Dean Martin Martin. Dean Martin Dean Martin (born Dino Paul Crocetti; June 7, 1917 – December 25, 1995), was an Italian-American singer, actor, comedian, and producer. One of the most popular and enduring American entertainers of the mid-20th century, Martin was nicknamed "The King of Cool" for his seemingly effortless charisma and self-assurance. He and Jerry Lewis formed the immensely popular comedy duo Martin and Lewis, with Martin serving as the straight man to Lewis' slapstick hijinks. A member of the "Rat Pack", Martin went on to become a star of concert stages, nightclubs, audio recordings, motion pictures, and television. Martin was
Jerry Desmonde of 11 and later became part of his family's act "The Four Sadlers". He built a career as a song and dance man in musical theatre and later toured parts of the United States in 1927-1928 with Beatrice Lillie and Noël Coward in the two-act revue "This Year of Grace". By 1934 he had married Peggy Duncan and they toured as a double act called "Peg and Jerry", largely in Scotland. In the 1940s, Desmonde was briefly a straight man for Scottish comedian Dave Willis and in 1942 he was invited to be straight man for stage comedian Sid Field