| B i o g r a p h y |
Francis Albert
"Frank" Sinatra (December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an
American popular singer and Academy Award-winning actor.
Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and
Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became a solo artist with great success in the
early to mid-1940s, being the idol of the "bobby soxers". His
professional career had stalled by the 1950s, but it was reborn in 1954
after he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He signed
with Capitol Records and released several critically lauded albums
(such as In the Wee Small Hours, Songs for Swingin' Lovers, Come Fly
with Me, Only the Lonely and Nice 'n' Easy). Sinatra left Capitol to
found his own record label, Reprise Records (finding success with
albums such as Ring-A-Ding-Ding, Sinatra at the Sands and Francis
Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim), toured internationally, and
fraternized with the Rat Pack and President John F. Kennedy in the
early 1960s. Sinatra turned 50 in 1965, recorded the retrospective
September of My Years, and scored hits with "Strangers in the Night"
and "My Way". Sinatra attempted to weather the changing tastes in
popular music, but with dwindling album sales and after appearing in
several poorly received films, he retired in 1971. Coming out of
retirement in 1973, he recorded several albums, scoring a hit with
"(Theme From) New York, New York" in 1980, and toured both within the
United States and internationally until a few years before his death in
1998.
The critic Stephen Holden wrote that:
Sinatra also forged a career as a dramatic actor, winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in From Here to Eternity, and he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for The Man with the Golden Arm. His also starred in such musicals as High Society, Pal Joey, Guys and Dolls and On the Town. Sinatra garnered considerable attention due to his alleged personal and professional links with Mafia figures such as Sam Giancana, Lucky Luciano, Rocco Fischetti and Joseph Fischetti. Sinatra had three children; Nancy, Frank Jr. and Tina by his first wife Nancy Barbato. He was married three more times, to the actresses Ava Gardner and Mia Farrow and finally to Barbara Marx, to whom he was married at his death. Sinatra was honored with the Kennedy Center Honors in 1983 and awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Ronald Reagan in 1985 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 1997. Sinatra was also the recipient of eleven Grammy Awards, including the Grammy Trustees Award, Grammy Legend Award and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.