Frank Sinatra Biography

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Growing up poor on the streets of Hoboken, New Jersey, USA made Frank Sinatra all the more determined to work hard and make something of his life. Starting out as a saloon singer in musty, little dives, he eventually got work as a band singer, first with Harry James and then Tommy Dorsey. Sinatra married his childhood sweetheart Nancy Barbato, in February, 1939. They extended the Sinatra family and had three children: Nancy Sandra (1940), Franklin Wayne Emmanuel (Frank Jr.) (1944), and Christina (Tina) (1948). 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. Sinatra experienced a career crisis in the late 1940s, which coincided with the beginning of a tempestuous romance with actress Ava Gardner. 1949 was arguably the worst year of his career. He was fired from his radio show, and six months later his New York concerts flopped. He and his wife were divorcing, and his affair with Ava Gardner had become an open scandal. Columbia Records wanted him out. In 1950, he was released from his MGM film contract, and his own agent, MCA, dropped him. Sinatra seemed to have become a has-been at age 34. Sinatra and Gardner married in 1951, but separated a few years later and divorced in 1957. Things got worse when Sinatra lost his voice due to a vocal cord hemmorhage, and he was rumored to have attempted suicide. Fortunately his voice problems were temporary, and he helped pick himself back up by resuming his recording career, and making an important re-entry into films. He landed the role of Maggio in “From Here to Eternity” (1953), which earned him an Academy Award as Best Supporting Actor. He was to continue to give strong and memorable performances in such films as “Man with the Golden Arm, The” (1955), “Suddenly” (1954) and, especially, “Manchurian Candidate, The” (1962) -- probably his best film. For the rest of the 1960s, he concentrated mainly on lighter roles, playing hard-boiled private eyes and hamming it up with his Rat Pack buddies Dean Martin, Peter Lawford, Joey Bishop and Sammy Davis Jr. a group of up-and-coming entertainers. The group performed together in Las Vegas in the 1950s and co-starred in several movies, including “Ocean’s Eleven” (1960), “Sergeants Three” (1962) and “Robin and the Seven Hoods” (1964). The Rat Pack also staged concerts to raise money for John F. Kennedy’s bid for the presidency in 1960. In 1966, Sinatra married the diminutive actress Mia Farrow, when he was 51 and she was 21. The couple divorced a little over a year later, in 1967. He married Barbara Marx, the former wife of Zeppo Marx, in 1976. He announced his retirement in 1971 but returned for various concert tours and recordings during the next two decades, although his famous voice had begun to waver. His last lead role was as the aging detective in “First Deadly Sin, The” (1980). In it, he gave a moving performance that was a fitting finale to a long and rich career. His 1980 recording of “New York, New York” made him the only singer in history to have hit records in five consecutive decades. In 1988-89, Sinatra teamed up with his old Rat Pack cohorts, Sammy Davis, Jr. and Dean Martin for a multi-city tour, and he last performed in concert in 1994 at age 78. Sinatra died of a heart attack at age 82 on May 14, 1998 in Los Angeles, California.