Coordinates	35°27′″N139°38′″N
name	Otto Preminger
birth name	Otto Ludwig Preminger
birth date	December 05, 1905
birth place	Wiznitz, Austria–Hungary (present Ukraine)
death date	April 23, 1986
death place	New York City, New York, U.S.
occupation	Director, producer, actor
years active	1931–86
spouse	}}

Otto Ludwig Preminger (5 December 1905 23 April 1986) was an Austro–Hungarian-American theatre and film director.

After moving from the theatre to Hollywood, he directed over 35 feature films in a five-decade career. He rose to prominence for stylish film noir mysteries such as ''Laura'' (1944) and ''Fallen Angel'' (1945). In the 1950s and 1960s, he directed a number of high-profile adaptations of popular novels and stage works. Several of these pushed the boundaries of censorship by dealing with topics which were then taboo in Hollywood, such as drug addiction (''The Man with the Golden Arm'', 1955), rape (''Anatomy of a Murder'', 1959), and homosexuality (''Advise & Consent'', 1962). He was twice nominated for the Best Director Academy Award. He also had a few acting roles.

Early life

Preminger was born in 1905 in Wiznitz (Vyzhnytsia), a town west of Czernowitz, Northern Bukovyna, in today's Ukraine, then part of the Austro–Hungarian Empire, into the Jewish family of Markus and Josefa Preminger. Preminger's father was born in 1877 in Galicia, at a time when it was part of the Austro–Hungarian Empire. As an Attorney General of Austria–Hungary, Markus was a proud public prosecutor on the cusp of an extraordinary career defending the interests of the Emperor Franz Josef. The couple provided a stable home life for Preminger and his brother Ingo.

"My father believed that it was impossible to be too kind or loving to a child. He never punished me. I don't think my mother agreed completely with this method but she acted, as always, according to his wishes. I adored him. I had an affectionate relationship with my mother; she was a wonderful, warm-hearted woman, but she did not really play a large part in the formation of my character. Intellectually my father influenced me more than my mother."

After the assassination in 1914 of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the throne, which led to the Great War, Russia entered the war on the Serbian side, and tsarist armies began to invade Eastern Europe. Perilously close to Russia, Czernowitz was especially vulnerable. Like other refugees in flight, Markus Preminger saw Austria as a safe haven for his family. He was able to secure a job as a public prosecutor in Graz, capital of the Austrian province of Styria. Preminger prosecuted nationalist Serbs and Croats who had been imprisoned as suspected enemies of the Empire. When the Preminger family relocated, Otto was nearly nine, and was enrolled in a school where instruction in Catholic dogma was mandatory and Jewish history and religion had no place on the syllabus. Ingo, not yet four, remained at home. Otto was often teased by Catholic classmates and was told by his father to answer that he was Jewish when asked.

After a year in Graz, the decisive public prosecutor was summoned to Vienna, where he was offered an eminent position, roughly equivalent to that of the United States Attorney General. Markus was told that the position would be his only if he converted to Catholicism. In a gesture of defiance and self-assertion, Markus refused. He received the position anyway. In 1915, Markus relocated his family to Vienna, the city that Otto later claimed to have been born in. Although now working for the emperor, Markus was a government official, respectable, but not part of the highly-prized inner city. As a result, the family started their new lives with rather modest quarters. Vienna was still an imperial capital with an array of cultural offerings that tempted Otto, at ten already incurably stagestruck. Often accompanied by his maternal grandfather, Otto made regular visits, sometimes as many as three or four a week, to the Burgtheater on the Ringstrasse, where he saw a wide variety of both classical and contemporary plays.

Career

Theater

Preminger's first theatrical ambition was to become an actor. In his early teens, Otto was able to recite from memory many of the great monologues from the international classic repertory, and, never shy, he demanded an audience. Preminger's most successful performance in the National Library rotunda was Mark Antony's funeral oration from ''Julius Caesar''. As he read, watched, and after a fashion, began to produce plays, he started to miss more and more classes of school. Austria's failing fortunes during the war had no impact on the Premingers. Markus moved his family to a more fashionable district in 1916. Throughout the war years, Otto, now often with his younger brother, continued to go to the theater and concerts, museums, and the National Library, while his attendance in school remained irregular.

As the war came to an end, Markus formed his own law practice. Markus instilled in both his sons a sense of fair play as well as respect for those with opposing view-points, and rather than becoming reactionary conservatives, as their privileged upbringing might seem to be foreordained, Otto and Ingo became lifelong liberal Democrats. As his father's practice continued to thrive in post-war Vienna, Otto began seriously contemplating a career in the theater. At the age of 16, he won the role of Lysander in a production of ''A Midsummer Night's Dream''.

