some Came Running (1958). By the mid '60s, Martin was a top movie, recording, television, and nightclub star, while Lewis' 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.

In 1960, Martin was cast in the motion picture version of the Judy Holliday hit stage play Bells Are Ringing. Martin played a satiric variation of his own womanizing persona as Vegas singer "Dino" in Billy Wilder's comedy Kiss Me, Stupid (1964) with Kim Novak, and he was not above poking fun at his image in films such as the Matt Helm spy spoofs of the 1960s, in which he was a co-producer. Indeed, in the second Matt Helm film Murderers' Row (1966), Helm, about to be executed, receives a last cigarette, and tells the provider, "I'll remember you from the great beyond," continuing sotto voce, "somewhere around Steubenville, I hope."

With John Wayne in Rio Bravo

As a singer, Martin copied the styles of Harry Mills (of the Mills Brothers), Bing Crosby, and Perry Como until he developed his own and could hold his own in duets with Sinatra and Crosby. Like Sinatra, he could not 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 United States in 1964. This was followed by the similarly-styled "The Door is Still Open to My Heart", which reached number six later that year. 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 Dean "Tex" Martin, The Hit Sound Of Dean Martin, Welcome To My World and Gentle On My Mind were composed of 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 11 that never became a hit at the time, has enjoyed a spectacular revival in the media and pop culture.

For three decades, Martin was among the most popular acts in Las Vegas. Martin sang and was one of the smoothest comics in the business, benefiting from the decade of raucous comedy with Lewis. Martin's daughter, Gail, also sang in Vegas and on his TV show, co-hosting his summer replacement series on NBC. 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."

The Rat Pack[link]

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.

Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra

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 imagination. 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 Strip performances. 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 appearances were unprecedentedly valuable because the city would always become flooded with high rollers, wealthy gamblers who would routinely leave substantial fortunes in the casinos' coffers. Their act (always in tuxedo) consisted of each singing individual numbers, duets and trios, along with much seemingly improvised slapstick and chatter. In the socially-charged 1960s, their jokes revolved around adult themes, such as Sinatra's infamous womanizing and Martin's legendary drinking, as well as many at the expense of Davis's race and religion. Davis famously practiced Judaism and used Yiddish phrases onstage, eliciting much merriment from both his stage-mates and his audiences.^{[citation needed]} It was all good-natured male bonding, never vicious, rarely foul-mouthed,^{[citation needed]} and the three had great respect for each other. The Rat Pack was largely responsible for the integration of Las Vegas. Sinatra and Martin were active supporters of the Civil Rights Movement and refused to perform in clubs that would not allow African-American or Jewish performers.^[9]

Posthumously, the Rat Pack has experienced a popular revival, inspiring the George Clooney/Brad Pitt "Ocean's" trilogy.

The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast[link]

In 1965, Martin launched his weekly NBC comedy-variety series, The Dean Martin Show, which exploited his public image as a lazy, carefree boozer. There 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. During an interview he stated, and this may have been tongue-in-cheek, that he had someone record them on cassette tape so he could listen to them; this is evidenced by his comments to this effect on the British TV documentary 'Wine, Women and Song' which was aired in 1983.

The TV show was a success. Martin prided himself on memorizing whole scripts – not merely his own lines.^{[citation needed]} He disliked rehearsing because he firmly believed his best performances were his first.^{[citation needed]} The show's loose format prompted quick-witted improvisation from Martin and the cast. On occasion, he made remarks in Italian, some mild obscenities that brought angry mail from offended, Italian-speaking viewers.^{[citation needed]} 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.^[10] 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. Phyllis Diller has said that Martin was indeed drinking alcohol onstage and not apple juice. She also commented that although he was not drunk, he was not really sober either, but had very strict rules when it came to performances. 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.^{[citation needed]}

Martin starred in and co-produced a series of four Matt Helm superspy comedy adventures. A fifth, The Ravagers, was planned starring Sharon Tate and Martin in a dual role, one as a serial killer, but due to the murder of Tate and the decline of the spy genre, the film was never made.^{[citation needed]}