Carroll O'Connor (born John Carroll O'Connor) (August 2, 1924 – June 21, 2001) , was an American actor, producer and director whose television career spanned four decades. Known at first for playing the role of Major General Colt in the 1970 movie Kelly's Heroes, he later found fame as the bigoted working man Archie Bunker, the main character in the 1970s CBS television sitcoms All in the Family (1971 to 1979) and Archie Bunker's Place (1979 to 1983). O'Connor later starred in the NBC/CBS television crime drama In the Heat of the Night from 1988 to 1995, where he played the role of southern Police Chief William (Bill) Gillespie. At the end of his career in the late 1990s, he played the father of Jamie Stemple Buchman (Helen Hunt) on Mad About You.

In 1996, O'Connor was ranked #38 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time.^[2]

Early life[link]

O'Connor, an Irish American, was the eldest of three sons born in Manhattan,^[1] New York, to Elise Patricia and Edward Joseph O'Connor,^[3] who was a New York City lawyer. Both of his brothers were doctors: Hugh, who died in a motorcycle accident in 1961, and Robert, a psychiatrist in New York City.^[1] O'Connor spent much of his youth in Elmhurst and Forest Hills, Queens, in the same borough in which his character Archie Bunker would later live.^[4] In 1941 O'Connor enrolled at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, but dropped out when the United States entered World War II. During World War II he was rejected by the United States Navy and enrolled in the United States Merchant Marine Academy for a short time. After leaving that institution, he became a merchant seaman.^[5]

O'Connor attended the University of Montana-Missoula where he met Nancy Fields, who would later become his wife. He also worked at the Montana Kaimin student newspaper as an editor.^[1] At the U of M, O'Connor joined Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity.^[6] At that time, however, O'Connor did not take any drama courses as an undergraduate.^[1] O'Connor later left U of M to help his younger brother Hugh get into medical school in Ireland, where he completed his studies at the University College Dublin. It was there that he began acting in Theatre.^[1]

After he graduated from the University of Montana in 1951 with degrees in drama and English, O'Connor's fiancée, Nancy, sailed to Ireland to meet O'Connor.^[7] The couple was married there on July 28, 1951.^[3] In 1956, O'Connor returned to Missoula to earn a master's degree in speech.^[7]

Prolific character actor[link]

After acting in theatrical productions in Dublin (Ireland) and New York during the 1950s, O'Connor's breakthrough came when he was cast by director Burgess Meredith (assisted by John Astin) in a featured role in the Broadway adaptation of James Joyce's novel Ulysses. O'Connor and Meredith remained close, lifelong friends.^[8]

O'Connor made his television acting debut as a character actor on two episodes of Sunday Showcase. These two parts led to other roles on television series such as Gunsmoke, The Eleventh Hour, I Spy, Bonanza, The Fugitive, The Wild Wild West, Armstrong Circle Theatre, The Americans, Death Valley Days, Alcoa Premiere, The Great Adventure, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Slattery' People, Dr. Kildare, That Girl, Premiere, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea among many others. During his later career, he guest-starred on Mad About You, alongside veteran television personality Carol Burnett.

Considered roles[link]

He was also among the actors considered for the roles of The Skipper on Gilligan's Island and Dr. Smith in the TV show Lost In Space, as well as being the visual template in the creation of Batman foe Rupert Thorne, a character who debuted at the height of All in the Family's success in Detective Comics #469 (published May 1976 by DC Comics).

Television roles[link]

[edit] All in the Family

Publicity photo of Connor and Jean Stapleton in All in the Family, 1973.

O'Connor was living in Italy in 1968 when producer Norman Lear first asked him to come to New York to star in a pilot he was creating for ABC called Justice For All, with O'Connor playing Archie Justice, a loveable yet controversial bigot. After three pilots done between 1968 to 1970, a network change to CBS, and the last name of the character changed to Bunker, the new sitcom was renamed All in the Family. The show was based on the BBC's Til Death Us Do Part, with Bunker based on Alf Garnett, but somewhat less abrasive than the original. It has been stated that O'Connor's Queens background and New York accent influenced Lear to set the show in Queens.^[9]

Wanting a well-known actor to tackle the controversial material, Lear had approached Jackie Gleason and Mickey Rooney to play Archie; both declined. O'Connor accepted, not expecting the show to be a success and believing he would be able to move back to Europe. (In her book Archie & Edith, Mike & Gloria : the Tumultuous History of All in the Family, Donna McCrohan noted that O'Connor requested that Lear provide him with a return airline ticket to Rome as a condition of his accepting the role, so that he could return to Italy when the show failed.) Instead, the show became the highest-rated television program on American television for five consecutive seasons until the 1976-1977 season (the sixth season). The Cosby Show has since met the record set by All in the Family.

