Rosemary Clooney

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Rosemary Clooney

Rosemary Clooney (* 23. May 1928 in Maysville , Kentucky ; † 29. June 2002 in Beverly Hills , California ) was an US -American pop - and jazz singer and actress who the most popular performers of the 1950s numbered years.

life and career

Rosemary Clooney was the daughter of Andrew Joseph Clooney and Marie Frances Guilfoyle (1909–1973). Her paternal grandmother, Crescentia A. Koch (1874–1939), came from Germany.

Both her sister Betty Clooney and her brother Nick Clooney and his son George Clooney went into the music or show business - the siblings more or less to escape from their alcoholic father, as Rosemary Clooney confessed. In the beginning, the sisters sang as a duo that won one of the popular radio talent competitions in Cincinnati in 1945 . In the late 1940s she appeared as a singer in Tony Pastor's band . In the early 1950s, Clooney began her career as a soloist. However, she had her first success in a duet with Guy Mitchell entitled You're Just In Love .

In her career as a pop singer, which lasted until 1957, she had the following top ten hits:

  • Come On-a My House (7/51, US 1)
  • Half As Much (5/52 US 1; 11/52 UK 3)
  • Hey There (7/54 US 1; 9/55 UK 1)
  • This Ole House (8/54 US 1; UK 1)
  • Mambo Italiano (11/54 US 10; UK 1)
  • Mangoes (6/57 US 10)

Later, Clooney moved more to the jazz repertoire and the " Great American Songbook ", where she was able to use her large vocal volume and her talent for improvisation. This was already evident on her album with Duke Ellington ( Blue Rose , 1956) or her LPs with Nelson Riddle , but above all from 1977 in her numerous recordings (25 albums) for Concord Jazz . She remained loyal to the label until her death and worked there regularly with other musicians such as Scott Hamilton .

In 1954, she starred in the western musical Red Garters and, alongside Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye , the female lead in White Christmas . She also had her own TV show at times.

In 1968 she became an eyewitness to the murder of Robert F. Kennedy , who was one of her close friends. As a result, she suffered severe trauma and drug problems for years , which she was ultimately able to manage. Her friend and colleague Bing Crosby was the godfather of her successful stage comeback in 1976 .

Rosemary Clooney was married twice: From 1953 to 1969 with the famous actor José Ferrer , with whom she had five children. Her son Miguel Ferrer became an actor like his father. Their son Gabriel married Pat Boone's daughter Debby . The daughter of the two is the actress Tessa Ferrer, known from Grey's Anatomy . In 1997, Clooney married her childhood sweetheart Dante DiPaolo , two years older than her , with whom she had been in contact again since 1973.

Her last international concert tour took her to the Royal Festival Hall in London in 2001 . Clooney had her last public concert appearance in December 2001. After several months in hospital, she died in June 2002 of complications from lung cancer. Rosemary Clooney was buried in her native Maysville.

In January 2005, the museum "Rosemary Clooney House" opened in Augusta , Kentucky , which offers memorabilia from her films and music recordings, as well as costumes and a special exhibition about White Christmas .

Discographic notes

Jazz collection

literature

Web links

Commons : Rosemary Clooney  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.rosemaryclooney.org/collection.html
  2. ↑ Rosemary Clooney: 'Late Life Jazz,' by Ken Crossland and Malcolm Macfarlane . In: The Washington Post ; review
personal data
SURNAME Clooney, Rosemary
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American actress and singer
DATE OF BIRTH May 23, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Maysville , Kentucky
DATE OF DEATH June 29, 2002
Place of death Beverly Hills , California