Living in Sinatra’s shadow

Frank Sinatra Jr. has never found it easy being his father’s son, said Nick Duerden in The Guardian (U.K.). As a child, he barely saw the legendary singer, who was always busy touring or filming. “He was a good father as much as it was in his power,” he says. And as an adolescent, Frank Jr. kept a low profile, finding the Sinatra name a heavy burden. That didn’t stop kidnappers from snatching him when he was 19 and holding him for ransom for four days. It was a frightening and frustrating ordeal. Frank Jr. had just launched his own musical career, and the kidnappers claimed the whole thing was a stunt staged by Frank Sr. to promote it. It wasn’t—they went to jail—but the rumor persisted. “That was the stigma put on me,” he says. Even so, he carried on performing, released the odd album, and toured the world. Presumably, his long career has been a fulfilling one? “Yes, but does it really constitute actual success?” he muses. “Over all these years, I have never had a hit movie, never had a hit television program, and never had a hit record. To my way of thinking, that means success has not been achieved. I have made no mark of my own creation.” That, he concludes calmly, “is something to be considered.”

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