O'Connor's own politics were liberal. He understood the Bunker character and played him not only with bombast and humor but with touches of vulnerability. The writing on the show was consistently left of center, but O'Connor often deftly skewered the liberal pieties of the day. Although Bunker was famous for his malapropisms of the English language, O'Connor was highly educated and cultured and was an English professor before he turned to acting.

The show also starred a Broadway actress, also from New York City, Jean Stapleton, in the role of Archie Bunker's long-suffering wife, Edith Bunker, after Lear saw her in the play Damn Yankees. The producer sent the show over to ABC twice, but it didn't get picked up. They then approached CBS with more success, and accordingly, All in the Family was retooled and debuted early in 1971. The show also starred unknown character actors, such as Rob Reiner as Archie's liberal son-in-law, Michael "Meathead" Stivic and Sally Struthers as Archie and Edith's only child and Meathead's wife, Gloria Bunker-Stivic. The cast had a unique on- and off-camera chemistry, especially Reiner, who became O'Connor's best friend and favorite actor.

CBS was unsure whether the controversial subject matter of All in the Family would fit well into a sitcom. Racial issues, ethnicities, religions, and other timely topics were addressed. Like its British predecessor Til Death Do Us Part, the show lent dramatic social substance to the traditional sitcom format. Archie Bunker's popularity made O'Connor a top-billing star of the 1970s. O'Connor was afraid of being typecast for playing the role, but at the same time, he was protective of not just his character, but of the entire show.^[10]

A contract dispute between O'Connor and Lear marred the beginning of the show's fifth season. Eventually, O'Connor got a raise and appeared in the series until it ended. For his work as Archie Bunker, he was nominated for eight Emmy Awards as Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series; he won the award four times (1972, 1977, 1978, and 1979).

At the end of the eighth season in 1978, Reiner and Struthers left the series to pursue other projects, but O'Connor and Stapleton still had one year left on their contracts. At the start of the final year, the show cast a child actress, Danielle Brisebois, in the role of Archie's and Edith's niece, Stephanie Mills. The series was finally cancelled in 1979 after nine seasons and 210 episodes.

[edit] Archie Bunker's Place

Archie Bunker's Place ran for 4 years. Longtime friend and original series star Jean Stapleton reprised her role as Edith Bunker, but her screen time was limited. Her character died of a stroke, leaving Archie to cope with the loss. Danielle Brisebois played Stephanie Mills, Archie's niece in the series. The show was a hit, but not as big as its parent show. The show was unceremoniously canceled in 1983, after 97 episodes, and O'Connor was angered about the show's cancellation, maintaining that the show ended with an inappropriate finale. He vowed never to work in any type of show with CBS again, although he starred in In the Heat of the Night, which aired on CBS in that show's last three seasons.

All told, he played Archie Bunker for 13 years in 307 episodes.

[edit] In the Heat of the Night

While coping with his son's drug problem, O'Connor starred as Sparta, Mississippi, Police Chief Bill Gillespie, a tough veteran Mississippi cop on In the Heat of the Night. Based on the 1967 movie of the same name, the series debuted on NBC early in 1988 and performed well. He cast his son Hugh O'Connor as Officer Lonnie Jamison. The headquarters of the Sparta Police Department was actually a renovated storefront in Hammond, Louisiana.

Much like O'Connor himself, Gillespie was racially progressive and politically liberal. But the character of Bill Gillespie was also a smart and tough police officer who was not afraid to use his gun when the occasion called for it.

In 1989, while working on the set, O'Connor was hospitalized and had to undergo open heart surgery, which caused him to miss four episodes at the end of the second season (actor Joe Don Baker took his place in those episodes as an acting police chief.) The series was transferred from NBC to CBS in 1992 and cancelled two years later, after its seventh season. O'Connor reprised his role the following year for four two-hour In the Heat of the Night television films to critical acclaim^{[citation needed]}.

