In a career spanning six decades, Rat Pack singer Dean Martin performed to millions of fans worldwide and was a star of the cinema, television, radio and stage.

He died on Christmas Day in 1995 but since 2003, his youngest son Ricci has been travelling the globe keeping his father’s legacy alive under the name Dean Martin Jnr.

Ricci performs his father’s classic hits in a show loaded with music, personal photos and humorous anecdotes.

Ahead of his performance at Dartford’s Orchard Theatre on April 20, here’s 10 things you may not know about Dean Martin…

  • Dean Martin was born Dino Paul Crocetti in Ohio in 1917. His father Gaetano was an Italian barber.
  • Martin spoke only Italian until he started school aged five.
  • As a teenager, he fancied himself as an amateur boxer and had the name Kid Crochet.
  • Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis first performed together in Atlantic City in 1946 and it was such a disaster they nearly got sacked after the first show. They went on to make 17 films together over the following decade.
  • Martin has his own TV show – The Dean Martin Show – that ran for 264 episodes from 1965 to 1974. He famously only worked one day a week on the show and the cast had to rehearse with a stand-in.
  • He made more than 100 albums and recorded more than 600 songs.
  • He was married three times and had eight children, including Ricci, who was born in 1953 to second wife Jeanne Biegger.
  • In 1976, Martin sold his Bel Air mansion to Tom Jones for $500,000.
  • According to Imdb, Martin appeared as an actor in 67 movies including Robin and the 7 Hoods and Ocean’s 11.
  • Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jnr, Joey Bishop and Peter Lawford never referred to themselves at ‘The Rat Pack’. The preferred ‘The Clan’ or ‘The Summit’.

For tickets, go to orchardtheatre.co.uk or call 01322 220000.

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