In 1923, when Preminger was seventeen, his soon-to-be mentor, Max Reinhardt, a Viennese-born director who had established his base of operation in Berlin, announced plans to establish a theatrical company in Vienna in a rundown 135-year old theater. Reinhardt's announcement was seen as a call of destiny to Preminger. He began writing to Reinhardt weekly, requesting an audition. After a few months, Preminger, frustrated, gave up, and stopped his daily visit to the post office to check for a response. Unbeknownst to him, a letter was waiting with a date for an audition Preminger had already missed by two days. Feigning illness, Preminger skipped classes and began to hover near the stage door hoping to encounter Reinhardt associate Dr. Stefan Hock, begging for another audition. The day finally came when Hock took Preminger directly inside to Reinhardt and his associates. Preminger was immediately accepted.

Preminger explained to his father that a career in theater was not just a ploy to excuse himself from school. This was a way of life, and it was the only one he wanted. In order to obtain his father's full blessing, Preminger finished school and completed the study of law at the University of Vienna. He juggled a commitment to the University and his new position as a Reinhardt apprentice. The two developed a mentor-and-protege relationship, becoming both a confidant and teacher. When the theater opened, on April 1, 1924, Preminger appeared as a furniture mover in Reinhardt's comedia staging of Carlo Goldoni's ''The Servant of Two Masters''. His next, and more substantial appearance came late in the next month with William Dieterle (who would also later move to Hollywood) in ''The Merchant of Venice''. Other notable ''alumni'' who Preminger would work with the same year were Mady Christians, who committed suicide after having been blacklisted during the McCarthy era in Hollywood, and Nora Gregor, who was to star in Jean Renoir's ''La Règle du jeu'' (1939).

Reinhardt may have had reservations about Preminger's acting but he quickly detected the young man's abilities as an administrator. He appointed Preminger as an assistant in the Reinhardt acting school that opened in the theater at Schönbrunn, the former summer palace of the emperor. The following summer, a frustrated Preminger was no longer content to occupy the place of a subordinate and he decided to leave the Reinhardt fold. His status as a Reinhardt muse gave him an edge over much of his competition when it came to joining German-speaking theater. Preminger hopped from theater to theater and decided to call it quits with acting, and focus on directing, partly because of hair loss.

His first theater assignments as a director in Aussig were plays ranging from the sexually provocative ''Lulu'', and from Berlin he imported ''Roar China'', a pro-Communist agitprop. Preminger displayed pleasure in discovering new talent, but also created pitfalls with his unruly temper and disdain for directorial collaborations. In 1930, a wealthy industrialist from Graz approached the rising young theater director with an offer to direct a film called ''Die Grosse Liebe'' (''The Great Lover'').

Preminger did not have the same passion for the medium as he had for theater. He accepted the assignment nonetheless. The film premiered at the Emperor Theater in Vienna on 21 December 1931, to strong reviews and business. From 1931-1935, Preminger directed twenty-six shows. Among the performers he hired were Lili Darvas, Lilia Skala, Harry Horner, Oskar Karlweis, Albert Bassermann, and Luise Rainer, who was to win back-to-back Academy Awards in 1936 and 1937.

It was not until the spring of 1931 that Preminger's carefree bachelor lifestyle was threatened when he met a Hungarian woman named Marion Mill. The couple married soon afterwards in the summer of 1932 in a plain ceremony on the bride's birthday, August 3, only thirty minutes after her divorce from her first husband had been finalized. The couple moved into an apartment of their own. Preminger immediately informed his wife that she could not pursue a theatrical career.

Hollywood

In April 1935, as Preminger was rehearsing a boulevard farce, ''The King with an Umbrella'', he received a summons from American film producer Joseph Schenck to a five o'clock meeting at the Imperial Hotel. In 1924 Schenck had become the president of United Artists, and in 1934 had founded a new company called Twentieth Century. Two years later (only several months before his meeting with Preminger), Schenck had taken over William Fox's ailing studio and with a partner, Darryl F. Zanuck, had set up a new entity, Twentieth Century-Fox. At the new studio, Zanuck handled all film production while Schneck managed the finances. The duo, now in competition with already well-established studios such as Paramount and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, were on the lookout for new talent. Within a half-hour of meeting Schenck, Preminger accepted an invitation to come to work for Fox in Los Angeles.

Sam Spiegel, later himself a film producer, accompanied Preminger from Vienna to Paris by train. From Paris, Preminger on his own took another train to Le Havre, where he joined up with Gilbert Miller and his wife, Kitty Miller, who sailed with him to New York on the ''Normandie''. The ''Normandie'' arrived in New York on October 21, 1935. Upon the Premingers' arrival in Hollywood, Schenck introduced the couple to Fox's array of movie royalty, including Irving Thalberg, Norma Shearer, Gary Cooper, Joan Crawford and Greta Garbo.

Preminger's first assignment was to direct a vehicle for Lawrence Tibbett, a renowned opera singer Zanuck wanted to get rid of. Tibbett had achieved mild success for MGM in musicals throughout the early 1930s and then returned to the stage. Zanuck later lured Tibbett back to films with a generous contract. Preminger worked efficiently, completing the film well within the budget and well before the scheduled shooting deadline. The film opened to tepid notices in November 1936. Preminger, proving to Zanuck's satisfaction that he was not a typical rebellious European hotshot, graduated.

