Frank Sinatra Jr., son of famous crooner, dies

Frank Sinatra Jr., who carried on his famous father’s legacy with his own music, died unexpectedly of cardiac arrest on Wednesday while on his “Sinatra Sings Sinatra” tour in Daytona Beach, Fla., according to a family statement. He was 72.

Born Francis Wayne Sinatra in Jersey City, N.J., in 1944—the middle of three siblings—he watched his dad become one of the most famous singers of all time, sometimes from a distance while the elder Sinatra was away on tour or making movies, sometimes from the wings.

Sinatra Jr. said one of his favorite memories of his father was a show in the late 1960s at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

“He was sitting on a little stool, and he sang the Beatles song ‘Yesterday’ and ‘By the Time I Get to Phoenix’ and ‘Didn’t We,’” Sinatra Jr. said. “We were all crying and singing.”

The youngster’s teen years took a bizarre twist in 1963 when he was kidnapped from a Lake Tahoe hotel at gunpoint by three men, when he was 19. The plot was masterminded by a high school friend of Sinatra Jr.’s older sister, Nancy Sinatra (who sang “These Boots Were Made for Walking”). The kidnappers released Sinatra Jr. unharmed two days later, after his family paid a $240,000 ransom.

Undeterred, Sinatra Jr. followed his father into music, eventually working for the senior Sinatra as his musical director and conductor.

The elder Sinatra died of a heart attack May 14, 1998, at age 82. Sinatra Jr. provided a link to his father’s music after his death, performing his songs and arrangements on tour, especially in Las Vegas.

Sinatra Jr. didn’t mind that his songs may have passed their expiration date in recent decades.

“I was trying to sell antiques in a modern appliance store,” he recently told the Daytona Beach News-Journal, according to a CNN report.

Sinatra Jr. had nearly two dozen TV and movie credits as an actor, including appearances on The Love Boat and Marcus Welby, M.D., playing himself on The Sopranos, and most recently providing his voice for two episodes of Family Guy.

Last year, he performed the national anthem at Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees games in celebration of the centennial of his father’s birth.

After his death, Nancy Sinatra posted a note to her brother on her Facebook page: “Sleep warm, Frankie …”

Sinatra Jr. married in 1998 but divorced in 2000. He is survived by his sisters, Nancy and Tina, and a son, Michael.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.