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Despite Martin's reputation as a heavy drinker #8212; a reputation perpetuated via his vanity license plates reading 'DRUNKY' #8212; he was remarkably self-disciplined. He was often the first to call it a night, and when not on tour or on a film location liked to go home, see his wife, and play with his children. It has been claimed that Martin was usually sipping apple juice (not liquor) most of the time onstage. He borrowed the lovable-drunk shtick from Joe E. Lewis, but his convincing portrayals of heavy boozers in Some Came Running and Howard Hawk's Rio Bravo led to unsubstantiated claims of alcoholism. More often than not, Martin's idea of a good time was playing golf-- not staying with rat-pack friends Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis, Jr. into the wee hours of the morning.

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Martin -- who continued to impress critics in films like the 1959 Howard Hawks classic Rio Bravo -- was Sinatra's right-hand man, the drunkest and most enigmatic member of the Rat Pack (so named in homage to the Holmby Hills Rat Pack, a bygone drinking circle that had once gathered around Humphrey Bogart); his allegiance to Sinatra was total, and Martin even left his longtime label Capitol to record for and financially back Sinatra's own Reprise imprint.

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The Dean Martin Show, which exploited his public image as a lazy, carefree boozer, even though few entertainers worked as hard to make what they were doing look easy. It's also no secret that Martin was sipping apple juice, not booze, most of the time on-stage. He stole the lovable-drunk shtick from Phil Harris; and his convincing portrayals of heavy boozers in Some Came Running (1958) and Howard Hawk's Rio Bravo (1959) led to unsubstantiated claims of alcoholism.

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