Life and Times
Although not a handsome man by conventional standards, he was known as a ladies man. James Kaplan from his book: Frank The Voice wrote, "He played piano beautifully, wrote gorgeously poignant songs about romance...he had a fat wallet, he flew his own plane; he never went home alone." Van Heusen was once described by Angie Dickinson, "You would not pick him over Clark Gable any day, but his magnetism was irresistible." In his 20's he began to shave his head when he started losing his hair, a practice ahead of its time. He once said "I would rather write songs than do anything else -- even fly." Kaplan also reported that he was a "hypochondriac of the first order" who kept a Merck manual at his bedside, injected himself with vitamins and painkillers, and had surgical procedures for ailments real and imagined."
It was Van Heusen who rushed Sinatra to the hospital after Sinatra, in despair over the breakup of his marriage to Ava Gardner, slashed one of his wrists in a failed suicide attempt in November 1953. However, this event was never mentioned by Van Heusen in any radio or print interviews given by him.
Van Heusen retired in the late 1970s, and died in Rancho Mirage, California in 1990 from complications following a stroke, at the age of 77. He is buried in the Sinatra family burial plot in Desert Memorial Park, in Cathedral City, California. His grave marker reads Swinging On A Star.
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