Though time and grief are visible on her face, former adolescent popstar Connie Francis is as gorgeous at 85 as she was in 1958, when her glossy lips shouted out the smash song “Who’s Sorry Now.”
Francis, who was born in Newark, New Jersey, was infamous for never appearing in public without fake eyelashes or stiletto heels, which added a few inches to her diminutive 1.56-meter body.
At her 85th birthday celebration, in what she calls “the largest gathering of lifelong friends and those closest to me,” Francis was dressed to impress…
Francis rose to superstardom with the publication of her single “Who’s Sorry Now,” and continued to have success in the 1960s with songs like “Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool,” “Lipstick on Your Collar,” and “Heartaches By the Number.”
Despite the benefits of celebrity, she was nonetheless plagued by heartbreak.
Falling in love with adolescent hero Bobby Darin, who would eventually become the top male performer of the 1960s, was a lucky break for Francis, the decade’s best-selling female musician. He created some of her songs, the two performed together, and they developed a love so strong that many years later, she still maintained, “Bobby was my first and last love.”
In an interview with FOX News, Francis discusses her epic love story with Darin and the initial spark that ignited his flight instinct.
However, the two were star-crossed lovers.
Francis’ Italian father, who was authoritarian and hot-tempered, did not approve of the growing romance and forcibly removed the young Darin from her life.
Darin passed away as a legend in 1973, at the age of 37. He is remembered for his interpretations of famous songs such as “Splish Splash,” “Mack the Knife,” “Dream Lover,” and “Beyond the Sea.” Darin, who is also an actor, earned a Golden Globe for his debut film, Come September, in which he costarred with Sandra Dee, another adolescent starlet whom he married in 1960.
Meanwhile, Francis, under her father’s strict direction, was concentrating on her job.
She went on to feature in a few more films, the last of which being When the Boys Meet the Girls in 1965. But acting was not her thing.
“I just didn’t feel comfortable, as though I didn’t belong there.” In reference to her final film, she stated, “I was so pleased it was my last one.”
After Darin, she pursued love and became involved with comic Don Rickles, as well as fast friends with blue-eyed vocalist Frank Sinatra.
Francis was married and divorced four times, and she adopted a child with her third husband, Joseph Garzilli, the only relationship that lasted more than a year. During that marriage, shortly after her performance in 1974, she was att*cked by a guy who broke into the New York motel room where she was staying.
Regarding her life now, she told People that she wishes to be remembered “not so much for the heights I have reached, but for the depths from which I have come.”
The Jersey teenager, who now lives in Florida, said she wanted her gravestone to say, “I hope I did okay.” She recently celebrated her 85th birthday wearing a short navy-blue kaftan patterned with brilliant yellow flowers, scarlet lipstick, nicely coiffed hair, and a pair of sensible low-heeled shoes.