Zanuck promoted him to the A-list, assigning him a story called ''Nancy Steele Is Missing'', which was to star Wallace Beery, who had recently won an Academy Award for ''The Champ''. Beery, however, refused to do the film, saying, "I won't do a picture with a director whose name I can't pronounce". Zanuck instead gave Preminger the task of directing another B-picture comedy called ''Danger - Love at Work''. French starlet Simone Simon was cast in the lead but was later fired by Zanuck and replaced with Ann Sothern. The premise told the story of a lawyer who must persuade eight members of an eccentric rich family to hand over land left them by their grandfather to a corporation for development. Reviews of the disposable farce, released in September 1937, were surprisingly pleasant.

In November 1937, Zanuck's perennial emissary Gregory Ratoff brought Preminger the news that Zanuck had chosen him to direct ''Kidnapped'', the most expensive feature to date for the studio. Zanuck himself had adapted the Robert Louis Stevenson novel, set in the Scottish Highlands. After reading Zanuck's script, Preminger knew he was in trouble; a foreign director directing in a foreign setting? During the shooting of ''Kidnapped'' Preminger had the first of his notorious tantrums. While screening footage of the film to Zanuck, the studio head accused Preminger of making changes in a scene between child actor Freddie Bartholomew and a dog. Preminger, composed at first, explained he had shot the scene exactly as written. Zanuck insisted he knew his own script, and disagreed. The confrontation escalated quickly and ended with Preminger exiting the office and slamming the door. Days later the lock to Preminger's office was changed and his name was removed from the door. After his parking space was relocated to a remote spot, Preminger stopped going to the studio. At that point, an official of Zanuck's offered Preminger a buyout deal which he rejected: Preminger wanted to be paid for the remaining eleven months of his two-year contract. Preminger searched for work at other studios, but received no offers. Only two years after his arrival in Hollywood, Preminger was unemployed. He focused on the stage with great success. Success came quickly on Broadway for Preminger, with long-running productions including ''Outward Bound'' with Laurette Taylor and Vincent Price, ''My Dear Children'' with John and Elaine Barrymore and ''Margin for Error'', in which Preminger played a shiny-domed villainous Nazi.

A week after the opening of ''Margin'', Preminger was offered a teaching position at the Yale School of Drama. He began commuting twice a week to Yale to lecture on directing and acting. Nunnally Johnson, a Hollywood writer impressed with Preminger's performance in ''Margin'', called to ask if he would be interested in playing another Nazi in a film called ''The Pied Piper''. In need of money, Preminger accepted on the spot. The film was to be made for Twentieth Century-Fox, the studio which had banished him. Even in the absence of Zanuck, who joined the Army after Pearl Harbor, Preminger did not expect to remain in Hollywood. After collecting a sizable salary for his work, Preminger was preparing to return to New York when his agent informed him that Fox wanted him to reprise his role in the upcoming film adaptation of ''Margin for Error''. Famed director Ernst Lubitsch was set to direct and Preminger was to appear onscreen with Joan Bennett and Milton Berle. Lubitsch withdrew not long after production began and Preminger saw his chance to gain back what he had lost in his falling-out with Zanuck, a chance to direct again. William Goetz, who was running Fox in Zanuck's absence, was persuaded by Preminger and took the bait.

With the script of ''Margin'' in shambles, Preminger hired a movie novice named Samuel Fuller, who was on leave from the Army, to rework the entire script. Goetz was soon impressed with his views of the dailies each night and offered Preminger a new seven-year contract calling on his services as both a director and actor. Preminger took full measure of the temporary studio czar and accepted. Preminger completed production on schedule with a slightly increased budget in November 1942. Critics were dismissive upon the film's release the following February, noting the bad timing of the release, coinciding with the war.

Before his next assignment with Fox, Preminger was asked by movie mogul Samuel Goldwyn to appear as a Nazi yet again, this time in a Bob Hope comedy called ''They Got Me Covered''. Preminger hoped to find possible properties he could develop before Zanuck's return, one of which was Vera Caspary's suspense novel ''Laura''. Before production would begin on ''Laura'', Preminger was given the green light to direct and to produce ''Army Wives''. ''Army Wives'' was another B-picture morale booster for a country at war, showing the sacrifices made by women as they send their husbands off to the frontlines. Cast in the lead was Jeanne Crain, a contract star for Fox who was being groomed for the A-list. Veteran character actor Eugene Pallette played Crain's father. Preminger clashed with Pallette and claimed he was ''"an admirer of Hitler and convinced that Germany would win the war"''. Pallete also refused to sit down at the same table with a black actor in a scene set in a kitchen. "You're out of your mind, I won't sit next to a nigger", Pallette hissed at Preminger. Otto furiously informed Zanuck, who fired the actor, whose scenes had already been shot. ''Army Wives'' was given a new title, ''In the Meantime, Darling'', and opened in September 1944, with an estimated budget of $450,000. Aside from the incident with Pallette, no other complications arose during the filming; the hurdles would instead come soon after during the shooting of ''Laura''.

