Pat Boone

The man who turned white shoes into a fashion statement, singer/actor Pat Boone was born in Florida and raised in Nashville. At 17, Boone was starring on his own musical radio show, and before reaching voting age he had achieved nationwide stardom via his appearances on Arthur Godfrey's various radio and TV programs. Many of his hit recordings were "cover" versions of songs previously made famous by such black artists as Fats Domino and Little Richard (back in the less enlightened mid-1950s, many radio stations were hesitant to play "race music" unless it had been "legitimized" by a white performer). While starring on the prime time TVer The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom in 1958, Boone, already married for 5 years and the father of four children, graduated Cum Laude from Columbia University. He launched his film career in 1957, appearing in such family fare as Bernardine (1957), April Love (1957), Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959) and State Fair (1961). During the early 1960s, Boone starred in a handful of British films, produced by his own Cooga Mooga productions. In one of these, The Yellow Canary (1963), he attempted to shake up his established image by portraying a nasty, ill-tempered rock star. Publicly, Boone was a deeply religious man and model husband and father. He wrote several books concerning his born-again Christianity, as well as his best-selling "teen advice" volume Twixt Twelve and Twenty. Pat Boone is the father of recording artist Debbie Boone.