ACTOR
Dean Martin
55 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (55)
- #001
Dean Martin was so devastated by the murder of Sharon Tate, his co-star in The Wrecking Crew (1968), on August 9, 1969, that he abandoned the previously announced next "Matt Helm" film series (which was to be titled "The Ravagers") and never played the character again.
- #002
Rumors circulated for years that most of the "booze" Dean Martin drank on stage during the famous "Rat Pack" performances was actually apple juice. His son Dean Paul Martin confirmed these rumors after production of the variety show ended, noting that his father could not have performed if he had really drunk that much.
- #003
Dean Martin and the other members of the Rat Pack were barred by Joe DiMaggio from attending Marilyn Monroe's funeral.
- #004
Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra were very good friends, a fact he also treasured in his heart. The pair barely spoke in the years after Martin left the "Rat Pack Reunion" tour, but they reconciled a few months before his death over dinner and a food fight.
- #005
Dean Martin and his ex-wife Jeanne Martin remained friends after their divorce and consulted each other on family matters. When his health worsened, Jeanne encouraged him not to worry about facing death and urged him to see it as a chance he had missed to be reunited with their son Dean Paul Martin and his parents.
- #006
Dean Martin's son Dean Paul Martin (born Dino Paul Crocetti Jr.) died in a plane crash on March 21, 1987.
- #007
Dean Martin had a fear of elevators and a lifelong love of comic books.
- #008
Dean Martin's singing style was initially influenced by Harry Mills of The Mills Brothers.
- #009
Dean Martin did not party all night with the rest of the "Rat Pack," who actually called themselves "The Clan." He usually went to bed early so he could play golf the next morning. He was obsessed with golf and said in an interview that he would rather have been a professional golfer than a showman.
- #010
Dean Martin's biggest hit song, "Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime," is engraved on his gravestone.
- #011
Dean Martin had a nose job at the age of 27.
- #012
Dean Martin once worked as a steelworker.
- #013
Although Dean Martin appeared to drink heavily on stage, he mostly used apple juice, but off stage he was a Jack Daniels man.
- #014
In 1962 Dean Martin left Capitol Records and signed with Reprise, the record company founded and owned by Frank Sinatra. In 1964 he recorded his blockbuster hit "Everybody Loves Somebody," which beat The Beatles to become the number one hit in the United States for a week. The song became the theme of his television variety series The Dean Martin Show (1965), which aired on NBC for eight years. Martin followed it with The Dean Martin Comedy World (1974), which aired between 1973 and 1974. An indelible part of Martin's television antics was his comical portrayal of life as a lush, which many viewers never realized was only an act.
- #015
When 20th Century-Fox fired Marilyn Monroe, the star of Something's Got to Give (1962), and tried to replace her with Lee Remick, Dean Martin reminded the studio that he had his co-star's contractual approval and refused to continue the project without Monroe. His loyalty ultimately led to Marilyn being rehired, but she died of a drug overdose before shooting could resume on the never-finished film. Nine hours of largely unseen footage from the film remained in 20th Century Fox's vaults until 1999. The film was later edited to include some of the unseen footage where possible and digitally restored as a 37-minute film. After 39 years it finally premiered on cable TV's "American Movie Classics" channel on June 1, 2001. It is available on DVD.
- #016
Dean Martin's parents were Gaetano and Angella Crocetti. Although he was born in Ohio, he spoke only Italian until the age of 5.
- #017
After being drafted into the United States Army and serving for a year (1944-45) in Akron, Ohio, during World War II, Dean Martin was classified 4-F and discharged.
- #018
After his mid-1950s "breakup" with Jerry Lewis, it was widely believed that Dean Martin's career would suffer a serious decline. Instead, he proved to be a lasting box-office draw throughout the 1960s, continued to have charting hit songs, and eventually hosted The Dean Martin Show (1965), one of NBC's highest-rated series.
- #019
Dean Martin suffered from emphysema during the last 20 years of his life.
- #020
Despite the legend that he and his comedy partner Jerry Lewis always hated each other, the two were actually quite close friends, and the tension between them began in 1956 when "outside people" (as Lewis called them to Peter Bogdanovich) started working against Lewis and "poison" against Martin. Twenty years later, Frank Sinatra arranged a public reunion during Jerry's 1976 MDA telethon. After that 20-year gap, however, they reunited briefly twice: they appeared together as surprise guests on "The Joey Bishop Show" in 1958, and in 1960 they took the stage together at The Sands Hotel in Las Vegas, where they duetted on "Come Back to Me." Over the following decade, after their 1970s reunions, they grew close again.
- #021
There is a street named after Dean Martin in San Antonio, Texas.
- #022
In 1954 he and Jerry Lewis recorded a radio spot promoting "Tuck Tape," then a rival brand to "Scotch Tape," and, realizing the recording tape of the ad was still running, they decided to improvise additional radio spots, with Jerry and Dean adding profanities to their dialogue. The unedited master recording was secretly taken from the studio and became a "bootleg" that quickly sold among collectors.
- #023
Although he was a Republican, he supported Frank Sinatra's 1960 campaign to elect John F. Kennedy as President.
