Walden R. Cassotto Walden Robert Cassotto
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Awards
Bobby Darin’s 1958 single ‘Splish Splash’ sold over a million copies. His recording of ‘Mack the Knife’ won Grammy Awards for Record of the Year and Best New Artist in 1959. His role in 1963’s Captain Newman, M.D. earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Darin died at age 37 in 1973 following open-heart surgery.
Names, aliases, and relatives of Bobby Darin — birth name, kin, and personal ties.
Bobby Darin by the numbers — life, work, and family.
Bobby Darin — early life, career, personal life, and legacy.
Born Walden Robert Cassotto in the Bronx, New York in 1936, Bobby Darin contracted severe rheumatic fever as a child, which left his heart permanently weakened and led to an overprotected, pampered upbringing. His family nurtured his love of music and he attended the Bronx High School of Science, graduating in 1953. He briefly studied at Hunter College before plunging into music.
Darin began his career writing songs and delivering demos to producers. In 1958, he performed Splish Splash on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand, and it became a million-selling hit. In 1959, his recording of Mack the Knife won Grammys for Record of the Year and Best New Artist, spending nine weeks at number one. A film career began with Come September 1961, for which he wrote the title song, and he earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor in Captain Newman, M.D. 1963. Nightclub performances and The Bobby Darin Show 1973 kept him on stage. He produced Wayne Newton’s Danke Schoen and walked off The Jackie Gleason Show in protest of censorship of his song Long Line Rider.
While filming Come September in Rome in 1960, Darin met actress Sandra Dee, then 16. They married two months later, and their son Dodd Darin was born in 1961. The marriage, strained by demanding careers, ended in divorce in 1967. Darin had a previous romance with singer Connie Francis, who later regretted not marrying him. In 1973, he married Andrea Joy Yeager, but the marriage was brief. A family secret emerged when Darin learned at age 32 that the woman he thought was his sister was actually his mother, and the woman he believed was his deceased mother was his grandmother. He died on December 20, 1973, at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles following open-heart surgery.
Mack the Knife remains a standard. Bobby Darin was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 1990, the American Songwriters Hall of Fame 1999, and the Bronx Walk of Fame 2004. A star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame was awarded in 1982, and a Las Vegas Walk of Stars star followed in 2007. Remembered for his versatility as a singer, actor, and activist, his signature hits bridged rock and roll, pop, and swing.
The complete filmography of Bobby Darin — every film, TV show, and documentary credit, ranked by popularity.
Every award, honor, and recognition received by Bobby Darin — Grammys, hall-of-fame inductions, civic honors, lifetime achievements.
A wall of memorable lines from Bobby Darin — lyrics, interviews, and off-the-cuff remarks captured over a lifetime.
Conceit Is Thinking You’re Great; Egotism Is Knowing It.
I Want to Be a Legend by the Time I’m 25.
Now My Attitude Is Very Simple; I Must Do What Artistically Pleases Me.
I Went Out and Had These Special Shoes Made. It’s Nothing New, I Don’t Know If You Know, John Wayne Is 6′ 4″ and Wears 3-4 Inch Lifts in His Shoes. I Don’t Know Who He Wants to Be Bigger Than, but He Does and It an Old, Old Custom, I Certainly Did Not Invent It. in My Case, It Was More Necessary Than It Was for Duke Wayne. I Had These Shoes Made and Two to Three Inch Lifts Inside and the Heel Was Another Two and Half Inches or so and I Walked Around That Way, Wherever I Could Without Falling Over.
Little-known facts about Bobby Darin — origins, oddities, and behind-the-scenes details from a public life.
At age 32, Darin discovered that the woman he believed to be his sister was actually his mother, and the woman he thought was his deceased mother was in fact his grandmother. This was listed in VH1’s 100 Most Shocking Moments in Rock and Roll History 2001.
He lost his hair in his early 20s and wore a toupee thereafter.
When he was a struggling songwriter at the Brill Building, he met Connie Francis. They fell in love, but her father opposed their relationship. Darin later married Sandra Dee, and Francis called not marrying him one of her biggest mistakes.
Rather than interment, his body was donated to the UCLA Medical Center.
He signed Wayne Newton to his record producing company, TM Music, and had Newton record Danke Schoen, originally intended for Darin.
Darin seriously campaigned for the role of Tony in West Side Story 1961. He later won a Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer in a tie with Richard Beymer, who got the role, and Warren Beatty.
A childhood bout with rheumatic fever left him with a weakened heart. In late 1973, he entered Cedars of Lebanon Hospital for extensive heart surgery, leading to his death at age 37 on December 20, 1973.
He was posthumously awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Recording at 1735 Vine Street in Hollywood, California on May 26, 1982.
Posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 1990, the American Songwriters Hall of Fame 1999, and the Bronx Walk of Fame 2004.
He had one son with Sandra Dee: Dodd Mitchell Cassotto also known as Dodd Darin.
His maternal grandfather was of Italian ancestry; his maternal grandmother had Danish and English ancestry.
The New York Times Magazine listed Darin among hundreds of artists whose material was reportedly destroyed in the 2008 Universal Studios fire.
His number-one hit Mack the Knife had a connection with the number 59: it was the 59th number-one single of the rock era, entered the Billboard chart at number 59, and was the second biggest-selling record of 1959.
He attended and graduated from the Bronx High School of Science in 1953.
Every summer as a teenager, Darin walked across the Triborough Bridge now the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge from the Bronx to Astoria Pool in Queens, which is 330 feet long and hosted the Olympic Trials in 1936.
He made his television debut on March 10, 1956, on The Dorsey Brothers’ Stage Show, performing Rock Island Line with lyrics written on his palms.
In 1964, he served as The Heart Ambassador for The Heart Fund charity.
He was posthumously awarded a star on the Las Vegas Walk of Stars on May 14, 2007, what would have been his 71st birthday.
On April 24, 1958, weeks before his breakthrough hit Splish Splash, he recorded for Decca under the name The Rinky Dinks, leading to a legal dispute with Atco. Buddy Holly later covered the same songs.
He recorded with legendary Nashville guitarist Hank Garland.
In the 2016 Australian production of Dream Lover – The Bobby Darin Musical, David Campbell portrayed Darin.
He walked out of a taping of The Jackie Gleason Show in 1968 after producers refused to let him perform his song Long Line Rider about the Arkansas prison scandals.
Half-brother of Gary Walden.
Appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show on January 3, 1960, singing with Connie Francis, where Ed introduced him as Francis’s old boyfriend.
His song Eighteen Yellow Roses is mentioned in the film Hollywood Mouth 3 2018.
He performed at the 1964 World’s Fair in Queens, New York.
He resided at 1400-1426 Rising Glen Road in Los Angeles when married to Sandra Dee.
Quick answers to the questions readers ask most about Bobby Darin.
Celebrities similar to Bobby Darin — same craft, ranked by reach.
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