14 Facts About Dick Contino

Richard Joseph "Dick" Contino was an American accordionist and singer.

Dick Contino was the son of Mr and Mrs Peter Contino, and he attended Fresno High School.

Dick Contino studied accordion primarily with San Francisco-based Angelo Cognazzo, and occasionally with Los Angeles-based Guido Deiro.

Dick Contino won first place in subsequent competitions in Los Angeles, Omaha, Des Moines, Youngstown, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, and New York City.

Dick Contino won first place in the final round on December 12,1948, in Washington, DC.

Dick Contino made many recordings from the latter 1940s to the early 1960s, particularly for Mercury Records and Dot Records.

Dick Contino's career was interrupted when he was drafted during the Korean War.

Dick Contino fled from pre-induction barracks at Fort Ord out of extreme, unpublicized phobias and neuroses.

Dick Contino was inducted into the army in 1952, having served four and a half months of his sentence.

Dick Contino was honorably discharged with the rank of staff sergeant.

Dick Contino continued to perform, and acted in a few movies in the 1950s and 1960s.

Dick Contino's acting became known to a new generation in 1991, when Daddy-O, a low-budget 1958 movie in which he starred as a faddishly-dressed beat rebel and singer, was shown on a third-season episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Dick Contino continued to perform regularly throughout the United States.

Dick Contino died on April 19,2017, in Fresno, at the age of 87.