Biography
Friends and Family
Dean Martin
[Friend]
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Jilly Rizzo
[Friend]
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Sammy Daves Jr
[Friend]
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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.)
Trivia and Quotes
Quotes
 A well balanced girl is the one who has an empty head and a full sweater. Don`t tell me. Suggest. But don`t tell me.
I`m a performer. I`m better in the first take.
[on friend Peggy Lee] Her wonderful talent should be studied by all vocalists; her regal presence is pure elegance and charm.
[on the resignation of US President Richard Nixon, Aug. 9, 1974] Any man can make a mistake.
I detest bad manners. If people are polite, I am. They shouldn`t try to get away with not being polite to me.
[1965] For my money, Tony Bennett is the best singer in the business. He excites me when I watch him. He moves me. He`s the singer who gets across what the composer has in mind, and probably a little more.
For over half a century, Mr. Wayne [John Wayne] has served honorably as America`s symbol to the world of the highest morals and prudent standards of our society
In Hoboken, when I was a kid, I lived in a plenty tough neighborhood. When somebody called me a "dirty little pig," there was only one thing to do: break his head. When I got older, I realized you shouldn`t do it [get even] that way. I realized you`ve got to do it through education . . . maybe with a few exceptions.
No man`s lifetime of work has better expressed the land of the free and the home of the brave. No man`s lifetime of work has given proof to the world that our flag is still there. John Wayne is in truth a star-spangled man whom so proudly we hail.
Recording with Billy May is like having a bucket of cold water thrown into your face. Nelson Riddle will come to a session with all the arrangements carefully and neatly worked out beforehand. With Billy you sometimes don`t get copies of the next number until you`ve finished the one before. Billy and Nelson both work best under pressure. Billy May is always driving while Nelson has more depth, and with Gordon Jenkins, it`s just plain beautiful and simple.
There are moments when it`s too quiet. Particularly late at night or early in the mornings. That`s when you know there`s something lacking in your life. You just know.
You better get busy living, because dying`s a pain in the ass.
[on Ava Gardner] I love her, and God damn me for it.
[on Don Rickles] I like him. But that`s because I have no taste.
[on Elvis Presley`s death in 1977] There have been many accolades uttered about his talent and performances through the years, all of which I agree to wholeheartedly, I shall miss him dearly as a friend.
[on Marlon Brando] He is the most overrated actor in the world.
A fella came up to me the other day with a nice story. He was in a bar somewhere and it was the quiet time of the night. Everybody`s staring down at the sauce and one of my saloon songs comes on the jukebox, "One for My Baby", or something like that. After a while, a drunk at the end of the bar looks up and says, jerking his thumb toward the jukebox, "I wonder who he listens to?"
A friend is never an imposition.
I`m for anything that gets you through the night, be it prayer, tranquilizers or a bottle of Jack Daniels. But to me religion is a deeply personal thing in which man and God go it alone together, without the witch doctor in the middle.
I`m trying to figure out, Chairman of what Board? People come up to me and seriously say: "Well, what are you Chairman of?" And I can`t answer them.
Nothing anybody`s said or written about me ever bothers me, except when it does.
[after the deaths of Sammy Davis Jr., Ava Gardner, Jilly Rizzo and Dean Martin] I`m next. I ain`t scared, either. Everybody I ever knew is already over there.
[his last words] I`m losing it.
[on Elvis Presley in 1957] Sung, played and written for the most part by cretinous goons; and by means of its almost imbecilic reiterations and sly, lewd - in plain fact, dirty - lyrics it manages to be the martial music of every sideburned delinquent on the face of the Earth. This rancid-smelling aphrodisiac I deplore. His kind of music is deplorable, a rancid smelling aphrodisiac . . . it fosters almost totally negative and destructive reactions in young people.
[Talking about Burt Reynolds] He is the one the ladies like to dance with and their husbands like to drink with. He is the larger-than-life actor of our times. He is gifted, talented, naughty and nice.
[when Dean Martin walked out on The Together Again Tour] You can`t put a gun to his head. He just didn`t want to do it.
The epitaph on his headstone The best is yet to come
Trivia
Briefly lost the ability to sing after his vocal chords hemorrhaged in 1953. When his voice returned, it had an extra dimension which many fans believed made his singing better than before.
In 1964 his close friend Serbian/American actor Brad Dexter saved him from drowning, during the filming of None But the Brave (1965) on location in Hawaii, after an undertow pulled him from shore while he was swimming.
On 20 May 1998, his funeral service was held at the Catholic Church of the Good Shepherd in Beverly Hills, California. Stars in attendance included Kirk Douglas, Gregory Peck, Robert Wagner, Jack Lemmon, Sidney Poitier, Jack Nicholson, Nancy Davis, Jerry Lewis, Wayne Newton, Johnny Carson, Milton Berle, Bruce Springsteen, Debbie Reynolds, Liza Minnelli, Bob Dylan, Tom Selleck, Tony Bennett, Shirley MacLaine, Robert Stack, Mia Farrow, Bob Newhart, Don Rickles, Sophia Loren, Diahann Carroll, Steve Lawrence, Eydie Gormé, Joey Bishop, Tony Danza, Quincy Jones, Dom DeLuise, Tim Conway, Cuba Gooding Jr., Anthony Quinn, Tony Curtis, Jack Paar, Angie Dickinson, Paul Anka, Ben Vereen, Ed McMahon, Red Buttons, Marlo Thomas, Phil Donahue, Suzanne Pleshette, Dionne Warwick, Suzanne Somers, James Darren and of course, his children, `Frank Sinatra Jr` and Nancy Sinatra. Over a thousand Sinatra fans lined the streets outside the church during the funeral, and gave him one final round of applause as his flower-draped coffin was carried out of the church. Overhead, a skywriting plane flying created a giant heart in the sky. Ironically, Sinatra had attended Gary Cooper`s funeral at the same church, almost to the day of his own, some 37 years before.
