Biography: Frank Sinatra

By Wikipedia

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. At age 37, Sinatra launched a second career as a film actor, and became admired for a screen persona distinctly tougher than his smooth singing style.

Born in Hoboken, New Jersey as the son of a quiet father and a talented, tempestuous mother, 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.

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 then called, revealed a whole new audience for popular music, which had appealed mainly to adults up to that time.

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.

Sinatra's singing career was in decline in the late 1940s and early 1950s when he made a spectacular comeback as an actor in From Here to Eternity (1953), which won him a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award. He later appeared in many films, the most noteworthy being The Man with the Golden Arm, and The Manchurian Candidate. In 1954, Sinatra played a crazed, coldblooded assassin determined to kill the President in the thriller Suddenly also starring Sterling Hayden. Critics have found Sinatra's performance one of the most chilling portrayals of a psychopath ever committed to film. Sinatra, however, insisted the film be removed from distribution after he learned that Lee Harvey Oswald had watched it shortly before he assassinated President Kennedy.

Soon after his film debut, 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 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".

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, they formed the core of the Rat Pack, a loose group of entertainers who were friends and socialized together.

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., an African-American. As the Rat Pack became the subject of great media attention due to the release of the film Ocean's Eleven, 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.

On December 1, 1983 while playing Blackjack at the Golden Nugget Casino in Atlantic City Sinatra and fellow ratpacker Dean Martin had intimidated the Blackjack dealer and several casino employees into breaking New Jersey casino laws by making the dealer deal the cards by hand instead of by a shoe which is required by law. Although Sinatra and Martin were implicated as the direct cause of the violation neither were fined by the New Jersey Casino Control Commission, The Golden Nugget on the other hand received a $25,000.00 fine and four employees including the dealer, a supervisor and pit boss were suspended from their jobs without pay. New Jersey Casino Control Commissioner Joel Jacobsen called Sinatra "an obnoxious bully" with a "bloated ego." This statement angered Sinatra who vowed never to play in Atlantic City ever again, However this threat was short lived because a year later Sinatra returned to Atlantic City performing at Bally's.

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.

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.

Sinatra asked Lauren Bacall to marry him, but changed his mind and left her confused and angry.

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, which became a lifetime habit, and he supposedly was even buried with one, as mentioned below. The kidnappers were subsequently apprehended and convicted and are widely regarded as rather incompetent amateurs.

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

Barbara Sinatra divorced her husband Zeppo Marx to marry Sinatra. They were wed in 1976. She remained his wife until his death.

Death

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.

In Japan, Frank Sinatra appeared in commercials for All Nippon Airways.

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 of a heart attack in Los Angeles, following a long illness from coronary heart disease, kidney disease, bladder cancer and senility. His funeral was held some 120 miles east at St. Theresa Catholic Church in Palm Springs.

Sinatra's last words were (according to his daughter Nancy Sinatra, as told to Variety senior columnist Army Archerd): "I'm losing."

Sinatra was buried a few miles due east of St. Theresa 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.

Recorded legacy

Frank Sinatra's greatest contribution to Western culture was, of course, in the field of recordings. Sinatra left a vast legacy of recordings, from his very first sides with the Harry James orchestra in 1939, the vast catalogs at Columbia in the 1940s, Capitol in the 1950s, and Reprise from the 1960s onwards, up to his 1994 album Duets II. Some of his best known recordings are "My Way", "New York, New York", "Night and Day", "You Make Me Feel So Young", "I've Got You Under My Skin", "Strangers in the Night", and "Fly Me To The Moon". Of all his many albums, At the Sands With Count Basie, which was recorded live in Las Vegas in 1966, with Sinatra in his prime, backed by Count Basie's big band, remains his most popular and is still a big seller.

		Discography

1946 The Voice Of Frank Sinatra 1947 Songs By Sinatra 1949 Frankly Sentimental 1950 Dedicated To You 1950 Sing And Dance With Frank Sinatra 1954 Songs For Young Lovers 1954 Swing Easy 1955 In The Wee Small Hours 1956 Songs For Swingin' Lovers 1957 Close To You 1957 A Swingin’ Affair 1957 Where Are You? 1958 Come Fly With Me 1958 Sinatra Sings For Only The Lonely 1959 Come Dance With Me 1959 No One Cares 1961 Nice ’n’ Easy 1961 Sinatra’s Swingin’ Session 1961 Ring-A-Ding-Ding 1961 Come Swing With Me 1961 Sinatra Swings 1961 I Remember Tommy 1962 Sinatra And Strings 1962 Point Of No Return 1962 Sinatra And Swingin’ Brass 1962 Sinatra Sings Great Songs From Great Britain 1962 All Alone 1963 Sinatra-Basie: An Historic Musical First 1963 The Concert Sinatra 1963 Sinatra’s Sinatra 1964 Sinatra Sings... Academy Award Winners 1964 Sinatra-Basie: It Might As Well Be Swing: A Meeting Of Giants 1964 Softly As I Leave You 1965 Sinatra 65: The Singer Today 1965 September Of My Years 1965 My Kind Of Broadway 1966 Moonlight Sinatra 1966 Strangers In The Night 1966 Sinatra At The Sands (Live with Count Basie) 1966 That’s Life 1967 Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim 1967 The World We Knew 1968 Francis A. & Edward K. (with Duke Ellington) 1968 Cycles 1969 My Way 1969 A Man Alone 1970 Watertown 1971 Sinatra & Company 1973 Ol’ Blue Eyes Is Back 1974 Some Nice Things I’ve Missed 1974 The Main Event – Live 1980 Trilogy: Past-Present-Future 1981 She Shot Me Down 1984 L.A. Is My Lady 1993 Duets 1994 Duets II

		Greatest Hits Collections/Boxed Sets

The Capital Years (Box Set) Complete Reprise Studio Record - Deluxe Editon (Box Set) Complete Reprise Studio Recordings (Box Set) Concepts (Box Set) The Columbia Years (1943-1952): Complete Recordings (Box Set) Sinatra in Hollywood 1940-1964 (Box Set) Reprise Collection (Box Set) Sinatra Reprise: The Very Good Years Classic Sinatra The Very Best of Frank Sinatra My Way: The Best of Frank Sinatra

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