Wayne Newton

Passions

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Lifestyle

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Family

American entertainer and headline performer on the Las Vegas strip. Newton has been a Las Vegas staple for almost four decades singing songs to his dedicated fans. From the time he was 16, he was performing in 'Vegas. At 21, Newton broke into the pop music charts with the sugar-coated hit "Danke Schoen." He followed up with three more hit songs on the music charts as he was developing his flamboyant lounge act on the Las Vegas strip. Newton is the highest paid cabaret singer of his day at $8 million per year. His father, Patrick was a Virginia mechanic and his mother Evelyn a housewife. Newton's absolute pitch in the three-octave range lead him to a singing career. He stepped in front of the movie cameras to play a sleazy televangelist in 1989's "License to Kill." When NBC ran a news report linking him with organized crime, Newton felt his dignity and honor was at stake so he filed a lawsuit. After a nine-year court battle, in January 1989 a judge ruled in his favor for $6 million in damages. His first marriage was to Elaine Okamura in 1968. The marriage lasted 17 years and they raised one adopted daughter, Erin, born in 1975. Upon his divorce, Newton became a single father when his daughter decided to live with him. In 1988, he lived with his girlfriend, actress Marla Heasley, in his Las Vegas home. In 1989, he recorded his first studio album in nearly a decade called, "Coming Home." On 4/09/1994, Newton married his second wife, a 30-year-old lawyer from Cleveland, Kathleen McCrone. Their home is a 52-acre Las Vegas estate with peacocks, African cranes and penguins. He built a house on his property for his father, who lived on the estate for more than 20 years. His mother died of a heart attack in 1986. Besides being a devoted father, friends describe Newton as a demanding and precise perfectionist. He is a self-made man with a five-seat helicopter, 20 cars, and private jet plane. His hobbies include flying, breeding horses, and studying the Civil War. Newton's flashy appearance on stage consists of tight-fitting clothes, with a large eagle belt buckle and pencil-thin mustache which he grew his trademark during a 1976 hospital stay for pneumonia. In 2007 he did pretty well in TV's "Dancing with the Stars". But in November 2007 he was diagnosed with a recurrence of cardiomyopathy. The consummate entertainer had suffered from the disorder in 2001. Link to Wikipedia biography