Frank Sinatra Francis Albert Sinatra was born December 12, 1915 in Hoboken, New Jersey. The only child of an immigrant family, Sinatra was raised Roman Catholic. A rebellious youngster, he spent only 47 days in high school before he was expelled for his conduct.

His father was Captain of the Hoboken Fire Department while his mother Dolly, a political activist, ran an illegal abortion clinic from her home. She was frequently arrested and was twice convicted for this. Nevertheless, she was able to spoil her son with costly apparel and money for hanging out with his friends.

In 1938, when Sinatra was 23, he was arrested for adultery, as he was cavorting with a married woman. At the time, it was still a criminal offense. For work, he was a riveter at a shipyard and a delivery boy for the Jersey Observer newspaper.

He had started singing for tips at age 8, and that remained his greatest interest. He began getting professional singing jobs in adolescence, but he surprisingly never learned to read music. In 1943, he was signed to Columbia Records and his career began in earnest.

He was topping the charts for the next few years, but hit a dry spell around 1950. But once he won the 1954 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the movie “From Here to Eternity,” his career picked back up.

He signed with Capitol Records and began producing album after album. In the meantime, he was also building a successful acting career in such films as “The Man with the Golden Arm,” “The Manchurian Candidate,” “Guys and Dolls,” and “From Here to Eternity.”

Sinatra’s awards include being honored at the Kennedy Center Honors in 1983, and receiving both a Congressional Gold Medal and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In addition to some Academy Awards, one special one for an anti-racism film, Sinatra was awarded 11 Grammy’s including the Grammy Legend Award and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.