Short Biography

Frank Sinatra was an American singer and 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, starred in the Emmy-winning television special Frank Sinatra: A Man and His Music, 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.

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. He also starred in such musicals as High Society, Pal Joey, Guys and Dolls and On the Town. 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.

Miscellaneous Information

Distinctive Features

Crooning Voice

Friends and Family

Mike Romanoff [Friend]

Laurence Harvey [Friend]

Johnny Mathis [Friend]

Mickey Rudin [Friend]

Johnny Mercer [Friend]

Rags Ragland [Friend]

Mickey Cohen [Friend]

George Burns [Friend]

Jo Stafford [Friend]

Bob Wietman [Friend]

Harry James [Friend]

Eddie Fisher [Friend]

Jack Benny [Friend]

Nat King Cole [Friend]

Brad Dexter [Friend]

Rosalind Russell [Friend]

Tommy Dorsey [Friend]

Nancy Reagan [Friend]

Ronald Reagan [Friend]

Spencer Tracy [Friend]

Esther Williams [Friend]

Ben Blue [Friend]

Gene Kelly [Friend]

Peter Lawford [Friend]

Orson Welles [Friend]

David Niven [Friend]

George Raft [Friend]

John Kennedy [Friend]

Joey Bishop [Friend]

Sammy Daves Jr [Friend]

Jilly Rizzo [Friend]

Dean Martin [Friend]

Was best friends with Dean Martin. Of all the members of the Rat Pack, he considered Dean his closest confidant and best friend. [Friend] (they became estranged toward the end of Dean`s life.)

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