Frank Sinatra – 1915-1998

Francis Albert Sinatra achieved his breakthrough fame in the 1940s, when he became the most popular singer in America and an idol to millions of teenage girl fans known as “bobby soxers.” His popularity was somewhat eclipsed in the 1950s by the emergence of rock and roll, but he emerged as a notable screen actor during this period. Toward the end of the decade, he was the nucleus of the Las Vegas “Rat Pack” (with Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, and Joey Bishop), which was considered the height of bon vivant sophistication. Sinatra’s artistic career was sometimes overshadowed by his very public personal life, which included ties to the Mafia, yet his enduring legacy is his body of recorded work, and many consider him the greatest American singer of 20th-century popular music.