While on the series, O'Connor recorded "Bring A Torch, Jeanette Isabella," for the 1991 "In the Heat of the Night" Christmas CD "Christmas Time's A Comin'." He was joined by Grand Ole Opry star mandolinist Jesse McReynolds, Nashville accordionist Abe Manuel, Jr., and Nashville fiddlers Buddy Spicher and Randall Franks. CD Producer and series co-star Randall Franks created the arrangement which was co-produced by series co-star Alan Autry. He joined other members of the cast for a recording of "Jingle Bells" with vocals by Country Music Hall of Fame members Little Jimmy Dickens, Kitty Wells, Pee Wee King, and The Marksmen Quartet, Bobby Wright, Johnnie Wright and Ken Holloway.

Career honors[link]

• Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy, 1972, All in the Family^[3]
• Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series, 1971, 1976, 1977, and 1978, All in the Family^[3]
• George Foster Peabody Broadcasting Award, 1980, for Archie Alone episode, Archie Bunker's Place^[3]
• Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Drama, 1989, In the Heat of the Night^[3]
• Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Drama nomination 1990, In the Heat of the Night'^[3]'
• Television Hall of Fame, elected 1990 for contributions to the television industry^[3]
• NAACP Image Award, 1992, In the Heat of the Night^[3] Best Dramatic Series
• NAACP Image Award, 1993, In the Heat of the Night^[3] Best Dramatc Series

Other honors[link]

In 1973, his fraternity conferred its highest honor, Sigma Phi Epsilon Citation, on him.^[11]

In July 1991, O'Connor, Jean Stapleton, Rob Reiner and Sally Struthers were reunited to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of All in the Family, which made its debut on CBS. Thanks to reruns which aired in syndication, TV Land and on CBS, the show continued to be popular. Those reruns led producer Norman Lear to create a new sitcom, Sunday Dinner, which was soon cancelled. The following year, Lear created The Powers That Be, which was also unsuccessful.

In March 2000, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and was given a St. Patrick's Day tribute by MGM.

His caricature figures prominently in Sardi's restaurant, in New York City's Theater District.

Later life[link]

In 1962, while he was in Rome, filming Cleopatra, O'Connor and his wife adopted a six-day-old boy, naming him Hugh after O'Connor's brother who had died a year earlier. 17-year-old Hugh later worked as a courier on the set of Archie Bunker's Place. O'Connor would eventually create the role of Officer Lonnie Jamison on In the Heat of the Night for his son.^[12]

In 1989, O'Connor's long time cigar smoking finally caught up with him. He was admitted to the hospital for heart bypass surgery.

In 1995, O'Connor's son Hugh committed suicide after a long battle with drug addiction. Following his son's death, O'Connor appeared in public service announcements for Partnership for a Drug Free America and spent the rest of his life working to raise awareness about drug addiction. O'Connor also successfully lobbied to get the State of California to pass legislation allowing family members of an addicted person or anyone injured by a drug dealer's actions, including employers, to sue for reimbursement for medical treatment and rehabilitation costs. The law, known as the Drug Dealer Civil Liability Act in California, went into effect in 1997. Eleven other states followed with similar legislation, which has been referred to as The Hugh O'Connor Memorial Law.

During the late 1990s, O'Connor established a small automotive restoration shop in Newbury Park, California. Called "Carroll O'Connor Classics" the shop contained many of O'Connor's personal vehicles and the cars once owned by his late son.^[13] Among the cars O'Connor owned were a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow sold to him by William Harrah, a Maserati 3500 GT, and a Dodge Challenger equipped with the 440-cubic inch V-8 that was the car he drove during production of All In The Family.

In 1997, the O'Connors donated $1 million to their alma mater to help match a challenge grant to the University of Montana from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The university named a regional studies and public policy institute the O'Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West.^[7] Afterward, O'Connor taught screenwriting at the university.

In 1998 O'Connor underwent a second surgery to clear the blockage in a cardiac artery, to reduce his risk of stroke.

