Maybe you remember Dean Martin best as the amiable Martin and Lewis straight man to Jerry Lewis’ loose-cannon kook. Or as a charismatic actor who delivered the goods in both comic and dramatic roles.
Or as the tuxedo-clad crooner who mesmerized fans both as a solo performer and a member of the legendary Rat Pack. The constant that fueled his enviable career: Martin’s debonair looks, easygoing charm and the distinct feeling that he considered himself the luckiest guy on earth.
Booziest Rat Pack Member?
Martin was widely considered the Rat Pack’s booziest member, boasting a “DRUNKY” vanity plate on the back of his ultra-luxe Stutz Blackhawk cars, and usually clutching a “cocktail” when he performed.
But those glasses were usually filled with apple juice, and he was often the first to leave the Pack on raucous nights out so he could spend time with his family and make early tee times to indulge his passion for golf. He even called the cops on parties at his home, pretending to be an irate neighbor.
Martin hated rehearsing
Approached with The Dean Martin Show in 1965, but hesitant to miss opportunities to perform live, Martin came back with what even he thought were preposterous demands — buckets of money, some ownership of the show, the option to not sing if he didn’t feel like it and only working on Sunday.
Three successful years later, he signed what was then the biggest contract in the history of show business — a $34 million contract to do three more seasons of the show, again showing up only on taping day.
Was protective of his female costars.
When 20th Century Fox tried to replace Marilyn Monroe with Lee Remick in 1962’s Something’s Got to Give, Martin reminded the studio that his contract gave him casting approval and refused to film until Monroe was rehired.
Monroe died before shooting could resume, but unused footage was eventually cobbled into a short film. And when Sharon Tate, Martin’s costar in The Wrecking Crew, the last of his popular Matt Helm film series, was murdered by followers of Charles Manson, he stopped playing the character.
