Natalie Cole Biography

Natalie Cole (born Stephanie Natalie Maria Cole on February 6, 1950), is a Grammy Award-winning American singer and songwriter.

Natalie Cole is the daughter of noted crooner Nat King Cole. In several interviews, Cole talked about her upbringing; she was raised in an affluent area of Los Angeles, and her family, which she has referred to as "the black Kennedys", lived just a few doors down from the California governor. [1] Cole also stated in an interview that she did not connect with her cultural heritage or "blackness" until she attended college. [2]. She was 15 years old when her famous father died of cancer.

She attended the Northfield Mount Hermon School in Northfield, MA. In her childhood, she was exposed to the greats of jazz, soul and blues at an early age, and she began performing at the age of 11.

Cole has been married three times, and has a son, Robert Yancy, (by Marvin Yancy), born in 1977; her son is a musician who tours with her. She later married former Rufus drummer Andre Fischer, who co-produced her album Unforgettable... With Love.

Cole has carved out a secondary career in acting. She has also appeared several times in live concerts or other music related programs. After Johnny Mathis appeared on a special of Cole's in 1980, the two kept in contact, and in 1992, he invited Natalie to be a part of his television special titled "A Tribute To Nat Cole" for BBC-TV in England. It had high viewer ratings and was successful. From that project, an album with the same name was released, and featured several medley and solo numbers.

Cole has made a number of dramatic appearances on television, including guest appearances on I'll Fly Away, Touched by an Angel, and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. In 2006, she made a memorable guest appearance on the popular ABC show Grey's Anatomy as a terminally ill patient. Her character visited Seattle Grace Hospital to have a fork removed from her neck that her husband had stabbed her with during a mishap; the couple had been having an intimate encounter in public. [3]

Cole has also made several appearances in feature films, most recently in the Cole Porter biopic De-Lovely. She has appeared in several made-for-TV movies, most notably as the lead in "Lily in Winter".

In 2000, Cole released an autobiography, Angel on my Shoulder, which described her battle with drugs during much of her life.