Death[link]

Carroll O'Connor's grave

O'Connor died on June 21, 2001 in Culver City, California from a heart attack brought on by complications from diabetes. His funeral mass was celebrated at St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church in Westwood, Los Angeles, California and was attended by All in the Family cast members Rob Reiner, Sally Struthers and Danielle Brisebois, as well as producer Norman Lear. Actress Jean Stapleton, who played O'Connor's onscreen wife and who had been a close friend of O'Connor's since the early 1960s, did not attend the service due to a stage production performance commitment.^[14]

In honor of O'Connor's career, TV Land moved an entire weekend of programming to the next week and showed a continuous marathon of All in the Family. During the commercial breaks TV Land also showed interview footage of O'Connor and various All in the Family actors, producers with whom he had worked, and other associates. O'Connor's best friend Larry Hagman and his family were also there, alongside the surviving cast of In the Heat of the Night, including Alan Autry and Denise Nicholas, who also attended the memorial. O'Connor is buried at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery with his son Hugh's cenotaph placed on his grave stone.

Friendship with other actors[link]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (October 2010)

O'Connor met Broadway and character actress Jean Stapleton in a 1962 episode of The Defenders. Nine years later, she auditioned for the role of Archie's wife Edith in All in the Family. She and O'Connor shared a remarkable husband and wife chemistry for the next decade. She made limited guest appearances on its later spin-off show, Archie Bunker's Place, before leaving in the show's second season. During Stapleton's run as Edith Bunker, she and O'Connor became close friends. She was distressed in 1995, as she bestowed her condolences on the passing of Carroll's son, Hugh, who committed suicide. She remained close and supportive while O'Connor was in court to testify concerning his son's death. Then on the first day of Summer in 2001, while performing on stage, she received word that her friend had died. Though she was unable to attend the service, she delivered her condolences to Nancy.

O'Connor had a long-running friendship with actor Larry Hagman, beginning in 1959, when Carroll was working as an assistant stage manager for the Broadway play God and Kate Murphy, in which Hagman starred. Later as the two struggled as young actors, they rented apartments near each other in New York. Over the years they had a lot in common; just as O'Connor concluded contract negotiations for his salary on All in the Family, in 1974, missing two episodes, Hagman eventually found himself re-negotiating his salary on Dallas, with similar results. Hagman's daughter, Heidi, whom O'Connor had known since her childhood, joined the cast for one season of Archie Bunker's Place. Hagman directed several episodes of O'Connor's later series, In the Heat of the Night. They both endured serious health issues, with O'Connor's heart bypass surgery, and Hagman's liver transplant. Hagman remained close after O'Connor's loss of his son Hugh, and through the rest of O'Connor's life, delivering a eulogy at the funeral.

Personal quotes[link]

"Nothing will give me any peace. I've lost a son. And I'll go to my grave without any peace over that."^[15]

"It was a lack of system that made the '30s Depression as inevitable as all others previously suffered."^[16]

"Get between your kid and drugs, any way you can, if you want to save the kid's life".^[15]

"I thought that the public would kick us off the air, because of this egregious guy. No. They loved ... they knew him."^[17]

On his son: "I should have spied on him. I should've taken away all his civil rights, spied on him, opened his mail, listened to telephone calls, everything."^[17]

"I never heard Archie's kind of talk in my own family. My father was a lawyer and was in partnership with two Jews, who with their families were close to us. There were black families in our circle of friends. My father disliked talk like Archie's—he called it lowbrow."^[18]

"The biggest part of my life was the acquiring and the loss of a son. I mean, nothing else was as important as that."^[17]

"Conventional show-biz savvy held that Americans hated to be the objects of satire."^[19]

Partial credits[link]

Starring roles[link]

• All in the Family (1971–1979) as Archie Bunker (Salary $200,000 per episode)
• Archie Bunker's Place (1979–1983) as Archie Bunker (Salary $250,000 per episode)
• In the Heat of the Night (1988–1994) as Chief/Sheriff Bill Gillespie
• Mad About You (1996–1999) Gus Stemple #3

Films/made for television films[link]

