Morning Man Classic: Dean Paul Martin!

Hey pallies, likes surfin' the web for Dino-devotion to shares with all you pallies keeps bringin' me to cooler and cooler blog pads. Case in point is today's Dino-find found at Greg Hernandez's self-tagged Hollywood accented blog, "Greg In Hollywood."

We learn from Mr. Hernandez's bio that he "has written about the entertainment world for more than a decade. He is a veteran of covering many Academy Awards shows (plus Emmys, Grammys and Golden Globes) as well as film festivals, movie premieres and philanthropic events." And in today's featured Dino-post here at ilovedinomartin Mr. Herandez has put the accent on our Dino's most beloved boypallie, Dino Martin Jr.

As you will see from Greg's excellent efforts below, he has assembled a stunnin' photo and prose project dedicated to our Dino's namesake. Simply loves all the stellar Dino Jr. pixs that capture many of the major emphasises of Dean Paul's all-to-short life. And Herandez's well written words are so full of the truth of Dino Jr's epic life. Greg gives us a golden glance at our Dino's "golden boy's" life.

Likes I simply don't think that I have ever ever read a finer prose piece of devotion to Dino Jr.! ilovedinomartin speaks our Dino-appreciato with Mr. Greg Hernandez for sharin' the swingin' life and times of our Dino's prodigy Dino Jr.

All us Dino-holics know that our most beloved Dino never ever recovered from Dino Jr.'s untimely death, and we can gain even more understandin' of why that is as we read Herandez' awesome retellin' of Dino Jr.'s life. To view this in it's orginal format, likes just clicks on the tag of this Dino-message. Dino-devotedly, DMP



Morning Man Classic: Dean Paul Martin!

By Greg Hernandez on Oct 30, 2011


















Somebody who lived a very full life was the late Dean Paul Martin.

The son of legendary entertainer Dean Martin was a golden boy who emerged from his father’s shadow as a pop star (Dino, Desi and Billy) and an actor (Players, Misfits of Science). He married and divorced actress Olivia Hussey then Olympic Gold Medalist Dorothy Hamill and sadly died at the age of 35 while piloting an F-4C Phantom jet on a routine exercise for the California Air National Guard.

Known as Dino, Martin was described this way by friend Morgan Mason in a People Magazine article at the time of his death in 1987.

“His life was fuller than most people 100 years old,” Mason said. “The problem with Dean is that he was too good at too many things. He had a lot of money and he’d spend it freely. He went through Ferraris when he was a kid. He was terrific looking, from a famous family, and he had talent. When you have all those things on your plate—well, it’s hard to resist someone like that.”

At 11, coached by tennis ace Pancho Segura, Dean began playing junior tournaments. At 13, he abandoned tennis and formed a rock band with his friend Desi Arnaz Jr. and a neighbor, Billy Hinsche. The group was called Dino, Desi and Billy and produced several teenybopper hits (remember I’m a Fool?).

Eventually Dean returned to tennis at UCLA, where he joined the NCAA championship squad, which included Jimmy Connors. At 19, after two semesters, he dropped out of college to marry 19-year-old actress Olivia Hussey (Romeo and Juliet), who would become the mother of Dean’s only son, Alex. Within four years they were divorced.

Then in the mid-’70s, the 6′,175-lb. Martin played briefly as wide receiver for a semipro football team, the Las Vegas Casinos before trying a stint as a race car driver and seriously trying the pro tennis circuit.

After another brief try at college (this time premed studies at USC), Dean continued pro tennis, and although he never rose above 496 in world ranking, he recalled his seven years on the circuit as “the happiest time of my life.”

His athletic flair served him well in his lead in a tennis picture, Players, with Ali MacGraw.

Meanwhile he returned to flying, a thrill since getting his license at age 16. Encouraged by his mother, who noted that he was the only one among his six brothers and sisters to share her love of flying, he joined the Air National Guard, earning his wings and commission in 1981.

The next year, in a star-filled, Beverly Hills ceremony, he proudly donned his dress uniform to marry Olympic gold medalist Dorothy Hamill. Friends for the previous five years, the storybook lovers overcame the strain of constant separation—she was skating and he was on the tennis tour. They were divorced in 1984.

Tina Sinatra, daughter of Frank and a friend of Dean’s since childhood, recalled his supreme confidence: “There was nothing he felt he couldn’t get. We were once in a movie theater watching Romeo and Juliet, and Dean pointed to Olivia Hussey on the screen. He said, ‘I’m going to meet her one day and marry her,’ which of course he did.”

For all his bold career forays, Dean remains a promise unfulfilled even in the eyes of many who loved him. At his engagement party to Hamill, his father remarked, “I’m proud of him. I’d be proud even if he didn’t become a jet pilot, because he’s a good boy. He just doesn’t know what he wants to be.”

Martin began acting in earnest in the years before his death landing a lead, for instance, as a science whiz in the 1985 TV series Misfits of Science and as a divorced man in the comedy pilot A Single Man.

But flying remained a great joy. He eagerly met his Guard requirement, flying about 125 days a year. While aloft, he once said, “The high I get seeing the sun come up is so great that if I die, it would have been worth it.”