Get the latest gossip

Inside Dean Martin's Later Years After His 'Golden Boy' Son Died: He Was 'Like a Candle Without a Flame'

The Rat Pack singer's son, Dean Paul Martin, died at 35 after a jet he was piloting crashed into a mountain during a routine military training operation in 1987. A look into the "Ain't That a Kick in the Head" singer's later years reveals he spent his remaining years in mourning, often in solitude.

In 1987, the Rat Pack member lost his son, Dean Paul Martin, one of his eight children, in a military jet crash when he was only 35 years old. Author William Keck, who penned When You Step Upon a Star: Cringeworthy Confessions of a Tabloid Bad Boy, befriended the crooner and told Fox News, "Dean Martin’s final years were very, very sad after he lost his son. In the latter part of the beloved singer’s life, he was seen dining almost nightly at the Beverly Hills restaurant La Famiglia, often sitting alone — a far cry from his Rat Pack days, when he was happily surrounded by friends and fans.

Get the Android app