Unexpectedly she ran into Mr. DiPaolo, who moved in with her and became her road manager, and in 1996 she married him in the church in Maysville where she had been baptized. [6] She performed at the festival every year until her death. It was her first of many singles to hit the charts—despite the fact that Clooney hated the song passionately. Rosemary Clooney Death. At the same time, you can't quarrel with success. Rosemary Clooney, whose warm, radiant voice placed her in the first rank of American popular singers for more than half a century, died Saturday night at her home in Beverly Hills… And when she emerged, she was short of money and supported herself by singing for anyone who would pay her. Clooney's sister Betty died of an aneurysm in 1976, eventually leading Rosemary to found the Betty Clooney Center in Long Beach, California. "I really hated that song. The cause was complications from lung cancer, according to her spokeswoman, Linda Dozoretz. The mural highlights her lifelong friendship with Blanche Chambers,[17] the 1953 premiere of The Stars are Singing and her singing career. As she recalled in her 1977 autobiography, "This for Remembrance," she "fumed" in her dressing room. Rosemary passed away on June 29, 2002 at the age of 74 in Beverly Hills, California, USA. Singer Rosemary Clooney died on 29 June 2002 in Beverly Hills, California, from lung cancer. Some fans even occasionally asked her to sing ''How Much Is That Doggie in the Window?'' What is ballot harvesting — and should you hand your ballot to a stranger? [21], The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford, Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series, Society of Singers Lifetime Achievement Award, Betty Clooney Foundation for the Brain-Injured, Bette Midler Sings the Rosemary Clooney Songbook, "Rosemary Clooney, Legendary Pop Singer, Dies at 74", "Rosemary Clooney to help rescue ailing theater", "Rosemary Clooney marries Dante DiPaolo 1997 -- Bing Crosby Internet Museum -- www.stevenlewis.info", "Blanche Chambers dies at 84; was close friend of Rosemary Clooney", "The Pointer Sisters make excitement in Maysville", "Here Are Hundreds More Artists Whose Tapes Were Destroyed in the UMG Fire", Rosemary Clooney Sings Country Hits from the Heart, That Travelin' Two Beat - Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney, Rosemary Clooney Sings the Lyrics of Ira Gershwin, Rosemary Clooney Sings the Music of Cole Porter, Rosemary Clooney Sings the Music of Harold Arlen, Rosemary Clooney Sings the Music of Irving Berlin, Rosemary Clooney Sings the Music of Jimmy Van Heusen, Rosemary Clooney Sings the Lyrics of Johnny Mercer, Rosemary Clooney Sings Rodgers, Hart & Hammerstein, Sentimental Journey: The Girl Singer and Her New Big Band, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rosemary_Clooney&oldid=975603593, Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners, Short description is different from Wikidata, Wikipedia articles with MusicBrainz identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SNAC-ID identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers, Wikipedia articles with WorldCat identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 29 August 2020, at 12:58. At this time, following a tour, she became increasingly dependent on pills. Clooney died shortly after 6 p.m. at her Beverly Hills home surrounded by her family, her publicist said. Critics detected a new quality in Clooney's singing. It was painted by Louisiana muralists Robert Dafford, Herb Roe, and Brett Chigoy as part of the Maysville Floodwall Murals project. Her children and associates became alarmed at her irrational behavior. She did well and then made several successful tours with him and also toured with Margaret Whiting, Helen O'Connell and Rose Marie in a show called ''4 Girls 4.''. In 1950 she attracted favorable attention with an appearance on the ''Songs for Sale'' television show and with her recording of ''Beautiful Brown Eyes,'' her first real hit for Columbia. After four years of therapy, Clooney return to performing in 1972 at Copenhagen's Tivoli Gardens. She was nominated for an Emmy award for an appearance on ''E.R.,'' the series that featured her nephew George Clooney, and this year she was given a lifetime achievement Grammy award a month after she was hospitalized for lung cancer surgery. Rosemary Clooney Health, Cause of Death : Sadly, Rosemary Clooney is never again alive. Paramount starred her in four musicals: "The Stars Are Singing," "Here Come the Girls," with Bob Hope, a Western spoof "Red Garters," and "White Christmas," with Crosby and Danny Kaye. When she was in her 60's, Ms. Clooney said, ''If you hang around long enough, you get a lot of good stuff.'' Beginning in 1977, she recorded an album every year for the Concord Jazz record label,[3] a schedule which continued until her death. [16], In September 2007, a mural honoring moments from her life was painted in downtown Maysville. Finally, toward the end of 1958, she signed with RCA Victor Records, where she stayed until 1963. When I started to cry, she shoved her rosary in my hand and told me to pray for him.". The pair divorced, and her attempts to return to performing were sabotaged by her erratic behavior. She agreed, using an Italian accent instead of Armenian "because it was the only kind of accent I knew.". Rosemary and Betty became entertainers, whereas Nick became a newsman and television broadcaster (some of her children, including Miguel Ferrer and Rafael Ferrer, and her nephew, George Clooney, also became respected actors and entertainers). She was 74. Once she told a cab driver she had a gun and would kill him. [2] The family resided in the John Brett Richeson House in the late 1940s. or `I've Got a Crush on You.' -- Clooney's style was grounded in jazz, particularly big-band swing. Rather than acting out the romantic dramas of well-known song lyrics, she projects an understanding that is almost maternal in its blend of wisdom and empathy.''