Al Martino – Singer of “Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte” – Dies

Posted by Harris Lentz in OBITS by Harris Lentz, III on November 6th, 2009

Al Martino was a popular crooner from the 1950s who sang the haunting them for the 1964 psychological horror film Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte, starring Bette Davis and Olivia de Havilland. The song refers to Charlotte’s lover, who loses a hand and his head to a hatchet wielding maniac in the film. The title tune, with music by Frank DeVol and lyrics by Mack David, earned an Academy Award nomination, and later became a popular recording for Patti Page.

Martino was born Alfred Cini in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on October 7, 1927, the son of Italian immigrants. He was a popular recording artist in England and the United States from the early 1950s. He became best known for his role in the 1972 Oscar-winning film The Godfather as Johnny Fontane, a mob-connected singer thought to be based on Frank Sinatra, but with significant parallels to Martino’s own career. The character’s career was assisted by Marlon Brando’s godfather, notably in the scene where a prize horse’s head is placed in the bed of a producer who has declined to employ him for a film. He was also seen as the Fontane character in the 1990 sequel The Godfather: Part III.

Martin died at his home in Springfield, Pennsylvania, on October 13, 2009, at the age of 82.