- Born
- Died
- Birth nameFrancis Albert Sinatra
- Nicknames
- The Voice
- Chairman of the Board
- Ol' Blue Eyes
- Swoonatra
- The Sultan of Swoon
- La Voz
- Frankie
- Height5′ 7¾″ (1.72 m)
- Frank Sinatra was born in Hoboken, New Jersey, to Italian immigrants Natalina Della (Garaventa), from Northern Italy, and Saverio Antonino Martino Sinatra, a Sicilian boxer, fireman, and bar owner. Growing up on the gritty streets of Hoboken made Sinatra determined to work hard to get ahead. Starting out as a saloon singer in musty little dives (he carried his own P.A. system), he eventually got work as a band singer, first with The Hoboken Four, then with Harry James and then Tommy Dorsey. With the help of George Evans (Sinatra's genius press agent), his image was shaped into that of a street thug and punk who was saved by his first wife, Nancy Barbato Sinatra. In 1942 he started his solo career, instantly finding fame as the king of the bobbysoxers--the young women and girls who were his fans--and becoming the most popular singer of the era among teenage music fans. About that time his film career was also starting in earnest, and after appearances in a few small films, he struck box-office gold with a lead role in Anchors Aweigh (1945) with Gene Kelly, a Best Picture nominee at the 1946 Academy Awards. Sinatra was awarded a special Oscar for his part in a short film that spoke out against intolerance, The House I Live In (1945). His career on a high, Sinatra went from strength to strength on record, stage and screen, peaking in 1949, once again with Gene Kelly, in the MGM musical On the Town (1949) and Take Me Out to the Ball Game (1949). A controversial public affair with screen siren Ava Gardner broke up his marriage to Nancy Barbato Sinatra and did his career little good, and his record sales dwindled. He continued to act, although in lesser films such as Meet Danny Wilson (1952), and a vocal cord hemorrhage all but ended his career. He fought back, though, finally securing a role he desperately wanted--Maggio in From Here to Eternity (1953). He won an Oscar for best supporting actor and followed this with a scintillating performance as a cold-blooded assassin hired to kill the US President in Suddenly (1954). Arguably a career-best performance--garnering him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor--was his role as a pathetic heroin addict in the powerful drama The Man with the Golden Arm (1955).
Known as "One-Take Charlie" for his approach to acting that strove for spontaneity and energy, rather than perfection, Sinatra was an instinctive actor who was best at playing parts that mirrored his own personality. He continued to give strong and memorable performances in such films as Guys and Dolls (1955), The Joker Is Wild (1957) and Some Came Running (1958). In the late 1950s and 1960s Sinatra became somewhat prolific as a producer, turning out such films as A Hole in the Head (1959), Sergeants 3 (1962) and the very successful Robin and the 7 Hoods (1964). Lighter roles alongside "Rat Pack" buddies Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. were lucrative, especially the famed Ocean's Eleven (1960). On the other hand, he alternated such projects with much more serious offerings, such as The Manchurian Candidate (1962), regarded by many critics as Sinatra's finest picture. He made his directorial debut with the World War II picture None But the Brave (1965), which was the first Japanese/American co-production. That same year Von Ryan's Express (1965) was a box office sensation. In 1967 Sinatra returned to familiar territory in Sidney J. Furie's The Naked Runner (1967), once again playing as assassin in his only film to be shot in the U.K. and Germany. That same year he starred as a private investigator in Tony Rome (1967), a role he reprised in the sequel, Lady in Cement (1968). He also starred with Lee Remick in The Detective (1968), a film daring for its time with its theme of murders involving rich and powerful homosexual men, and it was a major box-office success.
After appearing in the poorly received comic western Dirty Dingus Magee (1970), Sinatra didn't act again for seven years, returning with a made-for-TV cops-and-mob-guys thriller Contract on Cherry Street (1977), which he also produced. Based on the novel by William Rosenberg, this fable of fed-up cops turning vigilante against the mob boasted a stellar cast and was a ratings success. Sinatra returned to the big screen in The First Deadly Sin (1980), once again playing a New York detective, in a moving and understated performance that was a fitting coda to his career as a leading man. He made one more appearance on the big screen with a cameo in Cannonball Run II (1984) and a final acting performance in Magnum, P.I. (1980), in 1987, as a retired police detective seeking vengeance on the killers of his granddaughter, in an episode entitled Laura (1987).- IMDb Mini Biography By: David Montgomery <djmont@aol.com> (qv's & corrections by A. Nonymous)
- SpousesBarbara Sinatra(July 11, 1976 - May 14, 1998) (his death)Mia Farrow(July 19, 1966 - August 16, 1968) (divorced)Ava Gardner(November 7, 1951 - July 5, 1957) (divorced)Nancy Barbato Sinatra(February 4, 1939 - October 29, 1951) (divorced, 3 children)
- Children
- ParentsNatalina Della GaraventaAntonino Martino Sinatra
- Crooning voice
- Black fedora
- Blue eyes
- Sports coat
- Always wore a three piece suit or tuxedo
- Briefly lost the ability to sing after his vocal cords hemorrhaged in 1953. When his voice returned it had an extra dimension which many fans believed made his singing better than before.
- In 1963 his son Frank Sinatra Jr. was kidnapped. The kidnappers told Frank Sr. to call them from pay phones. During one call he ran out of coins, and briefly feared that it had cost him his son (the kidnappers gave him another chance). He paid the $250,000 ransom, Frank Jr. was returned and the kidnappers were eventually caught. However, as a result of the incident, he swore never to be caught without dimes again and carried a roll with him until his death.
- Refused to stay or perform at any hotel that wouldn't allow Sammy Davis Jr. or any other African-American to enter.
- When Bela Lugosi died virtually penniless, Sinatra quietly paid for his funeral.
- On 5/10/1964, Brad Dexter (The Magnificent Seven (1960), among others) saved both Sinatra's life and that of Ruth Koch (wife of producer Howard W. Koch) during production of the World War II film None But the Brave (1965) in Kaui, HI. They were swimming at a beach when they were swept out to sea by the outgoing tide and nearly drowned in high, billowing waves. Dexter swam out and rescued them together, but they were not able to reach shore for nearly 45 minutes. In the waves, Sinatra reportedly became separated and murmured, "It's all over . . . please take care of my kids . . . I'm going to die . . . " Both Sinatra and Koch then fell unconscious for several minutes before two surfers arrived to help Dexter take them to shore. Dexter was later awarded a Red Cross medal for his bravery. Sinatra never forgot it and the two stayed close friends for the rest of their lives.
- I'm trying to figure out, Chairman of what Board? People come up to me and seriously say: "Well, what are you Chairman of?" And I can't answer them.
- I'm for anything that gets you through the night, be it prayer, tranquilizers or a bottle of Jack Daniels. But to me religion is a deeply personal thing in which man and God go it alone together, without the witch doctor in the middle.
- A friend is never an imposition.
- [his last words] I'm losing it.
- [Talking about Burt Reynolds] He is the one the ladies like to dance with and their husbands like to drink with. He is the larger-than-life actor of our times. He is gifted, talented, naughty and nice.
- The Naked Runner (1967) - $1,000,000
- The Manchurian Candidate (1962) - $1,000,000
- Ocean's Eleven (1960) - $700,000
- The Pride and the Passion (1957) - $10,000 /week
- High Society (1956) - $200 .000
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