Actor Dean P. Martin born Dean P. Crocetti (1918-1995)
Dean Martin, born Dino Paul Crocetti in the West Virginia-Ohio border-town of Steubenville, Ohio, found phenomenal success in almost every entertainment venue and, although suffering a few down times during his career, always managed to come out on top. His parents were Italian Gaetano and Angella Crocetti. He spoke only Italian until age five. During the 1950s, he and partner Jerry Lewis formed one of the most popular comic duos in filmdom. After splitting with Lewis, he was associated with Hollywood's ultra-cool Rat Pack and came to be known as the chief deputy to the "Chairman of the Board," Frank Sinatra.
The son of a Steubenville barber, Martin dropped out of school in the tenth grade and took a string of odd jobs ranging from steelworker to bootlegger; at the age of 15, he was a 135-pound boxer who billed himself as "Kid Crocetti." It was from his prizefighting years that he got a broken nose (it was later fixed), a permanently split lip, and his beat-up hands. For a time, he was involved with gambling as a roulette stickman and blackjack croupier. At the same time, he practiced his singing with local bands. Billing himself as "Dino Martini" (after the then-famous Metropolitan Opera tenor, Nino Martini), he got his first break working for the Ernie McKay Orchestra. But in the early 1940s, he started singing for bandleader Sammy Watkins. It was here that he changed his name to Dean Martin. A hernia got Martin out of the Army during World War II, and with wife and children in tow, he worked for several bands throughout the early 1940s, scoring more on looks and personality than vocal ability until he developed his own smooth singing style. Failing to achieve a screen test at MGM, Martin appeared permanently destined for the nightclub circuit until he met fledgling 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 ultimately forming a music-comedy team.
Martin's even-keel world began to crumble in 1987, when his son Dean Paul Martin was killed in a plane crash. A much-touted tour with old pals Sammy Davis Jr. and Frank Sinatra in 1989 was abruptly canceled, and the public was led to believe it was due to a falling out with Sinatra; only intimates knew that Martin was a very sick man who had never completely recovered from the loss of his son and, as a lifelong smoker, was suffering from emphysema. But Martin courageously kept his private life to himself, emerging briefly and rather jauntily for a public celebration of his 77th birthday with friends and family. Whatever his true state of health, he proved in this rare public appearance that he was still the inveterate showman. Martin died of respiratory failure at the age of 78 on Christmas morning, 1995. Martin had been told he needed major surgery on his kidneys and liver in order to prolong his life, and he had refused.
At his side for much of his last illness was ex-wife #2 Jeannie (Bieggers) Martin, whom he had divorced to marry a younger woman, Catherine Hawn. He quickly divorced Hawn, a former hair salon receptionist, after deciding that she was a big-spending opportunist. Dean and Jeannie became closer during his last years and there were rumors of reconciliaton, but it was too late. In a bit of irony, like fellow "boozer" W.C. Fields, Martin died on Christmas Day.
In the 1930 United States Federal Census, I found:
Name Family Members Home in 1930 (City,County,State) Estimated Birth Year Birthplace Relation
Guy Crocetti Angela Crocetti Steubenville, Jefferson, OH abt 1896ItalyHead
Angela Crocetti Guy Crocetti Steubenville, Jefferson, OH abt 1898Wife
William A Crocetti Guy Crocetti, Angela Crocetti Steubenville, Jefferson, OH abt 1917Son
Dean P Crocetti Guy Crocetti, Angela Crocetti Steubenville, Jefferson, OH abt 1918Son
http://awt.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=tdowling&id=I36520http://awt.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=tdowling&id=I36520
ID: I36520
Name: Dean MARTIN
Sex: M
Name: Dino Paul CROCETTI
Birth: 7 JUN 1917 in Steubenville, OH
Death: 25 DEC 1995 in Beverly Hills, CA of Lung Cancer
Burial: UNKNOWN Westwood Memorial Park, Los Angeles, CA
Occupation: Singer/Actor
Father: Gaetano CROCETTI
Mother: Angella
Marriage 1 Elizabeth Anne MCDONALD b: Private
Married: Private
Marriage Beginning Status: Private
Children
Claudia Gail MARTIN b: 16 MAR 1944 in Ridley Park, PA
Marriage 2 Jeanne BIEGGER b: Private
Married: Private
Marriage Beginning Status: Private
Children
Dean Paul MARTIN b: 17 NOV 1951 in Santa Monica, CA
Ricci James MARTIN b: 20 SEP 1953
Living MARTIN
Marriage 3 Catherine Mae HAWN b: Private
Married: Private
Marriage Beginning Status: Private
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Re: Actor Dean P. Martin born Dean P. Crocetti (1917-1995)
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Re: Actor Dean P. Martin born Dean P. Crocetti (1918-1995)
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Re: Actor Dean P. Martin born Dean P. Crocetti (1918-1995)
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Re: Actor Dean P. Martin born Dean P. Crocetti (1918-1995)
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Re: Actor Dean P. Martin born Dean P. Crocetti (1918-1995)
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