Dean Martin was a popular singer, actor and the king of cool. He was part of the 1960's Rat Pack. He came from Italian parent and after leaving school early he had a variety of jobs. He then started singing in a crooning style. In 1944 he met Jerry Lewis and they started a double acting of singing and comedy with aspects of vaudeville and slapstick. They became successful performing on television and on radio. IN 1949 Hal B Wallis signed them for Paramount and his first film was My Friend Irma. In this film they played the characters that they would play in all their films together. Together they made 16 films. At War With The Army was a vehicle for they act together and refined their characters. Adults and Models was the first of 6 films he appeared with Shirley Maclaine and one of the best of the Martin / Lewis films. In 1956 after 10 years the duo split up. His first solo film was Ten Thousand Bedrooms, though it was not popular at the box office. The Young Lions was his first film in a more dramatic role, rather than comedy. In Some Came Running he stars opposite Frank Sinatra for the first time and showed that both could act as well as sing.
They formed the basis of The Rat Pack known for their Las Vegas clubs shows. Howard Hawkes cast him with John Wayne in the western Rio Bravo. Whilst it is a John Wayne film, Dean Martin gives one of his best performances. His first musical film was Bells Are Ringing with Judy Holliday. The very successful crime caper Oceans Eleven was the Rat Pack's best known film. He was working on Something's Got to Give with Marilyn Monroe, but it was not completed due to her death. Director Billy Wilder cast him in Kiss Me, Stupid, which was a bit more racy than Dean Martin and Kim Novak usually played. From 1965 to 1974 he hosted a weekly television show. He also recorded 100 albums during his singing career. He had a box office success in the spoof spy film The Silencers, the first of four Matt Helm films. After this he appeared in a few cameo roles before retiring from films.
