Frank Sinatra — Movies, Bio, Popularity, Filmography & Fame Trend

Summary

Updated 2026-07-17

The voice that made teenage girls faint in the 1940s and then refused to fade — Sinatra turned a swing-era croon into a five-decade empire of albums, Oscars, and a signature song about doing it his way.

Biography

About

Born to Italian immigrants in Hoboken, New Jersey, on December 12, 1915, Francis Albert Sinatra joined Harry James's band as a vocalist in 1939, then signed with Columbia Records and became the idol of the "bobby soxers." After his 1946 debut album The Voice of Frank Sinatra, he moved to Capitol Records and cut a string of albums with arranger Nelson Riddle — In the Wee Small Hours in 1955, Songs for Swingin' Lovers! the next year — that redefined what a popular singer could do. He started his own label, Reprise Records, in 1960 and kept recording: collaborations with Count Basie, an Emmy-winn…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Frank Sinatra

Frank Sinatra

said20 May 1998

What I do with my life is of my own doing. I live it the best way I can.

— In a 1965 interview with Walter Cronkite, as quoted in "Just A Couple Of Legends" CBS News.com (20 May 1998)

Frank Sinatra

said20 May 1998

I would like to be remembered as a man who had a wonderful time living his life, and who had good friends, a fine family.

— In a 1965 interview with Walter Cronkite, as quoted in "Just A Couple Of Legends" CBS News.com (20 May 1998)

Frank Sinatra

said1965

If I had as many love affairs as you've given me credit for, I would now be speaking to you from a jar at the Harvard Medical School.

— Pop Chronicles: Show 22 - Smack Dab in the Middle on Route 66: A skinny dip in the easy listening mainstream. (Part 1), 1965.

Frank Sinatra

saidJul 1958

In terms of my singing I have sometimes been asked how it all began, and it’s usually been a little hard for me to set the story down in any continuous narrative.

— In "The Way I Look at Race" by Sinatra (as told to Allan Morrison), in Ebony (July 1958)

Frank Sinatra

saidundated