• White Christmas (1954) .... The Sheriff
• Shakespeare's 'Julius Caesar' as Crassus (1956)
• The Sacco-Vanzetti Story (TV mini-series) (1960) as Frederick Katzman
• By Love Possessed (1961) .... Bernie Breck
• Parrish (1961) .... Firechief
• A Fever in the Blood (1961) .... Matt Keenan
• Lad: A Dog (1962) as Hamilcar Q. Glure
• Belle Sommers (TV) (1962)
• Lonely Are the Brave (1962) Hinton the Truck Driver
• The Silver Burro (TV) (1963)
• Cleopatra (1963) as Casca
• Nightmare in Chicago aka Once Upon a Savage Night (TV) (1964)
• In Harm's Way (1965) (uncredited) .... *Cmdr./Capt. Burke (USS Swayback)
• The Last Patrol episode of The Time Tunnel (1966) as British General Southall and Colonel Southall, his 1815 ancestor
• Not with My Wife, You Don't! (1966) as Gen. Maynard C. Parker
• Hawaii (1966) as Charles Bromley
• What Did You Do in the War, Daddy? (1966) as Gen. Bolt
• Waterhole #3 (1967) as Sheriff John H. Copperud
• Point Blank (1967) as Brewster
• Warning Shot (1967) as Paul Jerez
• For Love of Ivy (1968) as Frank Austin
• The Devil's Brigade (1968) as Maj. Gen. Hunter
• Marlowe (1969) as Lt. Christy French
• Death of a Gunfighter (1969) as Lester Locke
• Ride a Northbound Horse (TV)(1969)
• Fear No Evil (TV) (1969) as Myles Donovan
• Kelly's Heroes (1970) as Maj. Gen. Colt
• Doctors' Wives (1971) Dr. Joe Gray
• Of Thee I Sing (TV) (1972) President Wintergreen
• Law and Disorder (1974) as Willie
• The Last Hurrah (TV) (1977) as Frank Skeffington
• A Different Approach (1978)
• Brass aka Police Brass (TV) (1985) as Frank Nolan
• Convicted (1986) (TV) .... Lewis May
• The GLO Friends Save Christmas (1986) .... Santa
• The Father Clements Story (1987) (TV) .... Cardinal Cody
• Gideon (TV) (1999) as Leo Barnes
• 36 Hours to Die (TV) (1999) Jack 'Balls' O'Malley
• Return to Me (2000) as Marty O'Reilly

Writer[link]

• Bronk (TV) (1975) Series creator
• The Last Hurrah (TV) (1977)
• Archie Bunker's Place (1979) TV series (writer)
• Brass aka Police Brass (TV) (1985) (credited as Matt Harris)
• In the Heat of the Night (1988–1995) Numerous episodes (credited as Matt Harris)

Producer[link]

• Bronk (TV) (1975) Series (executive producer)
• The Last Hurrah (TV) (1977) (executive producer)
• In the Heat of the Night (TV) (1988–1995) (executive producer)

Director[link]

• Archie Bunker's Place (TV) (1979) Series
• In the Heat of the Night (TV) (1988) Series

Crew[link]

• In the Heat of the Night (TV) (1988) Series (executive story editor credited as Matt Harris)

Composer[link]

• All in the Family (TV) (1971) Series "Remembering You" (together with Roger Kellaway)
• Archie Bunker's Place (TV) (1979) Series "Remembering You" (together with Roger Kellaway)

Series music[link]

• All in the Family (TV) (1971) singing title song

Author[link]

• I Think I'm Outta Here (ISBN 0-671-01760-8) (1999) Autobiography

Guest starring[link]

