Pick a Day

Bobby Darin Dies At Age 37

Bobby Darin dies at age 37 after surgery to repair his ailing heart.

Darin always knew he would die young. Doctors told him he most likely wouldn't make it out of his teens after multiple bouts of rheumatic fever damaged his heart, but the death sentence only spurred him on to greater heights. Determined to become a legend by age 25, he embarks on a versatile career that takes him from a rock 'n' rolling teen idol to one of the most celebrated entertainers of all time. Born Walden Robert Cassotto in East Harlem, New York City, Darin escapes his sheltered childhood by discovering a world of music. He can't run and play like the other boys, but he can write jingles, play instruments, and sing along to the family's Victrola. Although he graduates from the esteemed Bronx High School of Science, academics aren't his game; music is. In 1955, he meets songwriter Don Kirshner and the pair starting writing jingles and pop songs for up-and-comer Connie Francis (who nearly elopes with Darin until her father intervenes). After a dismal stint at Decca Records, Darin hits his stride at the Atlantic subsidiary Atco, releasing his first big hit, "Splish Splash," in 1958. The following year brings "Dream Lover," a self-penned ballad that makes Darin a bonafide teen idol. But being a teen idol doesn't get you into the Copacabana, the famed Manhattan nightclub. Desperate to become a sophisticated entertainer on par with Frank Sinatra, Darin turns to an unusual tune: a dramatic murder ballad about a killer called "Mack The Knife." Darin's swinging arrangement and finger-snapping delivery turns "Mack" into a smooth operator and Bobby Darin into a household name at 23. With the help of his next 1959 hit, "Beyond The Sea," he lands that Copa gig and sets their all-time attendance record - then heads to Las Vegas as a headlining act at the major casinos. Like Sinatra and Dean Martin, Darin wants to hitch his music to a successful acting career. He lands a starring role in the 1960 romantic comedy Come September and falls in love with his teenage costar Sandra Dee. The pair marries shortly after the movie is released and welcomes son Dodd the following year (they divorce in 1967). In 1963, he plays a traumatized soldier in Captain Newman, M.D. and earns an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Meanwhile, a risky shift from show tunes to country music pays of with hits like "Eighteen Yellow Roses" and "You're the Reason I'm Living." A rendition of Tim Hardin's "If I Were A Carpenter" lands in the Top 10 in 1966. But the '60s are tumultuous years for Darin's private life. Aside from losing close friend Robert Kennedy to an assassination in 1968, Darin learns a shocking family secret: The woman he knows as his sister is actually his biological mother, who avoided the scandal of an out-of-wedlock pregnancy by giving the baby to her own mother to raise. His passion for civil rights and disdain for the Vietnam War makes him hate the carefree swinging persona he built his career on. Calling himself "Bob Darin," he ditches signature tux for denim and sings protest tunes that get him booed off the stage at a gig in Vegas. The singer retreats to a trailer near Big Sur and lives in seclusion for a year before reluctantly emerging as the familiar Bobby Darin. But time is running out. In 1972, the year after he has two artificial valves implanted into his heart, Darin fails to take antibiotics to prevent infection after a dental procedure. Severe blood poisoning destroys one of his heart valves and necessitates surgery. Darin never regains consciousness after the six-hour surgery and dies at age 37. In 1990, he's inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Categories

• Deaths
• Died Young