''Laura''

Zanuck returned from the armed services with his grudge against Preminger intact. Although he had been forgiven by Zanuck, Preminger was not granted permission to direct ''Laura'', but only allowed to produce the picture. Instead, Rouben Mamoulian would direct. Mamoulian began ignoring his producer and even started to rewrite the script. Although Preminger had no complaints about the casting of Gene Tierney and Dana Andrews, he balked at their choice for Waldo: Laird Cregar. Preminger explained to Zanuck that audiences would immediately identify with Cregar as a villain, especially after Cregar's role as Jack the Ripper a year earlier in ''The Lodger''. Preminger instead was ideally taken by stage actor Clifton Webb. Even after Zanuck made crude remarks about Webb's homosexuality, Preminger persuaded his boss to at least give Webb a screen test. The persuasion paid off and Webb was cast (and earned a long-term Fox contract), and Mamoulian was fired for creative differences.

''Laura'' started filming on April 27, 1944, with a projected budget of $849,000. After Preminger took over, the film continued shooting well into late June. The film was an instant hit with audiences and critics alike, earning Preminger his first Academy Award nomination for direction, Clifton Webb a Best Supporting Actor nomination and Lyle Wheeler an art direction nomination. Joseph La Shelle won the Academy Award for his cinematography. The film propelled its two relatively unknown young actors Gene Tierney and Dana Andrews to the top of the Hollywood box office. David Raksin's haunting theme song would become one of the most memorable in Hollywood history. Laura's theme is one of the most recorded songs, with over four hundred known renditions from Frank Sinatra to Carly Simon.

Peak years

Preminger expected that acclaim for ''Laura'' would promote him to work on better pictures, but his professional fate was in the hands of Darryl Zanuck, who had Preminger take over for the ailing Ernst Lubitsch, who had recently suffered a heart attack, on ''A Royal Scandal'', a remake of Lubitsch's own 1924 silent ''Forbidden Paradise'', starring Pola Negri as Catherine the Great. Before his heart attack, Lubitsch had spent months in preparation, and had already cast the film. Preminger, who had known Tallulah Bankhead before the start of the Nazi invasion into Austria, got along well with her. The film received lackluster reviews and failed to earn back any gross revenue. Bankhead would appear in only one more film, two decades later.

''Fallen Angel'' (1945) was exactly what Preminger had been anticipating. In ''Fallen Angel'', a con man and womanizer ends up by chance in a small California town, where he romances a sultry waitress and a well-to-do spinster. When the waitress is found killed, the drifter, played by Dana Andrews, becomes the prime suspect. Zanuck gave Preminger the task of convincing Alice Faye, the studio's top musical star of the late 1930s and early 1940s, to play the role of the spinster. Zanuck hoped Faye's appearance would boost the film's box-office appeal and introduce Faye back into the public eye. Linda Darnell was given the role of the doomed waitress.

''Centennial Summer'', Preminger's next film, would be his first to be shot entirely in color. Hoping to duplicate the success of MGM's 1944 musical ''Meet Me in St. Louis'', Zanuck enlisted both Preminger and composer Jerome Kern. The musical detailed two sisters in an idealized all-American working-class family, who become rivals over the same man. The cast included Darnell and Jeanne Crain as the dueling sisters, Cornel Wilde as the object of their affections, and veteran stars Walter Brennan, Constance Bennett, and Dorothy Gish in supporting roles. The reviews and box office draw were tepid when the film was released in July 1946, but by the end of that year Preminger had one of the most sumptuous contracts on the lot, earning $7,500 a week.

''Forever Amber'', based on Kathleen Winsor's internationally popular novel published in 1944, was Zanuck's next investment in adaptation. Preminger had read the book and disliked it immensely. Preminger had another best seller aimed at a female audience in mind, ''Daisy Kenyon''. Zanuck pledged that if Preminger did ''Forever Amber'' first, he could go to town with ''Daisy Kenyon'' afterwards. ''Forever Amber'' had already been shooting for nearly six weeks when Preminger replaced director John Stahl. Zanuck had already spent nearly two million dollars on the production. First, Preminger decided the script needed to be completely rewritten, and that Peggy Cummins, the film's leading lady, would have to be replaced, because he regarded her to be "amateurish beyond belief". Only after turning to his revised script did Preminger learn that Zanuck had already cast Linda Darnell in place of Cummins. The heroine in the novel was blonde, and Preminger was convinced it was necessary to cast a true blonde, Lana Turner, who was under contract to MGM. Zanuck protested, and was convinced that whoever played Amber would become a big star, and wanted that woman to be one of the studio's own. Zanuck had bought the book because he believed its scandalous reputation promised big box-office returns, and was not surprised when the Catholic Legion of Decency condemned the film for glamorizing a promiscuous heroine who has a child out of wedlock. ''Forever Amber'' opened to big business in October 1947, and garnered decent reviews. Preminger later recalled that ''Forever Amber'' was ''"by far the most expensive picture I ever made and it was also the worst"''.

