‘The Love Boat’ theme singer Jack Jones has died aged 86.
Double Grammy award-winning crooner Jack’s passing was announced on Wednesday (23.10.24) night to The Hollywood Reporter by his stepdaughter Nicole Whitty.
The outlet said he passed away at Eisenhower Medical in Rancho Mirage, California, after a two-year battle with leukaemia.
Once billed as Frank Sinatra’s heir and best-known for his ‘Love Boat’ theme performance, Jack was also famed for his early Sixties pop hits including ‘Lollipops and Roses’ and ‘Wives and Lovers’.
As well as his singing career he was an actor, making cameos as a lounge singer in 1982’s ‘Airplane II: The Sequel’ and ‘American Hustle’ in 2013.
Born John Allan Jones in Los Angeles on 14 January, 1938 – on the same night his actor and Marx Brothers collaborator father Allan Jones was recording his hit song ‘The Donkey Serenade’ – Jack also had a showbiz mother.
His mum Irene Hervey was an actor, whose film and television career spanned five decades.
Jack – who was married six times – told Las Vegas Magazine in 2016 about his singing career being guaranteed by the success of his famous TV theme: “Because of ‘The Love Boat’ theme, everything was great on ships after that.
“I did six weeks a year. They gave me the best suite on the ship, and it was the S.S. Norway.
“We just had a great time.”
Jack brought out ‘The Love Boat Theme’ as a single in 1979, with a cover of Barry Manilow’s ‘Ready to Take a Chance Again’ on the B-side.
He got his start performing at the Thunderbird Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada and in 1959, he signed with Capitol Records and released his debut album ‘This Love of Mine’.
‘Lollipops and Roses’ came out in 1961 and landed Jack his first Grammy for Best Solo Vocal Performance, Male.
His 1963 single ‘Wives and Lovers’, written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, got him his second Grammy.
From 1967 to 1969, he was married to actor Jill St John, and in 1970 he got hitched to Gretchen Roberts.
He then said “I do” to Kathy Simmons – his wife from 1976 to 1982 – before he tied the knot with Kim Ely in 1982, before they split in 2005.
Jack and Kim had daughter Nicole in 1991, and the singer also has a daughter called Crystal Thomas from his marriage to Lee Fuller.
The singer spent his last years living with his sixth wife Eleonora.
