Bobby Darin

Walden Robert Cassotto (May 14, 1936 – December 20, 1973), known by the stage name Bobby Darin, was an American singer, songwriter, and actor who performed pop, swing, folk, rock and roll and country music.

Darin started his career as a songwriter for Connie Francis. In 1958, Darin co-wrote and recorded his first million-selling single, "Splish Splash", which was followed by Darin's own song "Dream Lover", then his recordings of "Mack the Knife" and "Beyond the Sea", which brought him worldwide fame. In 1959, Darin was the inaugural winner of the Grammy Award for Best New Artist and also won a Record of the Year for "Mack the Knife" at the 2nd Annual Grammy Awards. Three years later, Darin won a Golden Globe Award for his first film, Come September, co-starring his first wife, actress Sandra Dee.

In the 1960s, Darin became more politically active and worked on Robert F. Kennedy's Democratic presidential campaign. Darin was present at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles at the time of Robert Kennedy's assassination in June 1968. That same year, Darin discovered the woman who had raised him was his grandmother, not his mother as he thought, while also learning that the woman who he thought was his sister was actually his mother. Those events deeply affected Darin and sent him into a long period of seclusion.

Although Darin made a successful comeback in television in the early 1970s, his health was beginning to fail due to a weak heart; Darin's knowledge of his vulnerability had always spurred him on to use his musical talent while still young. Darin died in 1973 at age 37 in a hospital recovery room after having open heart surgery in Los Angeles.

Darin was born Walden Robert Cassotto in East Harlem in Manhattan on May 14, 1936, to Vanina Juliette "Nina" Cassotto (November 30, 1917 – November 3, 1983). Because his mother was only 18 at the time of his birth, Darin was raised to believe his maternal grandmother was his mother and Nina was his older sister.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.