Nat \"King\" Cole is best remembered as an extremely popular and influential jazz and pop artist whose career spanned the mid-'30s through the early '60s — some of his biggest hits include "Mona Lisa" and "Unforgettable" — but he also made a few appearances in film. As an actor, his most famous role is that of W.C. Handy in St. Louis Blues (1958). The father of pop singer Natalie Cole, he was only 46 when he died of lung cancer.