Frank Sinatra's Main TV Roles Show Character(s) Dean Martin Celebrity Roast Himself - M… American Masters Frank Sinatra Bob Hope's Birthday Memories Frank Sinatra Michael Parkinson's Greatest Entertainers (UK) Frank Sinatra The Frank Sinatra Show Frank Sinatra The Pinky and Perky Show Frank Sinat… Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell Frank Sinatra

Main Movie Roles 2007 - Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project 2007 - I Have Never Forgotten You: The Life & Legacy of Simon Wiesenthal 2002 - The Kid Stays in the Picture 1997 - L.A. Confidential 1988 - Who Framed Roger Rabbit 1985 - That's Dancing! 1984 - Cannonball Run II 1970 - Dirty Dingus Magee 1968 - The Detective 1968 - Lady in Cement 1967 - Mondo Hollywood 1967 - Tony Rome 1966 - Cast a Giant Shadow 1966 - Assault on a Queen 1965 - None But the Brave 1965 - Von Ryan's Express 1964 - Paris - When It Sizzles 1964 - Robin and the 7 Hoods 1963 - 4 for Texas 1963 - The Victors 1963 - The List of Adrian Messenger 1963 - A New Kind of Love 1962 - Advise & Consent 1962 - The Manchurian Candidate 1962 - The Road to Hong Kong 1962 - Sergeants 3 1961 - The Devil at 4 O'Clock 1960 - Can-Can 1960 - Ocean's Eleven 1959 - Never So Few 1959 - A Hole in the Head 1956 - Around the World in Eighty Days 1956 - High Society 1955 - The Tender Trap 1955 - The Man with the Golden Arm 1954 - Young at Heart 1954 - Suddenly 1953 - From Here to Eternity 1949 - Take Me Out to the Ball Game 1949 - On the Town 1948 - The Miracle of the Bells 1946 - Till the Clouds Roll By 1945 - Anchors Aweigh 1944 - Step Lively 1943 - Higher and Higher 1942 - Ship Ahoy

BIOGRAPHY:

Growing up on the streets of Hoboken, New Jersey, made Frank 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 (I), 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. 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 - becoming the most popular singer of the era among teenage music fans. About that time his film career was also starting in earnest, striking box-office gold early on with a lead role in Anchors Aweigh (1945), a Best Picture nominee at the 1946 Academy Awards. Sinatra was awarded a special Oscar for his part in a short film against intolerance, The House I Live In (1946). His career on a high, Sinatra went from strength-to-strength on record, on stage and on 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. Record sales dwindled in the early 1950s and although Sinatra continued to act, now, appearing in more dramatic fare such as Meet Danny Wilson (1951), a vocal cord haemorrhage all but ended his career. He fought back, winning the coveted role of Maggio in From Here to Eternity (1953). He won an Oscar for best supporting actor and followed this with a scintillating performance as a deranged assassin in Suddenly (1954) and arguably a career best performance and Academy Award nomination for Best Actor 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, he 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 1960s Sinatra became mildly prolific as a producer bringing such films as A Hole in the Head (1959), Sergeants 3 (1963) and Robin and the 7 Hoods (1964) to the big screen. Lighter roles along side Rat Pack buddies Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr were lucrative, especially the famed Ocean's 11 (1960), however, Sinatra alternated such projects with more stern offerings, namely The Manchurian Candidate, arguably Sinatra's finest picture, and his directorial debut, None But the Brave, 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), one again playing as assassin in his only film to be shot in the U.K. and in Germany. That same year he starred as private investigator 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 and a major box office success. After appearing in the comic western Dirty Dingus Magee (1970) Sinatra refrained from acting for a further seven years until producing the made-for-TV movie Contract on Cherry Street (1977). Based on the novel by William J. Rosenberg, this fable of vigilante 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 with a moving, 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. in 1987 as a retired detective seeking vengeance on the killers of his granddaughter in an episode entitled Laura.


TRIVIA:

• His album "Frank Sinatra Conducts Tone Poems of Color" (Capitol: 1955) not only was rare in the sense that he conduced an orchestra as opposed to singing, but was also the first album to be recorded at the Capitol [Records] Tower, today a prominent landmark at Hollywood and Vine in Los Angeles.
• In 1964 his close friend Serbian/American actor 'Brad Dexter' (qv) saved him from drowning, during the filming of _None But the Brave (1965)_ (qv) on location in Hawaii, after an undertow pulled him from shore while he was swimming.
• Was such a big fan of 'Chicago (I)' (qv)'s song, "Colour My World" that he offered to write a second stanza to it.
• Was the godfather of 'Linda Thorson' (qv)'s son Trevor.
• Played the Stage Manager in a musical version of "Our Town" on a TV special in 1955, with 'Paul Newman (I)' (qv) and 'Eva Marie Saint' (qv) playing George and Emily. In that production, he introduced what would become another of his well-known signature songs: "Love and Marriage."
• Second cousin of composer/arranger/conductor 'Raymond Sinatra' (qv). Ray Sinatra's father was a cousin of his father.
• Named Humanitarian of the Year by the Variety Clubs of America in 1983.
• 'Frank Capra' (qv) claimed that Sinatra had the potential to be the best actor there ever was. He once told Frank to quit his musical career and concentrate solely on acting and that if he did he would go down as the greatest actor who ever lived.