From Hoboken to Hollywood, Frank Sinatra was always a larger-than-life package of talent, charisma, and controversy. Singers had been big before, but there had never been a sensation like the young Sinatra. He drove the women wild, then drove his career into the ground. He lived a life of monumental drama and intrigue: Was there truth to the mob rumors? (Some.) Were the suicide attempts over Ava Gardner real? (One of them was.) Did he really split with Jack Kennedy over something as small as a snub? (Sure he did.) And then: the ferocious comeback that secured his status as an icon of the highest order; one of the towering figures of the American century.
And then: the ferocious comeback that secured his status as an icon of the highest order-one of the towering figures of the American century. "Nobody's ever been a bigger star than me," Sinatra said as a young man. "This'll never end." Well, it has, finally, for him. But for those of us left behind, there is the incomparable music. And the movies. And now, thanks to these pictures and reminiscences from the editors of LIFE, vivid memories of the extraordinary life and times of Francis Albert Sinatra.