• Shirley Temple's Storybook playing "Appleyard" 27 November 1960
  • "The Black Arrow"
• The Americans playing "Captain Garbor" 8 May 1961
  • "The Coward"
• The Untouchables playing "Arnie Kurtz aka Albert Krim" (2 episodes, 1961–1962)
  • "Bird in the Hand"
• The Dick Powell Show playing "Leonard Barsevick" "Pericles on 31st Street" 12 April 1962
• Naked City 20 June 1962
  • "Goodbye Mama, Hello Auntie Maud"
• Naked City playing "Tony Corran" 19 December 1962
  • "Spectre of the Rose Street Gang"
• The Defenders (2 episodes, 1962–1963)
• Ben Casey (2 episodes, 1962–1965)
• Dr. Kildare (2 episodes, 1962–1965)
• Death Valley Days playing "Senator Dave Broderick" 8 February 1963
  • "A Gun Is Not a Gentleman"
• The Dick Powell Show playing "Dr. Lyman Savage" 12 February 1963
  • "Luxury Liner"
• Bonanza playing "Tom Slayden" 19 May 1963
  • "The Boss"
• The Outer Limits playing "Deimos" 13 January 1964
  • "Controlled Experiment"
• The Fugitive playing "Sheriff Bray" 10 March 1964
  • "Flight from the Final Demon"
• The Man from U.N.C.L.E. playing "Walter Brach" 27 October 1964
  • "The Green Opal Affair"
• Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea playing "Old John" 21 December 1964
  • "Long Live the King"
• I Spy playing "Dr. Karolyi" 13 April 1966
  • "It's *All Done with Mirrors"
• The Time Tunnel playing "General Southall/Colonel Southall" 7 October 1966
  • "The Last Patrol"
• The Wild Wild West playing "Fabian Lavendor" 25 November 1966
  • "The Night of the Ready-Made Corpse"
• Mission: Impossible playing "Josef Varsh" 28 January 1967
  • "The Trial"
• Gunsmoke playing "Major Glenn Vanscoy" 30 October 1967
  • "Major Glory"
• Insight (1970)
  • "The Day God Died"
• Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In as "Guest Performer" 13 December 1971
• The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour as himself (2 episodes, 1971–1972)
• This Is Your Life as himself "Don Rickles" 12 January 1972
• The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson as himself (5 episodes, 1972–1975)
• The Dean Martin Show as himself "Celebrity Roast: Carroll O'Connor" 7 December 1973
• The Dick Cavett Show as himself "London - New York" 8 September 1976
• Saturday Night Live as himself (uncredited) 25 September 1976
• Bill Moyers' Journal as himself 16 May 1981
• Gloria playing "Archie Bunker" in episode: "Gloria, the First Day (un-aired pilot)" 1982
• The Redd Foxx Show "Old Buddies" 1 March 1986
• Party of Five (six episodes) as "Jake Gordon"
• The Rosie O'Donnell Show as himself 4 March 1998
• Biography: Carroll O'Connor 22 June 2001 as himself

Misc[link]

• Remembering You (1972) An LP of classic songs Himself
• An All-Star Tribute to Elizabeth Taylor (1977) Himself
• CBS: On the Air (1978) mini-series part VII co-host
• The 30th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards (1978) Himself Winner
• All in the Family: 20th Anniversary Special (1991) Himself
• All in the Family: The E! True Hollywood Story (2000) Himself
• Intimate Portrait: Minnie Driver (2000) Narrator
• A&E Biography: Carroll O'Connor - All in a Lifetime (2001) Himself

Archive footage featuring Carroll O'Connor[link]

• Bruce Lee: A Warrior's Journey (2000) (V)
• The 53rd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards (2001) Memorial tribute
• Inside TV Land: African Americans in Television (2002)
• The 74th Annual Academy Awards (2002) Memorial tribute

See also[link]

Biography portal

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Carroll O'Connor

• Carroll O'Connor at the Internet Movie Database
• Carroll O'Connor at the Internet Broadway Database
• Carroll O'Connor at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Carroll O'Connor at Find a Grave
• Carroll O'Connor interview with the Archive of American Television

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]}

By the early 1970s, 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 steadily. 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.^{[citation needed]}

Now comfortable financially, Martin did not need to work as much and he began reducing his schedule. 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, Martin and his panel of pals successfully ridiculed and made fun of these legendary stars in this order: Ronald Reagan, Hugh Hefner, Ed McMahon, William Conrad, Kirk Douglas, Bette Davis, Barry Goldwater, Johnny Carson, Wilt Chamberlain, Hubert Humphrey, Carroll O'Connor, Monty Hall, Jack Klugman & Tony Randall, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Leo Durocher, Truman Capote, Don Rickles, Ralph Nader, Jack Benny, Redd Foxx, Bobby Riggs, George Washington, Dan Rowan & Dick Martin, Hank Aaron, Joe Namath, Bob Hope, Telly Savalas, Lucille Ball, Jackie Gleason, Sammy Davis Jr, Michael Landon, Evel Knievel, Valerie Harper, Muhammad Ali, Dean Martin, Dennis Weaver, Joe Garagiola, Danny Thomas, Angie Dickinson, Gabe Kaplan, Ted Knight, Peter Marshall, Dan Haggerty, Frank Sinatra, Jack Klugman, Jimmy Stewart, George Burns, Betty White, Suzanne Somers, Joan Collins, and Mr T. For nearly a decade, Martin had recorded as many as four albums a year for Reprise Records. That stopped in November 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 followup 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.^{[citation needed]}

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 World-U.S.A. 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.^{[citation needed]} 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 Martin's 72nd birthday.^[11]

Personal life[link]

Martin was married three times. Martin's first wife, Elizabeth Anne 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^{[citation needed]}. It remains a matter of speculation whether her alcoholism led to the failure of the marriage, or whether Martin'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. Their children were Stephen Craig (born June 29, 1942), Claudia Dean (March 16, 1944 - 2001 from breast cancer), Barbara Gail (born April 11, 1945) and Deana (Dina) (born August 19, 1948).

