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Nat King Cole was born on March 17, 1919, and he was an American singer, jazz pianist and actor. His impressive career started off in the 1930s and he was quite active for about 30 years. He was quite successful and over the period, Nat King Cole was able to record over 100 songs. Most of his songs became hit songs represented on pop charts. He was named one of the 50 Great Voices.
While he was alive, he received so many honors and some include a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960, as well as a Special Achievement Golden Globe Award. He was also honored with the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1990 when he died as well as the Sammy Cahn Lifetime Achievement Award in 1992.
Nat King Cole was also inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000 as well as the National Rhythm and Blues Hall of Fame in 2020.
He formed the King Cole Trio and in the 1940s, the trio became the best-selling group on Capitol Records. The trio was considered the model for small jazz ensembles and later in 1950, he set forth to be a solo singer. He faced racial discrimination.
He became a member of his local NAACP branch and took part in the 1963 March on Washington. Nat King Cole, on several occasions, performed for civil rights organizations. He was the host of the NBC variety series, The Nat King Cole Show between 1956 and 1957. He had a lot of singles to his credit.
The Christmas album from Nat King Cole in 1960 is the best-selling Christmas album released in the 1960s. It was ranked as one of the 40 essential Christmas albums in 2019 by Rolling Stone.
Nat King Cole was the father of Natalie Cole who lived between 1950 and 2015.
Nat King Cole also entered into freemasonry and in January 1944, he was raised in the Thomas Waller Lodge No.49 in California. He became a Master Mason after joining the Scottish Rite Freemasonry.
Nat King Cole Cause of Death
He began losing weight in September 1964 and also experienced back problems. He collapsed after performing at the Sands Hotel in Los Angeles. He was persuaded to seek medical help and it was detected that there was a malignant tumor in an advanced stage of growth on his left lung.
He was a heavy cigarette smoker. He was diagnosed with lung cancer. On January 25, the entire left lung of Nat King Cole was removed. Unfortunately, he died due to heart problems. He died on February 15, 1965, at the age of 45.
Marriage
He got married at the age of 18. He married Nadine Robinson but they divorced in 1948. Six days after the divorce, Nat King Cole on March 28, 1948, married Maria Hawkins at Harlem’s Abyssinian Baptist Church. They had five children.
Family
Nat King Cole had three brothers; Eddie, Ike and Freddy and a half-sister, Joyce Cole. All of his brothers were musicians. His family moved to Chicago, Illinois when he was four years old. His father was Edward Coles. He learned to play the organ through his mum, Perlina Coles who was a church pianist.
He performed for the first time when he was four years old and later when he was 12 years old, he started having formal lessons in piano. He learned jazz, gospel and classical music under the tutelage of Johann Sebastian Bach and Sergei Rachmaninoff.
He joined the band known as Bud Billiken Club. Concerning education, he attended the Wendell Phillips Academy High School when his family relocated to the Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago.
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