. Rosemary Clooney (May 23, 1928 – June 29, 2002) was an American singer and actress. She won a new record contract, and singing dates poured in. "Then at Christmas in 1975 Bing called me," she said in a 1985 Associated Press interview. Clooney died shortly after 6 p.m. at her Beverly Hills home surrounded by her family, her publicist said. A longtime smoker, Clooney was diagnosed with lung cancer at the end of 2001. Funeral arrangements were incomplete. She opens her mouth, gives a little smile, half-closes her eyes and vocally fondles the lyrics of `Everything Happens to Me' or `How Long Has This Been Going On?' Ms. Clooney remained busy and successful for the rest of the 1950's. Actor George Clooney is Rosemary Clooney's nephew. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Clooney did television commercials for Coronet brand paper towels, during which she sang a memorable jingle that goes, "Extra value is what you get, when you buy Coro-net." But her good looks and cheery disposition masked a life with more than its share of pain. When Rosemary was 10 and in the fourth grade, she made her acting debut in a school production of ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,'' in which she played the witch. Reviewing a performance at Michael's Pub in Manhattan, Stephen Holden of The New York Times said of her: ''Her special strength is an ability to infuse everything she touches with warmth, intelligence and a subtly swinging energy that make her interpretations of standards models of balance and clarity. Boone, who was Clooney's daughter-in-law, intended the album to be a musical portrait of Clooney, or as Boone put it: "I wanted to select songs that would give an insight into Rosemary from a family perspective". In 1950–51, she was a regular on the radio and television versions of "Songs For Sale" on CBS. What happens if the president doesn't accept the election results? Battleground Tracker: Biden leads in Wisconsin, has edge in Arizona, A behind-the-scenes look at how mail-in ballots are processed. It was the first marriage for Clooney, 25, the third for Ferrer, 41. In 1995, Clooney guest-starred in the NBC television medical drama ER (starring her nephew, George Clooney); for her performance, she received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series. In 1946 Rosemary Clooney made her first solo recording, ''I'm Sorry I Didn't Say I'm Sorry When I Made You Cry Last Night,'' which attracted attention because she sang it in a whisper that disk jockeys speculated was going to be the new style. Rosemary Clooney, the mellow-voiced singer who co-starred with Bing Crosby in "White Christmas" and staged a dramatic comeback after her career was nearly destroyed by drugs and alcohol, died Saturday. [7] They moved to Santa Monica, California, in 1954, and then to Los Angeles in 1958. The magazine also revealed that a year later, in 1968, Rosemary suffered a breakdown caused by exhaustion and a drug dependency. In the words of the director Mike Nichols, ''She sings like Spencer Tracy acts. In the 1990's she recorded many songs for the Concord Jazz label, and the critics agreed that her voice had gotten better. Her work habits became erratic, and she got tagged as being undependable. The family resided in the John Brett Richeson House in the late 1940s. Rosemary Clooney was born May 23, 1928, in Maysville, Ky., a small town on the Ohio River southeast of Cincinnati. But she sang with so much assuredness, simplicity and honesty that these elements became her trademark and endeared her to audiences and critics alike. In 1997 Clooney married Dante DiPaolo, a dancer with whom she had been involved during the time of her first marriage in 1953. In reality, she had been so petrified when she stood before the microphone that she could not sing the song in full voice as she had intended. But her first megahit came the next year, when Mitch Miller, the artist and repertory man at Columbia, persuaded her to sing ''Come On-a My House.'' And subsequently, listeners wonder why these songs never sounded so good before.". The initial deal was that she would be paid $50 a recording, no matter how many copies it sold. See the article in its original context from. Two years later, the pair were touring with Tony Pastor's big band as "The Clooney Sisters," two of the early "girl singers" that were taking the spotlight as the Big Band era faded. Proceeds benefit the restoration of the Russell Theater in Maysville, where Clooney's first film, The Stars Are Singing, premiered in 1953. She was analyzed of lung disease in the year 2001. He received an Academy Award as best actor in "Cyrano de Bergerac" in 1950. This was in contrast to most of her generation of singers, who had long since stopped recording regularly by then. In 1968, her relationship with a drummer ended after two years. Would I appear with him?". Today, the Augusta house offers viewing of collections of her personal items and memorabilia from many of her films and singing performances. Despite surgery and a long period of care following, she died six months later on June 29, 2002, at her Beverly Hills home. Ms. Clooney, recalling the day in her memoir, said she was convinced that he hadn't died, that it was somehow all a big hoax. The recording became a runaway best seller, and Ms. Clooney became a star. [20], On June 25, 2019, The New York Times Magazine listed Rosemary Clooney among hundreds of artists whose material was reportedly destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire. The new show featured the singing group The Modernaires and Frank DeVol's orchestra. Postal Service awards $5 million contract to DeJoy's former company, Battleground Tracker: Latest polls, state of the race and more, 5 things to know about CBS News' 2020 Battleground Tracker, CBS News coverage of voting rights issues. I misbehaved with everyone, onstage and off.'' In the early 1980s, Jim Belushi parodied Clooney and the commercial on NBC's Saturday Night Live. In 2005, the album Reflections of Rosemary by Debby Boone was released. One of the Clooney children, Andy, drowned as a boy swimming in the Ohio River.