Bobby Darin

Bobby Darin born Walden Robert Cassotto May 14 1936 December 20 1973 was an American singer songwriter multiinstrumentalist impressionist and actor in film and television He performed jazz pop rock and roll folk swing and country music He started his career as a songwriter for Connie Francis He recorded his first millionselling single Splish Splash in 1958 That was followed by Dream Lover Mack the Knife and Beyond the Sea which brought him worldwide fame In 1962 he won a Golden Globe Award for his first film Come September costarring his first wife actress Sandra Dee During the 1960s he became more politically active and worked on Robert F Kennedys Democratic presidential campaign He was present on the night of June 45 1968 at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles at the time of Kennedys assassination During the same year he discovered he had been raised by his grandmother not his mother and that the woman he thought was his sister was actually his mother Those events deeply affected Darin and sent him into a long period of seclusion Although he made a successful comeback in television in the early 1970s his health was beginning to fail as he had always expected following bouts of rheumatic fever in childhood The knowledge of his vulnerability had always spurred him on to use his musical talent while still young He died at the age of 37 after a heart operation in Los Angeles From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia