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Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient Frank Sinatra
FRANK SINATRA
Awarded by
President Ronald Reagan
May 23, 1985
For nearly 50 years, Americans have been putting their dreams away and letting one man take their place in our hearts. Singer, actor, humanitarian, patron of art and mentor of artists, Francis Albert Sinatra and his impact on America's popular culture are without peer. His love of country, his generosity toward those less fortunate, his distinctive art, and his winning and passionate persona make him one of our most remarkable and distinguished Americans, and one who truly did it "His Way."
President Ronald Reagan awards the Medal of Freedom to singer Frank Sinatra. Former United Nations ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick applauds behind them.
Biography
Sinatra, Frank
1915 -- 1998
Singer, film actor. Born Francis Albert Sinatra, in Hoboken, New Jersey, on December 12, 1915, the only child of Dolly and Anthony Martin Sinatra.
Sinatra is considered by many to be the greatest entertainer of the twentieth century. His recordings came to epitomize American popular singing at its finest, with a style that maintained fidelity to a song’s lyric and mood while imbuing it with subtle elements of jazz beat and phrasing.
As a teenager, Sinatra worked unloading trucks for the Jersey Observer newspaper. He became a copy boy with an aspiration to be a journalist, but when told by the editor that copy boys “don’t know enough to be reporters,” Sinatra enrolled in secretarial school, studying English, typing, and shorthand. He was eventually promoted to cub sports reporter by the newspaper’s editor.
In his spare time, Sinatra appeared on Major Bowes Amateur Hour, a popular radio talent show. A self-taught singer, he was matched with three other aspirants to sing “Shine.” After the program, the quartet was sent out on tour by Bowes as the “Hoboken Four.” His first professional contract was for $25 per week as a singer, head waiter, master of ceremonies, and a comedian at The Rustic Cabin, a country roadhouse in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, in 1938. It was here in 1939 that Sinatra was discovered by Harry James, who signed him to sing for his new swing band.
After touring with James in 1939, Sinatra rose to prominence as lead singer with Tommy Dorsey’s orchestra (1940-42), with whom he recorded more than ninety songs. In 1943 he began working solo and served as emcee on the popular radio program The Lucky Strike Hit Parade . Sinatra soon became a teen idol, with hysterical “bobby-soxer” fans rioting outside his performance at New York’s Paramount Theater on Columbus Day in 1944. He recorded numerous hits for Columbia Records between 1943 and 1952, but moved to Capitol Records in 1953. In 1960 he co-founded Reprise Records, where he recorded exclusively after 1963.
Sinatra married his childhood sweetheart Nancy Barbato, in February, 1939. They had three children: Nancy Sandra (1940), Franklin Wayne Emmanuel (Frank Jr.) (1944), and Christina (Tina) (1948).
Sinatra experienced a career crisis in the late 1940s, which coincided with the beginning of a tempestuous romance to actress Ava Gardner. 1949 was arguably the worst year of Sinatra’s career. He was fired from his radio show, and six months later his New York concerts flopped. He and his wife were divorcing, and his affair with Ava Gardner had become an open scandal. Columbia Records wanted him out. In 1950, he was released from his MGM film contract, and his own agent, MCA, dropped him. Sinatra seemed to have become a has-been at age 34. Sinatra and Gardner married in 1951, but separated a few years later and divorced in 1957.
Things got worse when Sinatra lost his voice due to a vocal cord hemmorhage, and he was rumored to have attempted suicide. Fortunately his voice problems were temporary, and he helped pick himself back up by resuming his recording career, and making an important re-entry into films. Sinatra landed the role of Maggio in From Here to Eternity (1953), which earned him an Academy Award as Best Supporting Actor. Considered a natural actor, Sinatra turned in top-notch performances in many more films, most notably The Man With the Golden Arm (1955), The Manchurian Candidate (1962) and The Detective (1968).
Sinatra’s work brought him into the Hollywood community in the late 1940s, where he became a member of the “Rat Pack,” a group of up-and-coming entertainers that included Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, Joey Bishop and Peter Lawford. The group performed together in Las Vegas in the 1950s and co-starred in several movies, including Ocean’s Eleven (1960), Sergeants Three (1962) and Robin and the Seven Hoods (1964). The Rat Pack also staged concerts to raise money for John F. Kennedy’s bid for the presidency in 1960.
In 1966, Sinatra married the diminutive actress Mia Farrow, when he was 51 and she was 21. The couple divorced a little over a year later, in 1967. He married Barbara Marx, the former wife of Zeppo Marx, in 1976.
Sinatra announced his retirement in 1971 but returned for various concert tours and recordings during the next two decades, although his famous voice had begun to waver. His 1980 recording of “New York, New York” made him the only singer in history to have hit records in five consecutive decades. In 1988-89, Sinatra teamed up with his old Rat Pack cohorts, Sammy Davis, Jr. and Dean Martin for a multi-city tour, and he last performed in concert in 1994 at age 78. Sinatra died of a heart attack at age 82 on May 14, 1998. Frank Sinatra was also honored with the Congressional Gold Medal .
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Portrait, in his dressing room on the set of "From Here to Eternity", 1953.
