Bobby Darin was a 1950s and 1960s American pop music star and actor. Throughout the course of his career, his talents covered a widespread music genre including pop, jazz and folk. He was also a goodwill ambassador for the American Heart Association.

Bobby Darin was born Walden Robert Cassotto on May 14, 1936 in the Bronx, NY. Darin's father deserted his teenage mother, Nina, before Darin's birth, which occurred during the years of the Great Depression. Darin would later remark that he slept in a cardboard box rather than a crib as an infant. He was primarily raised by his grandmother and was told that Nina, his mother, was actually his sister, a belief he maintained until adulthood.

A sickly child, Darin was inspired by repeat bouts of illness to make his mark on the world early. The possibility of a short life coupled with a natural musical talent spurred Darin on to learn an impressive variety of instruments, including the guitar, xylophone, drums and piano. In addition to being a musical talent, Darin was an exemplary student. Achieving a scholarship, he graduated the Bronx High School of Science to attend Hunter College, but he left before graduation, instead heading to New York to achieve his dream of music fame. It was at this time that Robert "Bobby" Cassotto changed his name to a less ethnic and more "all-American" sounding name: Bobby Darin.

The fledgling star quickly found an agent, and in 1956 he was signed on to Decca Records. Under the advice of his agent, Darin began writing songs for upcoming vocal talent Connie Francis. The two became romantically linked and became informally engaged, but Darin was run off by Francis' father, reportedly at shotgun point. Francis would later remark that not marrying Darin was "the biggest mistake of (her) life".

In 1958, on a new record label--Atlantic Records--Darin rocketed onto the music scene with the hit single "Splish Splash", a song he co-wrote as well as recorded. According to Darin, the song was based on a bet by co-writer Murray "the K" Kaufman, who claimed Darin could not write a song that started with the lyrics "splish, splash, I was taking a bath".  The song sold more than a million copies and firmly installed Darin as a rock-and-roll icon.

Darin went on to record a series of successful tunes, including the crooning "Dream Lover" (1959), the classic "Mack the Knife" (1959), "Beyond the Sea" (1960), "You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby" (1961) and "Danke Schoen" (1962). On the tails of these successes, Darin opened and ran his own company, TM Music/Trio. The 1960s also brought two other changes for Darin: a marriage to actress Sandra Dee in 1960, and an offshoot into acting. The marriage, which produced one son, Dodd Mitchell Darin, in 1961, was over by 1967. By that time Darin had appeared in nine movies including Come September, State Fair, Hell is for Heroes and Too Late Blues.

After the end of his marriage, Darin began experimenting in the folk music genre ("If I Were a Carpenter" is one of his best-known songs from this era). Then, in 1971, Darin, who had sustained permanent bodily damage due to his childhood illnesses, underwent the first of several heart surgeries. The setback didn't slow Darin down: he went on to star in the variety show The Bobby Darin Amusement Company in 1972 and in 1973 he remarried, this time Andrea Yeager. However, the strain of the new show is said to have had a negative effect on his already flagging health. Sadly, Darin died in December of 1973 during another surgery to correct a valve in his heart. The musician and actor still stands today as an icon of both the "bubble gum rock" and folk music eras.