Frank Sinatra

Francis Albert Sinatra (December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer who is considered one of the finest vocalists of all time, renowned for his impeccable phrasing and timing. Many critics place him alongside Bing Crosby, Elvis Presley, and The Beatles as the most important popular music figures of the 20th century. http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:iyg9kett7q7b~T1

Biography

Career

Born in Hoboken, New Jersey as the only child of a quiet father and a talented, tempestuous mother, who worked as a part-time abortionist, Sinatra decided to become a singer after hearing Bing Crosby on the radio. He began singing in small clubs in New Jersey and eventually attracted the attention of trumpeter and band-leader Harry James.

Related Topics:
Hoboken, New Jersey - Bing Crosby - Harry James

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After a brief stint with James, he joined the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra in 1940 where he rose to fame as a singer. His vast appeal to the "bobby soxers", as teenage girls were called, revealed a whole new audience for popular music, which had appealed mainly to adults up to that time.

Related Topics:
Tommy Dorsey - 1940 - Bobby soxers - Teenage girls

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He later signed with Columbia Records as a solo artist with some success, particularly during the musicians' recording strikes. Vocalists were not part of the musician union and were allowed to record during the ban by using a capella vocal backing.

Related Topics:
Columbia Records - Strikes - A capella

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Sinatra's singing career was in decline in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Sinatra had begun appearing in movies in the early 1940s, but usually in musicals, often undistinguished ones. He then launched a second career as a dramatic actor by playing scrappy Pvt. Angelo Maggio in eve-of-Pearl Harbor drama From Here to Eternity (1953), for which he won a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award. This role and performance became legendary at the time as the key comeback moment in Sinatra's career. http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/movies/bestpictures/eternity-ar.html

Related Topics:
1940s - 1950s - Musicals - Pearl Harbor - From Here to Eternity - 1953 - Best Supporting Actor - Academy Award

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The following year, Sinatra played a crazed, coldblooded assassin determined to kill the President in the thriller Suddenly; critics found Sinatra's performance one of the most chilling portrayals of a psychopath ever committed to film. This was followed in 1955 by his portrayal of a heroin addict in 1955's The Man with the Golden Arm, for which he received an Academy Award Best Actor nomination.

Related Topics:
Suddenly - The Man with the Golden Arm - Best Actor

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Soon after From Here to Eternity, Sinatra's singing career rebounded. During the 1950s, he signed with Capitol Records, where he worked with many of the finest arrangers of the era, most notably Nelson Riddle, Gordon Jenkins, and Billy May, and with whom he made a series of highly regarded recordings. By the early 1960s, he was a big enough star to start his own record label: Reprise Records. His position with the label earned him the long-lasting nickname "The Chairman of the Board".

Related Topics:
Capitol Records - Nelson Riddle - Gordon Jenkins - Billy May - 1960s - Reprise Records - Nickname

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In the 1950s and 1960s, Sinatra was a popular attraction in Las Vegas. He was friends with many other entertainers, including Dean Martin and Sammy Davis, Jr. Together, along with actor Peter Lawford and comedian Joey Bishop, and sometimes Shirley MacLaine, the only female member of the Rat Pack, they formed the core of the Rat Pack, a loose group of entertainers who were friends and socialized together. All are now deceased except for Bishop and MacLaine.

Related Topics:
Las Vegas - Dean Martin - Sammy Davis, Jr - Peter Lawford - Joey Bishop - Shirley MacLaine - Rat Pack

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Sinatra played a major role in the desegregation of Nevada hotels and casinos in the 1960s. Sinatra led his fellow members of the Rat Pack in refusing to patronize hotels and casinos that denied service to Sammy Davis Jr., a black man. As the Rat Pack became the subject of great media attention due to the release of the film Ocean's Eleven (1960), many hotels and casinos, desiring the attention that would come from the presence of Sinatra and the Rat Pack in their properties, relented on their policies of segregation.

