Swinging teen idol Fabiano Anthony Forte, better known to his fans as
Fabian, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1943, to a police
officer. His father took ill and died when Fabian was young and the boy
was forced to find work to help pay the family bills. With no
experience but looks to die for, he was "discovered" one day by record
promoters and artificially groomed for rock 'n' roll stardom. Given
singing lessons and a complete visual makeover (including black
pompadour and sexy V-neck sweaters), Fabian was marketed with a rebel
image and snarling baritone unlike the other clean-cut heartthrobs of
his heyday, Frankie Avalon and
Bobby Rydell. After a couple of false
starts, including one of his earliest singles entitled "Shivers",
Fabian zoomed to stardom on the strength of
Dick Clark's American
Bandstand (1952), later winning the
Silver Award as "The Most Promising Male Vocalist of 1958".
From 1959-1960, Fabian recorded a number of "Top 10" hits, including
"Tiger", "Hound Dog Man" and what would be his signature song, "Turn Me
Loose". He was able to parlay his pop success into an acting career in
the early 60s, coasting for awhile on his single name alone. Trained in
acting by Sanford Meisner, some of his
more notable film achievements include
Hound-Dog Man (1959) (his movie
debut), Land der 1000 Abenteuer (1960)
with John Wayne,
Der Spätzünder (1960) with
Bing Crosby and the all-star war epic
Der längste Tag (1962). Most of
his other films, however, were geared toward the young, finding himself
entrapped in cheap-jack beach or biker films. The invasion of
The Beatles in the mid-60s left Fabian and
many of his contemporaries by the musical wayside. He continued to hang
on and billed himself as Fabian Forte for a time in low-budget films,
including
Sie nannten ihn Pretty Boy Floyd (1970)
in which he played the notorious criminal "Pretty Boy Floyd". He also
made frequent appearances on the traveling nostalgia revue circuit,
courtesy of Dick Clark. In the 1990s,
Fabian evolved into a minor TV, film and music producer. Married to his
third wife Andrea Patrick, a one-time
"Miss Pennsylvania" AND "Miss West Virginia" since 1998, he has two
children from his first wife:
Christian Forte, a screenwriter, and
Julie Forte, an animator, born in
1969 and 1970, respectively.