- #024
He died exactly 29 years after his mother, Angela Crocetti (12/25/66), on 25/12/95.
- #025
He grew up in Steubenville, Ohio, and was a childhood friend of the famous gambler and sports fixer Jimmy 'The Greek' Snyder (the two appeared together on screen in The Cannonball Run (1981)). Like Snyder, Martin spent the early years of his career hanging around Steubenville's notorious gambling dens.
- #026
He suffered from depression throughout his adult life and was treated for prostate cancer later in life.
- #027
Although Jerry Lewis is usually portrayed as the short man, he was in fact the same height as Martin and would cut down the heels of his shoes to create that effect.
- #028
His son-in-law was Carl Wilson of The Beach Boys (married to Dean's daughter Gina Martin).
- #029
He was Tori Spelling's godfather.
- #030
He had eight children: Stephen Craig Martin (b. June 29, 1942), Claudia Martin (b. March 16, 1944 - died in 2001 (breast cancer)), Barbara Martin (b. April 11, 1945) and Deana Martin (b. August 19, 1948) with his first wife Elizabeth McDonald; Dean Paul Martin (b. November 17, 1951 - died March 21, 1987 (plane crash)), Ricci Martin (b. September 20, 1953 - August 3, 2016) and Gina Martin (Gina Caroline Martin) (b. December 20, 1956) with his second wife Jeanne Martin; and he adopted Sasha Martin with his third wife Catherine Hawn.
- #031
He was Carole Costello's father-in-law. She was married to his eldest son Craig Martin and was Lou Costello's daughter.
- #032
In the late 1970s and early 1980s he had a nightclub called Dino's in North Bay Village, Florida. It was next to Jilly Rizzo's nightclub, Jilly's.
- #033
He was awarded 3 Stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: for Motion Pictures at 6519 Hollywood Boulevard; for Recording at 1617 Vine Street; and for Television at 6651 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.
- #034
He and his comedy partner Jerry Lewis appeared together in 17 feature films: My Friend Irma (1949), My Friend Irma Goes West (1950), At War with the Army (1950), That's My Boy (1951), The Stooge (1951), Sailor Beware (1952), Jumping Jacks (1952), Road to Bali (1952), Scared Stiff (1953), The Caddy (1953), Money from Home (1953), Living It Up (1954), 3 Ring Circus (1954), You're Never Too Young (1955), Artists and Models (1955), Pardners (1956) and Hollywood or Bust (1956).
- #035
At the age of 16 he was a heavyweight boxer with a record of 25-11.
- #036
Although he supported the Kennedy campaign in 1960 to show solidarity with the other members of the Rat Pack, he was a lifelong supporter of the Republican Party.
- #037
He was a member of the "Rat Pack" along with Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop. They all appeared in Ocean's Eleven (1960).
- #038
Many critics felt that from the mid-1970s onward Dean Martin's singing voice deteriorated steadily, largely because of his chain-smoking. Despite needing oxygen, he continued to perform until 1991.
- #039
By the age of 16, Dean Martin was a constant smoker. Although he showed clear signs of COPD in his early sixties, he kept smoking until he was 76.
- #040
In August 1963, Dean Martin refused to take part in the March on Washington.
- #041
In his final years, Dean Martin was extremely ill but did not object to being photographed by the press.
- #042
Because of the negative reception he had received in the United Kingdom, Dean Martin did not return there until the early 1980s, by which time many critics believed his singing voice was gone.
- #043
In the film Rio Bravo, Dean Martin sings "Just My Rifle, Pony and Me" with Ricky Nelson.
- #044
Dean Martin appeared in the film Rio Bravo alongside Ricky Nelson and Sheb Wooley. In the film, he sings "Just My Rifle, Pony and Me" with Ricky.
- #045
After his death, Dean Martin was buried at Westwood Memorial Park in Los Angeles, California.
- #046
In his youth, Dean Martin was a newspaper carrier.
- #047
Although he generally favored Republican candidates, Dean Martin supported Lyndon Johnson in the 1964 presidential election.
- #048
After his death, Dean Martin was inducted into the Lou Holtz/Upper Ohio Valley Hall of Fame (2001).
- #049
A strong supporter of Israel, Dean Martin gave concerts in the 1940s to raise money for the Bergson Group, a Palestine-based Zionist Revisionist underground movement.
- #050
In the 1970s, Dean Martin was in a long-term relationship with Phyllis Davis.
- #051
Dean Martin was the father of Gail Martin, Craig Martin, Claudia Martin, Deana Martin, Gina Martin, Ricci Martin and Dean Paul Martin.
- #052
Dean Martin's third wife, Cathy, was the daughter of professional baseball player Jim Baxes and the sister of James Coleman.
- #053
Dean Martin was the uncle of film producer Veronica J. Valentini.
- #054
Dean Martin was the nephew of Leonard Barr.
- #055
Dean Martin was the grandfather of Alexander Martin.
Continue through the archive
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
Sources for the entries on this page
- IMDb IMDb kaydı
Information from external sources is independently selected, consolidated and edited by Arka Evren. Sources are listed for verification and further reading. Encyclopedia text is used under its licence (CC BY-SA). How we work