Throughout the five-month shoot on ''Forever Amber'' Preminger maintained a busy schedule, working regularly with writers on scripts for two upcoming projects, ''Daisy Kenyon'' and ''The Dark Wood''. Preminger was finally relieved to be working on ''Daisy Kenyon''. Joan Crawford stars in the title role as a magazine illustrator facing a romantic conflict: Will she choose a prominent, married lawyer or an unmarried neurotic veteran? Crawford was enthusiastic about the role, coming only two years after she had won an Academy Award for ''Mildred Pierce''. Dana Andrews is the unfaithful lawyer whose unloved wife, played by Ruth Warrick, takes her anger out on her daughters and beats them hysterically. Henry Fonda is a grieving widower and war vet plagued by nightmares. ''Variety'' magazine proclaimed, the film is ''"high powered melodrama surefire for the femme market"''.

After the modest success of ''Daisy Kenyon'' (1947), Preminger, an avid careerist, saw ''That Lady in Ermine'' as a further opportunity. Betty Grable was cast as a countess who saves her small mythical country when she seduces the Hungarian colonel in charge of the occupation, played by Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. The film had previously been another Lubitsch project, but after his sudden death in November 1947, Preminger took over direction. When the film opened to modest business in July 1948, it received better notices than it deserved as reviewers scrambled to discern traces of Lubitsch's hand. Preminger's next film would be another period piece based on a literary classic, an adaptation of Oscar Wilde's 1897 play ''Lady Windermere's Fan''. Over the spring and early summer of 1948 Otto renovated Wilde's play into ''The Fan''. Madeleine Carroll plays Mrs. Erlynne, who tries to save her married daughter Lady Windermere (Jeanne Crain) from ruining her reputation. As Preminger fully expected, ''The Fan'' (1949) opened to poor notices.

Later career

Starting in the 1950s, Preminger's reputation rose to the point that he was commissioned to direct a number of prestigious projects with A-list casts and based on successful novels or stage works. Some of his most significant films of this period include:

''The Moon is Blue'' (1953): controversially bucked the Legion of Decency's moral standards

''Carmen Jones'' (1954): A reworking of the opera ''Carmen'' in an African-American setting

''The Man with the Golden Arm'' (1955): Based on the novel by Nelson Algren, one of the first Hollywood films to deal with heroin addiction

''Porgy and Bess'' (1959): A Hollywoodization of the Gershwin opera

''Anatomy of a Murder'' (1959): Critically acclaimed, quite explicit courtroom drama about murder-rape. Nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award

''Exodus'' (1960): Filming of the Leon Uris bestseller set around the founding of the state of Israel

''Advise and Consent'' (1962): a political drama from the Allen Drury bestseller with a homosexual subtheme

''The Cardinal'' (1963): A drama set in the Vatican hierarchy which earned Preminger his second Best Director Academy Award nomination

''Bunny Lake is Missing'' (1965): A naturalistic return to the mystery/thriller genre, set in England.

Several of these films broke new ground for Hollywood in tackling controversial and taboo topics, thereby challenging both the Motion Picture Association of America's Production Code of censorship and the Hollywood blacklist. ''Forever Amber'' (1947) was condemned by the Catholic Legion of Decency, which successfully lobbied 20th Century Fox to make changes to the film. The League also condemned the 1953 comedy ''The Moon is Blue'', based on a Broadway play which did not inspire mass protests, for its use of the words "virgin" and "pregnant", and the film was notably released without the Production Code Seal of Approval. ''The Man with the Golden Arm'' (1955) broke new ground with its exploration of the then taboo subject of heroin addiction, as did ''Anatomy of a Murder'' with its frank courtroom discussions of rape and sexual intercourse — the censors objected to the use of words such as "rape", "sperm", "sexual climax" and "penetration". Preminger made but one concession (substituting "violation" for "penetration") and the picture was released ''with'' the MPAA seal, marking the beginning of the end of the Production Code. On ''Exodus'' (1960) Preminger struck the first major blow against the Hollywood blacklist by openly hiring banned screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, who was credited under his own name for the first time in a decade.

From the mid-1950s, most of Preminger's films utilized distinctive animated titles designed by Saul Bass, and many had modern jazz scores. At the New York City Opera, in October 1953, Preminger directed the American premiere (in English translation) of Gottfried von Einem's ''Der Prozeß'' (The Trial), based on a work by Franz Kafka. Soprano Phyllis Curtin headed the cast.

Preminger also acted in a few movies; his most memorable role is that of the warden of a German POW camp in ''Stalag 17''. In the 1960s ''Batman'' television series, Preminger was the second of three actors who played Mr. Freeze, in the two-parter "Green Ice/Deep Freeze." Adam West, who portrayed Batman, remembers Preminger as rude and unpleasant, especially when he disregarded the typical thespian etiquette of subtly cooperating when being helped to his feet in a scene by West and Burt Ward. This feeling was echoed by Laurence Olivier, who played a police inspector in ''Bunny Lake is Missing'' (1965). In his autobiography ''Confessions of an Actor'' Olivier recalled Preminger as "a bully", as did "Bunny" castmember Noel Coward. Ingo Preminger, who produced the 1970 ''M*A*S*H'' movie, was Otto Preminger's younger brother.

