Dean Martin

The son of Italian immigrants, Dean Martin didn't speak English until he went to school at five. A teenage boxer using the name Kid Crochet, he also worked in casinos and sang with local bands, using the name Dino Martini, until bandleader Sammy Watkins suggested he changed it to Dean Martin. During the Second World War, he served in the US Army and afterwards formed a hugely successful partnership with comedian Jerry Lewis, which made them both big movie stars. After their split in 1956, Martin starred in a series of film roles with Frank Sinatra, which launched their long association and cemented Martin's popular image as a hard-drinking, womanizing, crooning reprobate. His signature song Everybody Loves Somebody knocked the Beatles' Hard Day's Night off the top of the US singles charts in 1964, while regular Las Vegas seasons with Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. earned them the soubriquet the Rat Pack. He died in 1995, aged 78.