“Forgotten Hollywood”- Remembering Natalie Cole…

Posted on January 2, 2016 by raideoman1 | No Comments

Manny P. here…

nat natalie   Natalie Cole was true music royalty. She was the daughter of crooner Nat King Cole and Duke Ellington Orchestra singer Maria Hawkins Ellington (no relation to the bandleader). She carried on her late father’s musical legacy and, through technology, shared a duet with him on Unforgettable. Over the years, she won 9 Grammy Awards. Natalie is also famous for waging a personal war on drugs, and later, a fight against hepatitis.

   Her father was already a recording star in the 1950s and mid-1960s. In 1956, Nat Cole became the first black entertainer to host a national television variety show, though poor ratings and lack of sponsors caused the program to be canceled. He also appeared in a few movies, and spoke out in favor of civil rights. Natalie Cole was inspired by her dad at an early age, and auditioned to sing with him at 11 years of age. She was 15 when he died of lung cancer, in 1965.                                         NAT KING COLE      NATALIE COLE

   Her career took off in the 1970s, with hits including This Will Be, Our Love, and Inseparable. Two decades later, she re-emerged as a torch singer, singing Standards that would have made her dad proud. When she decided to pay tribute to her famous father, the public and her peers gushed at her new vocal maturity. In between, she battled heroin, crack cocaine, and alcohol addiction, and spent six months in rehab in 1983.

   Natalie also dabbled with movies and television. She performed at the 65th Academy Awards performing a medley of two Oscar-nominated songs: Run To You and I Have Nothing, both originally performed by Whitney Houston in The Bodyguard. One memorable appearance was as a performer in the Cole Porter biopic, De-Lovely. On television, she guest starred in I’ll Fly Away, Touched By an AngelLaw & Order: Special Victims Unit, Grey’s Anatomy, and most recently, on American Idol and Real Housewives of New York City. In 2001, she starred as herself in Livin’ for Love: the Natalie Cole Story, for which she received the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Television, Mini-Series of Dramatic Special. Her autobiography was released in conjunction with the small screen presentation. It was called Angel on My Shoulder.

   Natalie Cole was 65.

Until next time>                               “never forget”

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 2nd, 2016 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog by Manny Pacheco. You can follow any comments to this post through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.


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