Saturday May 16, 1998
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| Photo: Adam Butler 1992 / PA / Getty Images |
by Minerva Canto
May 15, 1998
LOS ANGELES - Frank Sinatra, the brash young idol who became the premier romantic balladeer of American popular music and the "Chairman of the Board" to millions of fans, has died of a heart attack. He was 82.
Sinatra, who had not been seen in public since a heart attack in January 1997, was pronounced dead at 10:50 last night in the emergency room of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, said his publicist, Susan Reynolds.
Earlier in the evening, Sinatra had been taken to the hospital by ambulance with an unspecified distress, said a source who requested anonymity. It was not immediately clear where he suffered the heart attack. But his wife, Barbara, was with him when he died and the rest of his family arrived a short time later, the source said.
A private funeral was planned, but details weren't immediately announced. The Sinatra family has a plot at Desert Memorial Park near Palm Springs.
"Ol' Blue Eyes" was a master craftsman and ranked as one of the most influential singers in U.S. history. With more than 200 records, he led the evolution from Big Band to vocal American music.
The blunt, often aggressive son of Italian immigrants communicated across generational lines with love songs filled with a rare mix of vulnerability and verve - from "Strangers in the Night" to "One for My Baby."
He refused to compromise - "I'm going to do as I please," he once said - and his trademark song was "My Way."
He made almost as much news offstage as on. Through his "Rat Pack" and organized-crime associations, he was a cultural phenomenon who endured setbacks and scandals to become a White House intimate.
Once, in the early 1950s, his career appeared to be over, but he came back with a movie performance in "From Here to Eternity" that brought him an Oscar for best supporting actor. He retired in 1971 but found himself unable to stay away from the microphone.
Sinatra had said he never took voice lessons except to extend his range, and never learned to read music.
He received the Kennedy Center honor in 1983 and was awarded the Medal of Freedom by his friend President Reagan in 1985.
Francis Albert Sinatra was born Dec. 12, 1915, in a tough, working-class neighbourhood of Hoboken, N.J. In the difficult delivery, his left earlobe was torn off and his throat was scarred by forceps; the doctor thought him stillborn. His grandmother shoved the 3-pound baby under cold running water and signs of life quickly emerged.
Sinatra's father, Martin, was a boxer and member of the fire department. His mother, Dolly, was a nurse who became a power in local Democratic politics.
Francis, their only child, spent much of his early life with his maternal grandmother but was spoiled by the entire family and lavished with gifts and fine clothes. He soon learned to fight off the envious children in the neighborhood and became the leader of a gang that specialized in petty thievery until they moved to a nicer neighborhood.
He picked up what jobs he could, and as a member of a quartet won the Major Bowes Amateur Hour in 1935. By 1939 he was singing with bandleader Harry James, for $65 a week, but soon joined trombonist Tommy Dorsey, who had the reputation of showcasing singers.
He began swimming and running to improve his lungs, and learned to breathe in the middle of a note without breaking it. He was the first popular singer to use breathing for dramatic effect, and learned to use his microphone to enhance his voice.
By the end of 1941, Sinatra replaced Crosby at the top of the "Down Beat" poll. He broke from the band in 1942 and, with a series of concerts at New York's Paramount Theater, burst into the nation's awareness in a way that was not matched until the arrival of Elvis Presley in the '50s.
His appearances created such hysteria and fits of swooning that newspapers turned to psychiatrists for explanations of "Sinatramania."
Sinatra, classified 4-F in World War II because of a punctured eardrum, kept piling up the hits, but before the '40s was over, Sinatra's career was spiralling downward.
His name became linked to mobsters when he visited Cuba at the same time organized-crime leaders were gathering there and spent time with Lucky Luciano. He suffered a vocal cord hemorrhage and was forced to remain absolutely silent for 40 days. His record sales declined. A romance with Ava Gardner led to the end of his marriage to longtime sweetheart Nancy Barbato, who married him in 1939 and bore three children - Nancy, Frank Jr. and Christina.
By the time he wed Gardner in 1951, the singer who had earned $1 million a year had been cut loose by his agents.
"From Here to Eternity," and the role of Pvt. Angelo Maggio, was his vehicle for a comeback. He fought for the part and took a screen test that impressed Columbia Pictures, but was paid only $8,000. He won the best supporting actor Oscar, was back on top of the charts by the end of 1954 and, by 1957, ABC guaranteed him $7 million on a three-year contract.
His tempestuous, on-again, off-again marriage to Gardner ended in 1953. He did not marry again until 19-year-old Mia Farrow came into his life more than a decade later.
Sinatra was once again breaking box-office records by the end of the 1950s and was firmly established at the head of the Rat Pack or the Clan, a group including Dean Martin, Joey Bishop, Sammy Davis Jr. and Peter Lawford.
Lawford's brother-in-law was John F. Kennedy, to whom Sinatra introduced Judith Campbell Exner in 1960. Exner said Sinatra also introduced her to Sam Giancana, then reputed head of the Chicago mob, and she allegedly dated both men at the same time.
In December 1963, Sinatra's son, 19-year-old Frank Jr., was abducted by two armed men from a motel in Stateline, Nev., where he was appearing as a singer. Sinatra's son was freed two days later after the payment of $240,000 ransom.
In 1966, Sinatra wed Farrow, a marriage that lasted just over two years. In 1971, saying he wanted room for reflection, he gave his "farewell concert" in Los Angeles.
His retirement ended two years later with an hourlong special, "Ol' Blue Eyes is Back." In 1976, Sinatra married for the last time, to Barbara Marx, former wife of Zeppo Marx.
Sinatra had organized Kennedy's inaugural gala, but later was frozen out of the Kennedy circle because of his reputed mob association. By 1966 and Reagan's California gubernatorial bid, he had switched his support to the Republican Party.
In addition to his music and film work, Sinatra oversaw a staff of 75, amassed collections of art, set up his own record label, Reprise, and had real-estate and financial holdings that included a missile parts company.
"Frank is a tiger - afraid of nothing, ready for anything," Robert Mitchum once said.
Ernest Borgnine, who learned of Sinatra's death while filming in Texas, said the world had lost one of its most precious commodities.
"In all memories, from childhood to romance to the mature years, Frank has been with us in all times," he said. "He gave so much of himself and much more than people realized. It is a sad day today, because Frank touched everyone in the world.”
First published in The Seattle Times, May 16, 1998
