Dean Martin was born under the name Dino Paul Crocetti on June 17, 1917, in Steubenville, Ohio, to a family who immigrated to the United States from Italy. According to information obtained from Emmett Tyrell, Dean Martin was easy-going and had a good-humored attitude about life. He showed this by having a cigarette in one hand, a song in the air, and a passing lady distracting his gaze.
When Dean Martin was a teenager, he worked various odd jobs just as Vernon and Elvis Presley, and for sometime Martin worked in a steel mill and as a croupier. He was encouraged to take singing gigs by his friends and on one of these occasions was seen by Sammy Watkins. Dean Martin's career began when Sammy Watkins offered him $50 a week to appear in Cleveland. Richard Natale noted that while Dean Martin was boxing in his teenage years, he received a cracked lip and a broken nose. This accident caused him to have corrective surgery done on his lip and nose. It was more than likely to Dean Martin's advantage to have corrective surgery done on his lip and nose. If he would have abstained from having this surgery done, his career as an actor and singer would have been only a dream. Hence, we would not recognize the name Dean Martin.
Dean Martin was an actor that had a positive influence on Elvis Presley and who became one of his singing idols in the early 1950s. Elvis recorded one of Martin's songs entitled "I Don't Care if the Sun Don't Shine" in 1954. Elvis also sang other songs by Martin including Dean Martin's number one hit song in 1964 called "Everybody Loves Somebody." On one occasion Elvis sang this song in concert at the International Hotel with Martin in the audience. More than likely this concert marked a milestone in Elvis's life that he would never forget until his death.
Dean Martin's trademark of a bottle of booze became an unwanted reality after 1987. His son, Dean Paul, died in 1987 as an Air Guard plane crashed, and after this time period, Dean Martin resorted heavily to the bottle. Dean Martin was given his last drink - not alcohol but water - on Christmas Eve of 1995. Dean Martin, a person who had great influence on Elvis Presley, died on December 24, 1995, in his Beverly Hills home at age 78.