Related Topics:
1960s - Ocean's Eleven - 1960

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Sinatra was close to the Kennedy family and was a friend and strong supporter of President John F. Kennedy. Years later, Sinatra's youngest daughter Tina would state that Sinatra and mob figure Sam Giancana had helped Kennedy win a crucial primary election in 1960 by helping to deliver the union vote. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2000/10/05/60minutes/main238980.shtml

Related Topics:
Kennedy family - John F. Kennedy - Sam Giancana

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Sinatra is credited with introducing Kennedy to Judith Campbell, who had been a girlfriend of both Sinatra's and Giancana. Campbell allegedly began a relationship with Kennedy; eventually Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy became alarmed and told his brother to distance himself from Sinatra. http://www.nj.com/sinatra/ledger/index.ssf?/sinatra/stories/mob.html Sinatra would lose his Nevada casino license in 1963 when Giancana was seen in the Cal-Neva Lodge casino, of which Sinatra was a part owner. http://www.hotshotdigital.com/OldRock/FrankSinatraBio.html

Related Topics:
Judith Campbell - Robert F. Kennedy

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Sinatra resumed his strong film work with the 1962 paranoid classic The Manchurian Candidate, in which he plays the troubled, frequently blinking, but nonetheless resolute protagonist. In 1965's Von Ryan's Express, Sinatra added dimensionality to a World War II action role. Other film appearances during this time were either cameos or, as in the case of 1964's Robin and the Seven Hoods, critically-panned efforts to trade in on his image.

Related Topics:
The Manchurian Candidate - Von Ryan's Express - World War II - Cameo - Robin and the Seven Hoods

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In the 1970s Sinatra staged a retirement and several comebacks, recording less frequently but continuing to perform in Las Vegas and around the world.

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In 1981 Sinatra's Nevada casino license was reinstated after hearings by the Nevada Gaming Control Board. Indeed, journalist Pete Hamill wrote in his book, Why Sinatra Matters, that Sinatra was "the most investigated American performer since John Wilkes Booth."

Related Topics:
1981 - Nevada Gaming Control Board

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"Sure, I knew some of those guys," Sinatra himself said. "I spent a lot of time in saloons. And saloons are not run by the Christian Brothers. There were a lot of guys around, and they came out of Prohibition, and they ran pretty good saloons. I was a kid. I worked in the places that were open. They paid you, and the checks didn't bounce. I didn't meet any Nobel Prize winners in saloons. But if Francis of Assisi was a singer and worked in saloons, he would've met the same guys."

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In 1986, investigative journalist Kitty Kelley published a biography of Sinatra entitled His Way: The Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra. Sinatra went to court to try to prevent it from being published, bring a $2 million lawsuit against her because he believed that the book painted him in an unattractive light, and he accused her of misrepresenting herself as his authorized biographer. He later withdrew his lawsuit amid much publicity and the book went on to become number one on the New York Times best seller list and was a huge seller not only in the US but also in England, Canada, and Australia. Another Sinatra nemesis, the Hollywood gossip columnist Rona Barrett, came closer to a depiction of his character in her roman a clef, The Lovo-maniacs, which attempted a fictional insight into his complex personality.

Related Topics:
Kitty Kelley - New York Times - Rona Barrett - Roman a clef

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Sinatra's singing career continued into the 1990s, most notably with his Duets albums on which he sang with other stars such as U2's Bono. He continued to perform live until February 1995, but the nearly 80-year-old singer often had to rely on teleprompters for his lyrics, to compensate for his failing memory.

Related Topics:
1990s - U2 - Bono - 1995 - Teleprompter

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Family life

Sinatra was married to his childhood sweetheart, Nancy Barbato, in Jersey City, New Jersey on February 4, 1939. They had three children together: Nancy Sinatra (born June 8, 1940), Frank Sinatra, Jr. (born January 10, 1943), and Christine "Tina" Sinatra (born June 20, 1948). Although Sinatra did not remain faithful to his wife, he was by many accounts a devoted father. However, his affair with Ava Gardner became public and the couple was separated in 1950. They were divorced on October 29, 1951 despite Nancy Sr.'s (as she was sometimes known) religious qualms and objections. According to public reports Frank and Nancy Sr. remained on at least civil terms, if not better, and Nancy would recount how Frank still loved her cooking and would send someone by to pick up her home-made specialties many decades after they separated.

