During his film career, his detractors carped that Frank Sinatra hurried through his work, defying directors who requested more time for the scenes.
"He had something of a reputation for not taking his films seriously, for refusing rehearsals and not liking more than one or two takes," says Charles Champlin, longtime film critic for the Los Angeles Times, now retired."That is very misleading. Sinatra was a very good actor who knew how he worked best. He believed that with more rehearsals and more takes he would lose his spontaneity. He knew rightfully that he was at his best on the first take. He had a wonderful kind of naturalness. A remarkable actor."
Sinatra, who was born in Hoboken, N.J., celebrates his 80th birthday Tuesday. His 60-year career has been adorned with success in both music and film.
George Sidney, who directed Sinatra in his first hit, "Anchors Aweigh" (1945), and "Pal Joey" (1957) agrees:
"If he wanted one or two takes, what's wrong with that? Horowitz played an hour-and-a-half in concerts without going back and correcting a note or a passage he thought he could do better."
As with his personal life, Sinatra's half-century career in films was marked by controversy and discord. At times, he was king of the hill; at other times, he was on the skids. His battles with meticulous directors became legendary. He was known to walk off sets when additional takes were re-quested.
Sinatra's film career began modestly in the early 1940s, after he had risen to prominence as a singer with the Tommy Dorsey band. The early movies were forgettable musical melanges: "Las Vegas Nights," "Ship Ahoy," "Reveille With Beverly."
After the singer left Dorsey and become a bobby-sox idol on his own, RKO starred him in two modest musicals, "Higher and Higher" and "Step Lively." His film career didn't take off until MGM signed him to a contract and combined him with Gene Kelly and Kathryn Grayson in "Anchors Aweigh."
Sinatra thrived at MGM, then the Tiffany's of musicals. "It Happened in Brooklyn" (Grayson, Jimmy Durante) and two more pairings with Kelly, "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" and "On the Town" proved successful. His only stumble was "The Kissing Bandit," for which he was ridiculed years afterward.
The singer suffered a fall from grace in the early 1950s. His fans were disillusioned when he left his wife and three children to pursue a tempestuous affair with the late Ava Gardner. His throat hemorrhaged in 1952, reducing The Voice to rasping imitation.
After MGM dropped him, Sinatra made two lesser films, "Double Dynamite" (with Jane Russell and Groucho Marx) and "Meet Danny Wilson" (Shelley Winters). His agency, MCA, canceled his contract, and the film trade figured he was washed up.
They overlooked Sinatra's Italian tenacity.
After reading James Jones' "From Here to Eternity," Sinatra concluded that the role of Maggio, the well-liked soldier murdered by Fatso Judson, was tailor-made for him. Even though Harry Cohn had been a friend, the Columbia Pictures boss refused to cast a faded singer in the dramatic role.
"I'll pay you if you let me play the role," Sinatra pleaded.
Cohn was adamant. Eli Wallach was set for Maggio, then dropped out for a play. Only when Ava Gardner, who by then was Sinatra's wife (they were married from 1951 to 1957), made a personal plea did Cohn relent. He would pay only $1,000 a week for eight weeks, a fraction of Sinatra's earlier film salary. It was a blow to Sinatra's already bruised pride.
Maggio brought Sinatra the Academy Award for best supporting actor of 1953. He was back on top.
And he proved an amazingly versatile star. He showed his dramatic skills with "Suddenly," "The Man With the Golden Arm" (Academy Award nomination), "Some Came Running" and "The Manchurian Candidate." He continued with musicals: "Guys and Dolls," "High Society," "Pal Joey," "Can-Can." And comedies: "The Tender Trap," "A Hole in the Head," "Come Blow Your Horn."
He also proved adept at adventure - "The Pride and the Passion," "Never So Few," "Von Ryan's Express," "Assault on a Queen." And in later years, crime - "Lady in Cement," "Tony Rome," "The Detective."
"He was a natural personality," Sidney says. "No matter what he played, he was always Frank Sinatra, just as Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy were always them-selves.
"His secret was complete concentration on what he was doing. There were no heights he couldn't reach, not much he couldn't do if he put his mind to it."
Adds Champlin: "It shouldn't have been a surprise that he became a good actor. Singing is acting. How many times can you sing, `Try a Little Tenderness,' and still make it convincing?
"There were many things about Sinatra that created the air of debonair nonchalance. But that concealed a driven man. Everything he did, he took seriously."
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
From `Las Vegas Nights' to `Quincy Jones'
Frank Sinatra's films:
- "Las Vegas Nights" (1941)
- "Ship Ahoy" (1942)
- "Reveille With Beverly" (1943)
- "Higher and Higher" (1943)
- "Step Lively" (1944)
- "The House I Live In" (short) (1945)
- "Anchors Aweigh" (1945)
- "Till the Clouds Roll By" (cameo) (1946)
- "It Happened in Brooklyn" (1947)
- "The Miracle of the Bells" (1948)
- "The Kissing Bandit" (1948)
- "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" (1949)
- "On the Town" (1949)
- "Double Dynamite" (1951)
- "Meet Danny Wilson" (1952)
- "From Here to Eternity" (1953)
- "Suddenly" (1954)
- "Young at Heart" (1955)
- "Not as a Stranger" (1955)
- "Guys and Dolls" (1955)
- "The Tender Trap" (1955)
- "The Man With the Golden Arm" (1955)
- "Meet Me in Las Vegas" (cameo) (1956)
- "High Society" (1956)
- "Johnny Concho" (1956)
- "Around the World in Eighty Days" (cameo) (1956)
- "Pal Joey" (1957)
- "The Pride and the Passion" (1957)
- "The Joker Is Wild" (1957)
- "Kings Go Forth" (1958)
- "Invitation to Monte Carlo" (travelogue) (1959)
- "Some Came Running" (1959)
- "A Hole in the Head" (1959)
- "Never So Few" (1959)
- "Can-Can" (1960)
- "Ocean's Eleven" (1960)
- "Pepe" (cameo) (1960)
- "The Devil at 4 O'Clock" (1961)
- "Sergeants 3" (also produced) (1962)
- "The Road to Hong Kong" (cameo) (1962)
- "The Manchurian Candidate" (1962)
- "The List of Adrian Messenger" (cameo) (1963)
- "Come Blow Your Horn" (1963)
- "4 for Texas" (1963)
- "Robin and the Seven Hoods" (also produced) (1964)
- "None But the Brave" (also directed, produced) (1965)
- "Von Ryan's Express" (1965)
- "Marriage on the Rocks" (1965)
- "The Oscar" (cameo) (1966)
- "Cast a Giant Shadow" (cameo) (1966)
- "Assault on a Queen" (1966)
- "The Naked Runner" (1967)
- "Tony Rome" (1967)
- "The Detective" (1968)
- "Lady in Cement" (1968)
- "Dirty Dingus Magee" (1970)
- "That's Entertainment" (1974)
- "Contract on Cherry Street" (TV movie) (1977)
- "The First Deadly Sin" (1980)
- "Cannonball Run II" (cameo) (1984)
- "Listen Up: The Lives of Quincy Jones" (1990)