Nat 'King' Cole

Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000 (under the category Early Influence). His recordings of "Straighten Up And Fly Right" (1943) and "Route 66" (1946) (later covered by many including Chuck Berry, Tom Petty and The Rolling Stones), are R n B and Pop classics today. He had several mainstream R n R hits in the mid 1950s including "Send For Me"." With You On My Mind", "When Rock and Roll Comes To Trinadad" and "Looking Back".

Inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame in 1993.

Winner of a posthumous Lifetime Achievement Grammy award in 1989. Incredibly enough, he was nominated for a Grammy only once in his lifetime, in 1958, and lost.

Cole appeared in several movies, his last one being Cat Ballou (1965), starring Lee Marvin.

He was heavy smoker throughout his life and was rarely seen in public or private without a cigarette in his hand. He was a smoker of Kool menthol cigarettes, believing that smoking up to three packs a day gave his singing voice its low, rich sound. After an operation for stomach ulcers in 1953, he had been advised by doctors to stop smoking, but he did not do so. He was hospitalized and diagnosed with lung cancer on December 6, 1964. He underwent cobalt and radiation therapy and was initially given a positive prognosis. On January 25, 1965 he underwent surgery to remove his entire left lung. Despite medical treatments, he died on February 15, 1965, at St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica, California.

Circa 1961, he had an interest in a paper-cup enterprise in Puerto Rico.

Attended the Democratic National Convention in 1960.

On April 10, 1956, at Birmingham, Alabama, he was attacked by six white men from a white supremacist group called the White Cizizens Council during a concert and sustained minor injuries to his back.

He had a highly-rated TV show in the 1950s but it was canceled (by Cole himself) because no companies could be found that were willing to sponsor the show. He was a big baseball fan and had a permanent box seat at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. He met his wife Maria Cole (a big-band singer) at the Zanzibar nightclub in Los Angeles through Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson show. Her parents protested her decision to marry Cole, claiming he was "too black".

However, they were married in 1948 and had two daughters, Natalie Cole and Caroline.

Children: daughters Carol Cole, born on October 17, 1944 - died on May 19, 2009 (adopted); Natalie Cole, born on February 6, 1950 - died on December 31, 2015; Casey Cole & Timolin Cole (identical twins), born on September 26, 1961; son Nat Kelly Cole, born on February 1959 - died in 1995 (AIDS) (adopted).

When he and his family moved to the upscale Hancock Park area of Los Angeles in the late 1940s, they were met with considerable opposition from the residents of the previously all-white neighborhood. When sent a letter informing him that the local residents were opposed to "undesirables" in the neighborhood, he responded with a letter that said that he and his family were also opposed to undesirables, and that, if he ever saw any, his neighbors would be the first ones to know. When the neighbors finally realized - after several attempts, including legal action - that the Coles were not going to be intimidated, they accepted defeat and, ultimately, the Coles as well. Several years after his death, his widow, Maria, sold the home to a family of wealthy African-Americans. As Maria herself said, "Anyone who thought Nat was an Uncle Tom clearly did not know the man".

Nat King Cole was born Nathaniel Adams Coles at Montgomery, Alabama. He received music lessons from his mother and his family moved to Chicago when he was only five, where his father Edward James Coles was a minister at the True Light Baptist Church and later Pastor of the First Baptist Church. At 12 he was playing the church organ and at 14 he formed a 14 piece band called the Royal Dukes. Nat was a top flight sandlot baseball player at Wendell Phillips high school in Chicago. His three brothers, Ike, Eddie Cole and Frankie also played the piano and sang professionally. Nat was also an above-average football player in high school. His sister Evelyn Cole was a beautician in nearby Waukegan, Illinois. In 1939 he formed the King Cole Trio after his publicist put a silver tin-foiled crown on his head and proclaimed him King. He later toured Europe and made a command performance before Queen Elizabeth II.