Frank Sinatra Missed Dean Martin’s Funeral, but He Shared a Moving Statement About His Friend

TL;DR:

• Frank Sinatra led the Rat Pack, which Dean Martin was a part of.
• After Dean Martin’s death, Frank Sinatra offered nice words about their friendship, but he did not attend the funeral.
• Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin’s friendship brought their families close together.

A key member of the Frank Sinatra-led Rat Pack was Dean Martin, a singer and actor who became one of Sinatra’s closest friends. The pair had a tight friendship for years that went beyond their performances together. Though Sinatra did not attend Martin’s funeral in 1995, he offered a touching statement about his relationship with his longtime friend.

Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin were close friends and members of the Rat Pack

Sinatra was an original member of Humphrey Bogart’s Rat Pack, a term coined by Lauren Bacall. When Bogart died in 1957, Sinatra took over the group and brought in new members like Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., and Peter Lawford. The friendship between Sinatra and Martin was particularly close.

“To watch them on stage together was brilliant because you could see the love in their eyes, the respect for each other,” Martin’s daughter Deana told the Desert Sun.

The two men toured extensively together and appeared in many of the same films, including Ocean’s 11 and Robin and the 7 Hoods.

As an expensive testament to their friendship, Sinatra purchased them matching pinky rings with an emerald-cut diamond. Martin reportedly wore his at all times.

“They were buds — ‘pallies,’” Sinatra’s daughter Tina told People. “Dean was a kind of the reverse, the antithesis of Frank, but somewhere down in that Italian lineage, they all kind of came together anyway … Their work was important, but so was home, and they had that much in common.”

Sinatra was not able to attend his friend’s funeral

In 1995, Martin died of acute respiratory failure. By this point in his life, he had given up performing after dropping out of a tour with Sinatra and Davis. The funeral took place in California and was attended by many of Martin’s friends and collaborators, including Jerry Lewis, Shirley MacLaine, and Bob Newhart. 

Despite this, Sinatra was not in attendance. Variety noted in 1995 that he was “too overwrought to attend.” Sinatra’s wife, Barbara Sinatra, and daughter, Nancy Sinatra, represented him at the service. Still, he was able to offer a touching statement about his longtime friend.

“Dean was my brother — not through blood but through choice,” he said, per Deseret News. “Good times and bad, we were there together.”

Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin’s families were very close-knit

Sinatra and Martin’s friendship also brought their families close together. Sinatra had three children, and Martin had seven, and they formed friendships as well.

“It was so fun to be with Dad and Uncle Frank, because they were just so funny,” Martin’s daughter Gail said. “And they had the best time – but they always had the best time together.”

The two families even put on a Christmas special in 1967.

“We were close-knit and far more average than most people thought,” Tina explained. “The camaraderie between families started with the youngest and went to the oldest, and that’s really true. My mother and Jeanne were fond of each other, so it was heartfelt, every bit of it.”