Tony Martin, the American vocalist and actor, who has died aged 98, sang with several post-war big bands and was touted in Hollywood as the new Clark Gable; in the 1950s he became a popular star in Britain through appearances at the London Palladium with his second wife, the dancer Cyd Charisse.
Dark-haired and handsome, Martin was originally a saxophonist bandleader whose rich, virile tones found particular favour with women. He arrived in Hollywood when he was just 24 and, though he never really adjusted to the feverish lifestyle, made several memorable films, among them The Big Store (1941), Till the Clouds Roll By (1946), Deep In My Heart (1954) and Hit The Deck (1955).
He was also in the remake of Charles Boyer’s Algiers, retitled Casbah, in 1948. Mischievously, Martin let it be known that Boyer had invited him to “come with me to the Casbah”, a tale that dogged the unfortunate Frenchman for the rest of his days.
Giving up films, Martin and his long-legged second wife formed an act which toured the more exclusive American supper clubs and, on several occasions, played the London Palladium. Indeed, such were Martin’s many achievements in radio, recording, films and television that he has the unusual honour of appearing no fewer than four times on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Tony Martin was born Alvin Morris Jr on Christmas Day 1913 in San Francisco, and educated at Oakland High School and St Mary’s College. From childhood he sang for family and friends, and as a teenager proficient on clarinet and saxophone he formed a quartet backing small-time acts in vaudeville halls.
Having failed his Law finals at college — prompting a lifelong jibe about him never having passed a bar since — Martin began touring nightclubs playing saxophone and singing. He worked for the bandleaders Anson Weeks and Tom Gerun and played alongside a young Woody Herman.
Aiming to emulate Bing Crosby as a leading all-rounder, Martin wound down his instrumental work in favour of his voice. The singer Frances Langford then recommended that he try Hollywood on the strength of his good looks and fine physique.
Screen tests landed Martin a minor role in Follow the Fleet (1935), and shortly thereafter he was spotted in a nightclub by Darryl F Zanuck, who cast him in several films for Twentieth Century Fox, including Shirley Temple’s Poor Little Rich Girl and Sing, Baby, Sing (both 1936). In the latter he sang When Did You Leave Heaven? and starred alongside the Ritz Brothers and Alice Faye. Between 1936 and 1938 Martin made a dozen films for Fox, four of them with the sultry-voiced Alice Faye, whom he married in 1937.
Meanwhile his vocal powers as a theatre and club artist continued to grow. On radio he became Gracie Allen’s boyfriend in The Burns and Allen Show and he recorded eight times with the Ray Noble Orchestra for the Brunswick label. In March 1939 he had his first multimillion seller with Begin the Beguine, coupled with September Song.
In 1941 he moved to MGM, where film moguls had promised to build him into another Clark Gable. Offered Ziegfeld Girl, Martin insisted on top billing over Jimmy Stewart, Judy Garland, Lana Turner and Hedy Lamarr. This demand may have been tongue-in-cheek; and in 1977 he confessed to the BBC: “Can you imagine being paid a good salary to make love to those girls?” This was the film that featured You Stepped Out of a Dream, which became a standard and a tune with which Martin would be forever associated.
Martin worked next with the Marx Brothers, playing the song demonstrator in The Big Store. The film featured the Tenement Symphony which, with its themes of peace and racial goodwill, became a favourite wartime morale-booster, especially with British audiences.
The war caught Martin’s career on the crest of a wave, and following Pearl Harbor he joined the US Army Air Force. Eventually he was seconded to the Glenn Miller Orchestra as a vocalist, achieving the distinction of being liked not just by Miller but by the band members too, defying the traditional enmity between musicians and the singers they accompany.
On demobilisation Martin returned to Hollywood and in 1946 he sang in Till The Clouds Roll By, the biopic about the songwriter Jerome Kern. In the same year his recording of To Each His Own reached number four in the record charts.
The early post-war years took him to London, where he appeared at the Palladium to great acclaim. He revived his film career in Bob Hope’s Here Come The Girls in 1952 and the following year he achieved his ambition to work with Esther Williams in Easy to Love (1953).
Martin’s last two significant film roles featured him singing Lover Come Back To Me in the Sigmund Romberg biopic Deep In My Heart and a forgettable comedy, Let’s Be Happy (1957), filmed in Scotland. In 1982 he had a cameo role in Joe Pesci’s film Dear Mr Wonderful.
From the 1960s Martin concentrated on his work as a nightclub vocalist and his own television show, on which he developed a distinctive style of deadpan humour. He continued to release records, having particular success in Britain with Stranger in Paradise and Walk Hand In Hand, which reached numbers seven and four respectively in the charts.
In 1984 he appeared in his final British tour, still delighting fans with numbers such as Feelings; I Write the Songs; and What I Did For Love.
Tony Martin’s marriage to Alice Faye ended in divorce in 1941. He married Cyd Charisse in 1948 and their notably happy marriage of 60 years was one of the longest in Hollywood. She died in 2008, and he is survived by a stepson from his second wife’s first marriage. His son, Tony Martin Jr, predeceased him in April 2011.
Tony Martin, born December 25 1913, died July 27 2012