Suffered from dementia in his final years.
Campaigned for Ronald Reagan in the 1980 and 1984 presidential elections.
He and the other members of the Rat Pack were banned from Marilyn Monroe`s funeral by Joe DiMaggio
He was instrumental in reuniting Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin after their decades of estrangement. During an appearance on Lewis` annual telethon for Muscular Dystrophy, Sinatra said that he had a friend who wanted to say hello; then, he escorted Martin onto the stage to a flabbergasted Lewis. The two remained reunited until Martin`s death.
In 1963, his son, Frank Sinatra Jr. was kidnapped. The kidnappers told Frank Sr. to call them from pay phones. During one call, he ran out of coins, and briefly feared that the loss had cost him his son (the kidnappers gave him another chance). He paid the $250,000 ransom, Frank Jr. was returned, and the kidnappers were eventually caught. However, as a result of the payphone scare, Sinatra swore never to be caught without dimes again, and carried a roll of dimes with him constantly until his death.
Is one of only five actors/actresses to have both a #1 single and an Oscar for acting. The others are Cher, Barbra Streisand, Jamie Foxx, and Bing Crosby.
Sinatra saw Steve McQueen in his western TV series "Wanted: Dead or Alive" (1958) and requested him to take Sammy Davis Jr.`s role in Never So Few (1959). Davis had said in an interview he thought he was bigger than Sinatra in the entertainment world at that time. Since Davis` role in the film was originally written as a sidekick, it had to be re-written somewhat for McQueen. During filming they got along so well that Sinatra wanted McQueen to appear in Ocean`s Eleven (1960) as the cowboy Louis Jackson. McQueen was all for it but was convinced otherwise by critic Hedda Hopper, who told him it would not be a wise career move to be known as a Sinatra flunky. McQueen passed on the film, and although there were no hard feelings his brief friendship with Sinatra came to an end.
Was active in Democratic Party politics from the 1944 presidential election until the late 1960s. In 1970 he supported Ronald Reagan`s re-election campaign for Governor of California, and in 1972 he attended the Republican National Convention for the first time.
Was such a big fan of Chicago`s song, "Colour My World" that he offered to write a second stanza to it.
Called "Something", written by George Harrison and performed by The Beatles, one of his favorite songs.
Was offered the role of "Don Altobello" in The Godfather: Part III (1990). Even though he had been a vocal critic of the first "Godfather" film, which featured a character based on him, he was intrigued by the offer, reportedly because the first two "Godfather" films had been so successful. Ultimately, he declined the offer and The part was played by Eli Wallach, whom Sinatra competed with for the role of Maggio in From Here to Eternity (1953).
According to Mia Farrow`s biography, `What Falls Away`, he offered to have Woody Allen`s legs broken when he was found to be having an affair with her adopted daughter, Soon-Yi Previn.
He had a good sense of humor and loved to laugh, but was not good at telling jokes or witty retorts, so he surrounded himself with funny people
Permanently injured one of his fingers while shooting a fight scene in The Manchurian Candidate (1962). In the scene, Sinatra threw a Karate chop and his hand went through a solid wooden table, breaking several bones in his little finger. The footage was left in the final cut.
Received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the 1971 Academy Awards for his many contributions to charity over the years. Bob Hope, who hosted the Oscars that year, remarked, "It`s interesting how Sinatra announced his retirement, and they gave him a humanitarian award". Sinatra himself hosted or co-hosted the Academy Awards four different times, in 1963, 1969, 1975 and 1985.
Reportedly kept a picture of Ava Gardner on his mirror long after their break up.
Was best friends with Dean Martin. Of all the members of the Rat Pack, he considered Dean his closest confidant and best friend.
Was, at one time, part owner of the Sands Hotel/Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, and the Cal-Neva Lodge in Lake Tahoe. As the name implies, the latter was bisected by the California-Nevada borderline.
When Bela Lugosi died virtually penniless, Sinatra quietly paid for his funeral.
While filming a kidnapping scene for the film Robin and the 7 Hoods (1964), he learned that his son, singer Frank Sinatra Jr., had been kidnapped from his hotel room in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. For obvious reasons, the scene was never used in the completed film.
A forcep delivery at his birth left permanent scars on his cheek and ruptured an eardrum. The latter is the reason most often given for his being exempted from service during World War II.
A provision in his will is that if anyone contests it, they are automatically disinherited.
At his funeral, friends and family members placed items in his coffin that had personal references. These are reported to include ten dimes, several Tootsie Roll candies, a pack of Black Jack chewing gum, a roll of wild cherry Life Savers candy, a ring engraved with the word "Dream", a mini bottle of Jack Daniels whiskey, a pack of Camel cigarettes and a Zippo cigarette lighter.
Became estranged with Dean Martin during the final years of their lives, ever since Dean quit `The Together Again Tour`.
Divorced his third wife Mia Farrow after she refused to quit filming the classic thriller Rosemary`s Baby (1968) in order to co-star with him in Rat Pack crime drama The Detective (1968). He had the divorce papers delivered to her on set.
Named Entertainer of the Century in 2000.
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