Bobby Darin

Bobby Darin (born Walden Robert Cassotto; May 14, 1936 – December 20, 1973) was an American musician, songwriter and actor. He performed jazz, pop, rock and roll, folk, swing, and country music.

Darin started his career as a songwriter for Connie Francis. Darin co-wrote and recorded his first million-selling single, "Splish Splash", in 1958. That was followed by Darin's own song "Dream Lover", then his covers of "Mack the Knife" and "Beyond the Sea", which brought him worldwide fame. In 1962, Darin won a Golden Globe Award for his first film, Come September, co-starring his first wife, actress Sandra Dee.

During the 1960s, Darin became more politically active and worked on Robert F. Kennedy's Democratic presidential campaign. He was present at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles at the time of Robert Kennedy's assassination in June 1968. That same year, Darin discovered the woman who had raised him was his grandmother, not his mother as he thought, and learned 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 Darin made a successful comeback (in television) in the early 1970s, his health was beginning to fail following bouts of rheumatic fever in childhood. The knowledge of Darin's vulnerability had always spurred him on to use his musical talent while still young. He died in 1973 at the age of 37 in a hospital recovery room after having open heart surgery in Los Angeles.