Beginning in 1965, Preminger made a string of films in which he attempted to make stories that were fresh and distinctive, but the films he made, including ''In Harm's Way'' (1965) and ''Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon'' (1970), became both critical and financial bombs. In 1967, Preminger released ''Hurry Sundown'', a lengthy drama set in the U.S. South and partially intended to break cinematic racial and sexual taboos. However, the film was poorly received and ridiculed for a heavy-handed approach, and for the casting of Michael Caine as a Southern patriarch. ''Hurry Sundown'' signaled a rather precipitous decline in Preminger's reputation, as it was followed by several other films which were critical and commercial failures, including ''Skidoo'' (1968), a failed attempt at a hip sixties comedy (and Groucho Marx's last film), and ''Rosebud'' (1975), a terrorism thriller which was also widely ridiculed. Several publicized disputes with leading actors did further damage to Preminger's reputation. His last film, an adaptation of the Graham Greene espionage novel ''The Human Factor'' (1979), had financial problems and was barely released.

Personal life

As they continued living together, Preminger and his wife Marion became more and more estranged. It was an open secret that the two had an arrangement, whereby as long as he promised not to seek a divorce, Preminger was free to see other women. In effect, he lived like a bachelor, as was the case when he met burlesque performer Gypsy Rose Lee and began an open relationship with her. Lee had already attempted to break into movie roles, but she was not taken seriously as anything more than a stripper. She appeared in B pictures in less-than-minor roles. Preminger's liaison with Lee produced a child, Erik. Lee rejected the idea of Preminger helping to support the child, and instead elicited a vow of silence from Preminger: he was not to reveal Erik's paternity to anyone, including Erik himself. Lee called the boy Erik Kirkland, after her separated husband, Alexander Kirkland. It was not until 1966, when Preminger was 60 years old and Erik was 22 years old, that they were to meet finally as father and son.

Although Preminger and Marion had been estranged for years, he was surprised when in May 1946 she asked for a divorce. On a trip to Mexico she had met a very wealthy (and married) Swedish financier, Axel Wennergren. The Premingers' divorce ended smoothly and speedily. Marion did not seek any alimony, just a few personal belongings that would be picked up in a few days by her fiancé's private plane. Mrs. Wennergren, madly jealous of her rival, began to stalk Marion and was not willing to grant a divorce. Marion even went as far as to claim that Mrs. Wennergreen attempted to shoot her at a post office in Mexico. Marion returned to the Preminger home feeling embarrassed and shamed. She resumed her appearances as Preminger's wife, and nothing more. Preminger was enjoying his escapades as a freewheeling man-about-town and had begun dating Natalie Draper, a niece of Marion Davies.

While filming ''Carmen Jones'' (1954), Preminger began an affair with the film's star, Dorothy Dandridge, which lasted four years. During that period, Preminger advised her on career matters, including an offer made to Dandridge for the featured role of Tuptim in the 1956 film of ''The King and I''. Preminger advised her to turn down the supporting role, as he believed it to be unworthy of her. Dandridge later regretted accepting Preminger's advice. She ended the affair with Preminger upon realization that he had no plans to leave his first wife to marry her. Their affair was depicted in the HBO Pictures biopic, ''Introducing Dorothy Dandridge'', in which Preminger was portrayed by Austrian actor Klaus Maria Brandauer.

Death

Otto Preminger died in New York City in 1986, aged 80, from cancer after suffering from Alzheimer's disease. He was cremated and is interred in a niche in the Azalea Room of the Velma B. Woolworth Memorial Chapel at Woodlawn Cemetery, The Bronx, New York.

Filmography

''Die große Liebe'' (1931)

''Under Your Spell'' (1936)

''Danger - Love at Work'' (1937)

''Kidnapped'' (1938)

''Clare Boothe Luce's Margin for Error'' (U.S.) also known as ''Margin for Error'' (UK) (1943)

''In the Meantime, Darling'' (1944)

''Laura'' (1944)

''A Royal Scandal'' (U.S.) also known as ''Czarina'' (UK) (1945)

''Fallen Angel'' (1945)

''Centennial Summer'' (1946)

''Forever Amber'' (1947)

''Daisy Kenyon'' (1947)

''The Fan'' (U.S.) also known as ''Lady Windermere's Fan'' (UK) (1949)

''Whirlpool'' (1949)

''Where the Sidewalk Ends'' (1950)

''The 13th Letter'' (1951)

''Angel Face'' (1952)

''Stalag 17'' (1953) (acting only, directed by Billy Wilder)

''The Moon Is Blue'' (1953)

''Carmen Jones'' (1954)

''River of No Return'' (1954)

''The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell'' (U.S.) also known as ''One Man Mutiny'' (UK) (1955)

''The Man with the Golden Arm'' (1956)

''Saint Joan'' (1957)

''Bonjour Tristesse'' (1958)

''Porgy and Bess'' (1959)

''Anatomy of a Murder'' (1959)

''Exodus'' (1960)

''Advise and Consent'' (1962)

''The Cardinal'' (1963)

''In Harm's Way'' (1965)

''Bunny Lake Is Missing'' (1965)

''Hurry Sundown'' (1967)

''Skidoo'' (1968)

''Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon'' (1970)

''Such Good Friends'' (1971)

''Rosebud'' (1975)

''The Hobbit'' (1977) (actor only)

''The Human Factor'' (1979)

Awards

Preminger's ''Anatomy of a Murder'' was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture. He was twice nominated for Best Director: for ''Laura'' and for ''The Cardinal''. He won the Silver Bear for Best Director at the 5th Berlin International Film Festival and the Bronze Berlin Bear award for the film ''Carmen Jones''.

