Bobby Darin was born Walden Robert Cassotto on May 14, 1936. Growing up in a rough section of the Bronx, New York, Bobby barely survived several serious bouts of rheumatic fever that left him with a damaged heart (which undoubtedly contributed to his early death). Bobby's ambition was to become a legend by the time he was 25. Thinking that his damaged heart would eventually kill him, he planned to live life as fully as he could. One story is that he got his new last name, "Darin", from a neon sign on a Chinese restaurant that was supposed to say "Mandarin" but the first three letters were burned out (another story is that he got it out a phone book). Bobby taught himself to play the drums, piano and guitar. In his late teens he met fledgling music publisher Don Kirshner in a candy store, and the two soon got together and collaborated on commercial jingles. Kirshner helped arrange a trial run at Atco Records.

In 1958, after several forgettable recordings, Bobby came up with his first big hit, "Splish Splash", which he claimed took only 12 minutes to write. "Mack the Knife", climbed to the top-ten music charts the following year. Bobby moved to Hollywood in 1960, and met and later married his wife Sandra Dee. He starred with her in Come September and received an Oscar nomination for his role in Captain Newman, M.D..

In the mid-1960s Bobby made several movies (garnering especially good reviews for his performance in the World War II drama Hell Is for Heroes), toured college campuses and played in Las Vegas. His song "If I Were a Carpenter", written by Tim Hardin, shot to #8 in 1966. However, after his divorce from Sandra, Bobby went into a career decline. In 1968 he worked tirelessly for Robert F. Kennedy's presidential campaign, despite his heart condition. After Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles in June 1968 Bobby, disillusioned with life in general and the state of the world in particular, retreated from the entertainment world. He sold his house and all his possessions, and lived in seclusion in a mobile home in Big Sur. After a year away from the public eye, Bobby realized that he couldn't deny his talent to the public and returned to the recording industry in 1969, and started his own record company, Direction Records, releasing an album "Born Walden Robert Cassotto".

He married for the second time and returned to performing on the Las Vegas stage, although he was less driven to it than he had been because of his failing heart. In January 1971 he suffered a mild heart attack and underwent open-heart surgery to have two artificial valves planted in his heart. After spending most of the year in ill health, Bobby gradually recovered and returned to the stage. By 1973 his life seem to be back on track. In December the artificial valves in his weakening heart malfunctioned and he checked himself into Los Angeles' Cedars of Lebanon Hospital for another round of open heart surgery for the valves to be replaced. On December 20, 1973, the surgery began. A five-man surgical team worked for over six hours to save his life. But although the surgery was partially successful, Darin died literally minutes afterward in the recovery room without regaining consciousness. One of the doctors' diagnoses of Bobby's death was that he was just too weak to recover. There was no formal funeral ceremony. He willed that his body be donated to the UCLA Medical Facility for research.


Son, Dodd Mitchell Cassotto (aka Dodd Darin), with Sandra Dee. Did not find out until the age of 32 that the woman he thought to be his sister was in fact his mother and 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). When he was still a struggling songwriter at the now famous Brill Building he met then up-and-coming singer Connie Francis. After a rocky beginning, the two hit it off and were soon madly in love. He had wanted to marry Connie but her overprotective father wouldn't let her date, let alone marry, anyone. When Darin suggested the two elope, he was chased from one of her shows by her father with a gun. The two only saw one another twice after that incident, once during a television appearance in which the two sang together and once during the filming of "This Is Your Life" (1952) of which Connie was the subject, in which the announcer had congratulated Bobby on his recent marriage to actress Sandra Dee. Connie has stated several times that not marrying Bobby was one of the biggest mistakes she has ever made in her life. He lost his hair in his early 20s and wore a toupee thereafter. Recorded with legendary Nashville guitarist Hank Garland. He signed Wayne Newton to his record producing company (TM Music) and had him record "Danke Schoen", which was originally supposed to be recorded by Darin himself. Inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1999. He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Recording at 1735 Vine Street in Hollywood, California.