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 24 years (1949–1973) and produced three children. Their children were Dean Paul (November 17, 1951 - March 21, 1987; plane crash), Ricci James (born September 20, 1953) and Gina Caroline (born December 20, 1956), whose marriage made Dean the father-in-law of The Beach Boys' Carl Wilson.

Martin's third marriage, to Catherine Hawn, lasted three years. One of Martin's managers had spotted her at the reception desk of a hair salon on Rodeo Drive, then arranged a meeting. Martin adopted Hawn's daughter, Sasha, but their marriage also failed. Martin initiated divorce proceedings.

Martin's uncle was Leonard Barr, who appeared in several of his shows.

Later years and death[link]

Dean Martin's grave

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 law by making the dealer deal the cards by hand instead of from a shoe. Although Sinatra and Martin were implicated as the cause of the violation, neither was fined by the New Jersey Casino Control Commission. The Golden Nugget received a $25,000 fine (which Sinatra paid, stating that it was his responsibility as he and Martin were the cause of the fine) and four employees including the dealer, a supervisor and pit boss were suspended from their jobs without pay.

Martin returned to films briefly with appearances in the two star-laden, yet critically panned Cannonball Run movies. He also had 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.

On March 21, 1987, Martin's son, Dean Paul (formerly Dino of the '60s "teeny-bopper" rock group Dino, Desi & Billy), was killed when his F-4 Phantom II jet fighter crashed while flying with the California Air National Guard. A much-touted tour with Davis and Sinatra in 1988 sputtered. 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 interested in drinking until dawn after performances. His final Vegas shows were at Bally's Hotel in 1990. There he had his final reunion with Jerry Lewis on his 72nd birthday. Martin's last two TV appearances involved tributes to his former Rat Pack members. On December 8, 1989, he joined many stars of the entertainment industry in Sammy Davis, Jr's 60th anniversary celebration, which aired only a few weeks before Davis died from throat cancer. In December 1990, he congratulated Frank Sinatra on his 75th birthday special.

Martin was diagnosed with lung cancer at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in September 1993, and in early 1995 retired from public life. He died of acute respiratory failure resulting from emphysema at his Beverly Hills home on Christmas morning 1995, at age 78.^[12] The lights of the Las Vegas Strip were dimmed in his honor.

Martin is buried at the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.

Tributes and legacy[link]

In 1996, Ohio Rte. 7, through Steubenville, was rededicated as "Dean Martin Boulevard." Road signs bearing an Al Hirschfeld caricature of Martin's likeness officially designate the stretch, along with a state historical marker, in the Gazebo Park at Route 7 and North Fourth Street.

An annual "Dean Martin Festival" celebration is held in Steubenville. Impersonators, friends and family of Martin, and various entertainers, many of Italian ancestry, appear.

In 2005, Clark County, Nevada renamed Industrial Road as Dean Martin Drive. A similarly named street was dedicated in 2008 in Rancho Mirage, California.

Martin's family was presented a gold record in 2004 for Dino: The Essential Dean Martin, 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 others.

His footprints were immortalized at Grauman's Chinese Theater in 1964. Martin has three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: one at 6519 Hollywood Boulevard, for movies; one at 1617 Vine, for recordings; and one at 6651 Hollywood Boulevard, for television.

In February 2009, Martin was honored with a posthumous Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Four of his surviving children, Gail, Deana, Ricci and Gina, were on hand to accept on his behalf. In 2009, Martin was inducted into the Hit Parade Hall of Fame.

Popular culture[link]

A number of Dean Martin songs have constantly been featured across popular culture for decades. Hit songs such as "Ain't That a Kick in the Head", "Sway","You're Nobody Till Somebody Loves You", "That's Amore", and Martin's signature song "Everybody Loves Somebody" (and many more) have been used in films (such as the Oscar-winning Logorama, A Bronx Tale, Casino, Goodfellas, Payback, and Return to Me), television series (such as American Dad!, Friends, and House MD), video games (such as The Godfather: The Game, The Godfather II, Fallout: New Vegas, and Mafia II), and even fashion shows (such as the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show 2008).