Notes

References

Hirsch, Foster. ''Otto Preminger: The Man Who Would Be King'' (2007)

Fujiwara, Chris. ''The World and Its Double: The Life and Work of Otto Preminger'' (2008)

Denby, David. "Balance of Terror—How Otto Preminger Made His Movies", ''The New Yorker'', January 14, 2008.

Rich, Nathaniel. "The Deceptive Director", ''The New York Review of Books'', November 6, 2008.

External links

Cinema Retro: Keir Dullea Recalls Starring in Preminger's ''Bunny Lake is Missing''

Literature on Otto Preminger

Category:1905 births Category:1986 deaths Category:People from Vyzhnytsia Category:Ukrainian Jews Category:American people of Austrian-Jewish descent Category:American film actors Category:American film directors Category:Austrian emigrants to the United States Category:Austrian television actors Category:Burials at Woodlawn Cemetery (The Bronx) Category:Bukovina Jews Category:Cancer deaths in New York Category:Deaths from Alzheimer's disease Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States Category:People from Manhattan Category:Silver Bear for Best Director recipients

bn:অটো প্রেমিঙার ca:Otto Preminger da:Otto Preminger de:Otto Preminger es:Otto Preminger eu:Otto Preminger fa:اتو پرمینجر fr:Otto Preminger gl:Otto Preminger hr:Otto Preminger id:Otto Preminger it:Otto Preminger he:אוטו פרמינגר la:Otto Preminger nl:Otto Preminger ja:オットー・プレミンジャー no:Otto Preminger pl:Otto Preminger pt:Otto Preminger ru:Премингер, Отто fi:Otto Preminger sv:Otto Preminger tr:Otto Preminger

Coordinates	35°27′″N139°38′″N
name	Jean Seberg
birth name	Jean Dorothy Seberg
birth date	November 13, 1938
birth place	Marshalltown, Iowa, U.S.
death date	August 30, 1979
death place	Paris, France
spouse	François Moreuil (1958-60)Romain Gary (1962-70; 1 child)Dennis Charles Berry (1972-1979; separated; her death)
partner	Ahmed Hasni (1978-79)
years active	1957–79
occupation	Actress }}

Jean Dorothy Seberg (November 13, 1938August 30, 1979) was an American actress. She starred in 37 films in Hollywood and in France, including ''Breathless'' (1960), the musical ''Paint Your Wagon'' (1969) and the disaster film ''Airport'' (1970).

Early life

Jean Seberg was born in Marshalltown, Iowa, the daughter of Dorothy Arline (née Benson), a substitute teacher, and Edward Waldemar Seberg, a druggist. Her family was Lutheran and of Swedish, English, and German ancestry. Seberg studied at the University of Iowa.

Career

Seberg made her film debut in 1957 in the title role of ''Saint Joan'', from the Shaw play, after being chosen from 18,000 hopefuls by director Otto Preminger in a $150,000 talent search. Her name was entered by a neighbor. By the time she was cast, on October 21, 1956, her only acting experience had been a single season of summer stock performances. The film was paired with a great deal of publicity about which Seberg commented that she was "embarrassed by all the attention". Despite a big build-up, called in the press a "''Pygmalion'' experiment", both the film and Seberg received poor notices. On the failure, she later told the press: :"I have two memories of ''Saint Joan''. The first was being burned at the stake in the picture. The second was being burned at the stake by the critics. The latter hurt more. I was scared like a rabbit and it showed on the screen. It was not a good experience at all. I started where most actresses end up."

Preminger, though, had promised her a second chance, and he cast Seberg in his next film ''Bonjour Tristesse'' the following year, which was filmed in France. Regarding his decision, Preminger told the press: "It's quite true that, if I had chosen Audrey Hepburn instead of Jean Seberg, it would have been less of a risk, but I prefer to take the risk. [..] I have faith in her. Sure, she still has things to learn about acting, but so did Kim Novak when she started." Seberg again received atrocious reviews and the film nearly ended her career. Her next role was in the 1959 comedy, ''The Mouse That Roared'', starring Peter Sellers.

Deciding she had no luck in English-language films, Seberg moved to France, where she scored success as the free-love heroine of French New Wave films. Most notably, she appeared as Patricia in Jean-Luc Godard's ''Breathless'' (original French title: ''À bout de souffle''), in which she co-starred with Jean-Paul Belmondo. The film became an international success and critics praised Seberg's performance, François Truffaut even hailing her "the best actress in Europe." Despite her achievements in this genre, Seberg did not identify with her characters or the film plots, saying that she was "making films in France about people [she's] not really interested in." The critics did not agree with Seberg's absence of enthusiasm, and raved about her performances, inspiring Hollywood and Broadway to make her important offers.