He won an Academy Award for his portrayal of "Maggio".
1942
Ship Ahoy
Films
1943
Reveille with Beverly
Films
1943
Show Business at War
Films
1944
The House I Live In
Films
1944
Step Lively
Films
1944
Higher and Higher
Films
1944
Road to Victory
Films
1945
Anchors Aweigh
Films
1947
It Happened in Brooklyn
Films
1947
Till the Clouds Roll By
Films
1948
The Miracle of the Bells
Films
1949
On the Town
Films
1949
The Kissing Bandit
Films
1949
Take Me Out to the Ball Game
Films
1951
Double Dynamite
Films
1952
Meet Danny Wilson
Films
1953
From Here to Eternity
Films
1954
Swing Easy
Albums
1954
Suddenly
Films
1955
Guys And Dolls
Films
1955
In The Wee Small Hours
Albums
1955
Young At Heart
Films
1955
The Tender Trap
Films
1955
The Man With The Golden Arm
Films
1955
Not as a Stranger
Films
1956
Johnny Concho (also Producer)
Films
1956
High Society
Films
1956
Songs For Swinging Lovers
Albums
1957
Pal Joey
Films
1957
Close to You
Albums
1957
The Joker Is Wild
Films
1957
The Pride and the Passion
Films
1957
Where Are You
Albums
1957
A Swingin' Affair
Albums
1958
Some Came Running
Films
1958
Kings Go Forth
Films
1958
Only The Lonely
Albums
1959
No One Cares
Albums
1959
A Hole in the Head (also Producer)
Films
1959
Come Dance With Me
Albums
1959
Come Fly With Me
Albums
1959
Never So Few
Films
1960
Ocean's Eleven
Films
1960
Sinatra's Swingin' Session
Albums
1960
Can-Can
Films
1961
I Remember Tommy
Albums
1961
Come Swing With Me
Albums
1961
Sinatra Swings
Albums
1961
All The Way
Albums
1961
Ring-A-Ding-Ding!
Albums
1961
The Devil at 4 O'Clock
Films
1962
Point Of No Return
Albums
1962
Great Songs From Great Britain
Albums
1962
Sergeants Three
Films
1962
Sinatra And Strings
Albums
1962
All Alone
Albums
1962
The Manchurian Candidate
Films
1962
Sinatra And Swingin' Brass
Albums
1963
Sinatra-Basie (with Count Basie)
Albums
1963
Come Blow Your Horn
Films
1963
Four for Texas
Films
1963
The List of Adrian Messenger
Films
1964
Robin and the Seven Hoods (also Producer)
Films
1964
It Might As Well Be Spring
Albums
1965
September Of My Years
Albums
1965
None But the Brave (also Producer, Director)
Films
1965
Marriage on the Rocks
Films
1965
Von Ryan's Express
Films
1966
Sinatra At The Sands
Albums
1966
Cast a Giant Shadow
Films
1966
Assault on a Queen
Films
1967
Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim
Albums
1967
The Naked Runner
Films
1967
Tony Rome
Films
1967
Movin' with Nancy
Films
1968
The Detective
Films
1968
Lady in Cement
Films
1968
Dean Martin Presents the Golddiggers
TV series
1970
Dirty Dingus Magee
Films
1973
Ol' Blue Eyes Is Back
Albums
1974
Sinatra - The Main Event
Albums
1977
Contract on Cherry Street (TV)
Films
1980
Trilogy: Past, Present, Future
Albums
1980
The First Deadly Sin (also Producer)
Films
1984
L.A. Is My Lady
Albums
1984
Cannonball Run II
Films
On the Warner Brothers set of "Marriage on the Rocks", 1965
Frank Sinatra, The Golden Years
President Clinton Reacts To Frank Sinatra's Death
BIRMINGHAM, England (AllPolitics, May 15) -- The following is the text of a written statement by President Bill Clinton, in Europe for the Group of Eight summit, on the death of singer Frank Sinatra:
"Hillary and I were deeply saddened to hear of the death of a musical legend and an American icon, Frank Sinatra. Early in his long career, fans dubbed him 'The Voice.' And that was the first thing America noticed about Frank Sinatra: that miraculous voice, strong and subtle, wisecracking and wistful, streetwise but defiantly sweet. In time he became so much more. Sinatra was a spellbinding performer, on stage or on screen, in musicals, comedies and dramas. He built one of the world's most important record companies. He won countless awards, from the Grammy -- nine times -- to the Academy Award, to the Presidential Medal of Freedom . And he dedicated himself to humanitarian causes.
"When I became president, I had never met Frank Sinatra, although I was an enormous admirer of his. I had the opportunity after I became president to get to know him a little, to have dinner with him, to appreciate on a personal level what fans around the world, including me, appreciated from afar.
"Frank Sinatra will be missed profoundly by millions around the world. But his music and movies will ensure that 'Ol' Blue Eyes' is never forgotten. Today, I think every American would have to smile and say he really did do it his way.
"Hillary and I would like to offer our condolences to Frank's wife, Barbara, and to his children, Nancy, Frank Jr., and Tina. Our hearts are with them today."
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Medal History
