“Goodbye” Bobby Darin – Died 20 December 1973

Bobby Darin (born Walden Robert Cassotto  May 14, 1936 – December 20, 1973) was an American singer, songwriter, and actor of film and television.

He started as a songwriter for Connie Francis, and recorded his own first million-seller “Splish Splash” in 1958. This was followed by “Dream Lover”, “Mack the Knife”, and “Beyond the Sea”, which brought him world fame. In 1962, he won a Golden Globe for his first film Come September, co-starring his first wife, Sandra Dee (m. 1960–1967).

He worked on Robert Kennedy’s Democratic presidential campaign and  was present on the evening/morning of June 4-5, 1968, at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles at the time of Kennedy’s assassination. The same year, he discovered that he had been brought up by his grandparents, not his parents, and that the girl he thought was his sister was actually his mother

His health began to deteriorate at a relatively early age, which had been expected as he had suffered from bouts of rheumatic fever in childhood. He died at 37, following a heart operation in Los Angeles.