Related Topics:
Jersey City, New Jersey - February 4 - 1939 - Nancy Sinatra - June 8 - 1940 - Frank Sinatra, Jr. - January 10 - 1943 - Christine "Tina" Sinatra - June 20 - 1948 - Ava Gardner - 1950 - Divorced - October 29 - 1951

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Sinatra married the actress Ava Gardner on November 7, 1951, only ten days after his divorce from his first wife became final. They were separated on October 27, 1953 but were not divorced until 1957. She was considered to be his truest love, but that didn't guarantee marital success and stability in Hollywood.

Related Topics:
Ava Gardner - November 7 - 1951 - October 27 - 1953

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Sinatra asked actress Lauren Bacall, whom he had been seeing since shortly after her husband Humphrey Bogart died in 1957, to marry him, but reneged when word of their relationship became public.

Related Topics:
Lauren Bacall - Humphrey Bogart

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On December 8, 1963, Frank Sinatra, Jr. was kidnapped. Sinatra paid the kidnappers' $240,000 ransom demand (even offering $1,000,000 if only his son would be returned, though the kidnappers bizarrely turned this offer down), and his son was released unharmed on December 10. Because the kidnappers demanded that Sinatra call them only from payphones, Sinatra carried a roll of dimes with him throughout the ordeal, and this became a lifetime habit. The kidnappers were subsequently apprehended and convicted.

Related Topics:
December 8 - 1963 - Frank Sinatra, Jr. - Kidnapped - December 10

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Sinatra married actress Mia Farrow, 30 years his junior, in 1966. They were divorced two years later.

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In 1976, Sinatra married Barbara Blakeley Marx (formerly married to Zeppo Marx), who converted to Catholicism to marry him. She remained his wife until his death, although her relations with Sinatra's children were consistently portrayed as stormy, something Nancy Sinatra (Jr.) confirmed when she publicly claimed that Barbara had not bothered to call Frank's children even when the end was near, although they were close by, and the children missed the opportunity to be at their father's bedside when he died.

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Death

A frequent visitor, property owner and benefactor in the Palm Springs, California area, Sinatra wished to be buried in the desert he grew to love so much. Sinatra died in 1998 at the age of 82 of a heart attack in Los Angeles, California, following a long battle with coronary heart disease, kidney disease, bladder cancer, and senility. His funeral was held on May 20th at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Beverly Hills. Sinatra's last words were (according to his daughter Nancy Sinatra, as told to Variety senior columnist Army Archerd): "I'm losing."

Related Topics:
Palm Springs, California - Heart attack - Los Angeles, California - Coronary heart disease - Kidney disease - Bladder cancer - Senility - Nancy Sinatra - Variety - Army Archerd

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Sinatra was buried a few miles away from Palm Springs next to his parents in Desert Memorial Park in Cathedral City, a quiet, unassuming cemetery near his famous compound in Rancho Mirage which is located on the beautiful, tree-lined thoroughfare that bears his name. His longtime friend Jilly Rizzo, who died in a Rancho Mirage car crash in 1992, is buried nearby as is pop star, former Palm Springs mayor and Congressman, Sonny Bono. Legend has it that Sinatra was buried with a flask of Jack Daniel's whiskey, a roll of dimes (in reference to the kidnapping of his son, see above), a lighter (which some take to be a reference to his mob connections) and a packet of Camel cigarettes. The words "The Best is Yet to Come" are imprinted on his tombstone.

Related Topics:
Cathedral City - Rancho Mirage - Congressman - Sonny Bono - Jack Daniel's - Whiskey - Camel cigarettes

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