In 1961, Seberg took on the lead role in her then husband François Moreuil's debut film, ''La recréation''. By that time, Seberg had been estranged from Moreuil, and she recollected that production was "pure hell" and that he "would scream at [her]." After moving back to the United States, she starred opposite Warren Beatty in ''Lilith'' (1964), which prompted the critics to acknowledge Seberg as a serious actress.

In 1969, she appeared in her first and only musical film, ''Paint Your Wagon'', based on Lerner and Loewe's stage musical, and co-starring Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood, but her singing voice was dubbed by Anita Gordon. Seberg also starred in the disaster film ''Airport'' (1970) opposite Burt Lancaster and Dean Martin.

At the peak of her career, Seberg suddenly stopped acting in Hollywood films. Reportedly, she was not pleased with the roles she had been offered, some of which, she noted, bordered on pornography. Conversely, she was not offered any great Hollywood roles, regardless of their size. Some have said she was blacklisted due to an infamous FBI smear campaign revolving around issues in her personal life. Others have dismissed that any blacklist occurred. Seberg was willing to work in a Paramount production whose screenplay she had been sent but the film was never made.

Seberg was François Truffaut's first choice for the central role of Julie in ''Day for Night'' but, after several fruitless attempts to contact her, Truffaut gave up and cast British actress Jacqueline Bisset instead. Her state of mind may have been responsible for this missed opportunity in 1973. Her last US film appearance was in the TV movie ''Mousey'' (1974). Seberg remained busy during the 1970s, but only in European films.

Seberg later appeared in ''Bianchi cavalli d'Agosto'' (White Horses of Summer) (1975), ''Le Grand Délire (Die Große Ekstase)'' (1975, with husband Dennis Berry) and ''Die Wildente'' (1976, based on Ibsen's ''The Wild Duck'').

Personal life

Seberg married François Moreuil, a French movie director who directed her in ''La récréation'', in 1958; they divorced in 1960. According to Seberg, the marriage was a "violent" one, and she complained that she "got married for all the wrong reasons." On living in France for a period of time, Seberg said in an interview: :"I'm enjoying it to the fullest extent. I've been tremendously lucky to have gone through this experience at an age where I can still learn. That doesn't mean that I will stay here. I'm in Paris because my work has been here. I'm not an expatriate. I will go where the work is. The French life has its drawbacks. One of them is the formality. The system seems to be based on saving the maximum of yourself for those nearest you. Perhaps that is better than the other extreme in Hollywood, where people give so much of themselves in public life that they have nothing left over for their families. Still, it is hard for an American to get used to. Often I will get excited over a luncheon table only to have the hostess say discreetly that coffee will be served in the other room. [..] I miss that casualness and friendliness of Americans, the kind that makes people smile. I also miss blue jeans, milk shakes, thick steaks and supermarkets."

In 1962, she married French novelist and diplomat Romain Gary, who was 24 years her senior. Their only child together, a son, was named Diego. During her marriage to Gary, Seberg lived in Paris, Greece, Southern France and Majorca, but remained an American citizen throughout.

During the late 1960s, Seberg used her high-profile image to privately voice support for the NAACP and supported Native American school groups such as the Mesquaki Bucks at the Tama settlement near her home town of Marshalltown, for whom she purchased $500 worth of basketball uniforms. She also supported the Black Panther Party.

After Richard Nixon's resignation from the presidency, the United States Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, a U.S. Senate committee chaired by Senator Frank Church (D-ID) and usually referred to as the Church Committee, revealed that the FBI used illegally obtained information about Jean Seberg to concoct an article it planted in Newsweek magazine that defamed the actress, who was then seven months pregnant with her second child.

The FBI's goal was to "cause her embarrassment and serve to cheapen her image with the public".

Accordingly to some authors and researchers, the FBI's actions against Jean Seberg resulted in her suicide. Her death led fifteen months later to the suicide of her husband Romain Gary.

The story planted by the FBI in the ''Newsweek'' magazine was related to allegations that Seberg had an affair with Clint Eastwood while filming ''Paint Your Wagon''. and that in 1970, Seberg had an affair with a college student named Carlos Navarra, which resulted in the pregnancy of her daughter. It was when she was seven months pregnant that the FBI created the false story that the child she was carrying was not fathered by her husband Romain Gary, but by a member of the Black Panther Party, Raymond Hewitt. The story was also reported by gossip columnist Joyce Haber of the ''Los Angeles Times'', and ''Newsweek'' magazine. During her pregnancy, Seberg claimed that her husband Gary was the father. She gave birth to a girl named Nina on August 23, 1970 in Geneva, but the infant died two days later. She held an open casket funeral in her hometown to allow the curious to see the infant's color.

In 1972, she married film director Dennis Berry.

David Richards, author of the book ''Played Out: The Jean Seberg Story'', presents a different version of Jean's problems, describing them as having compounded after a relationship she had in 1979 with an Algerian named Ahmed Hasni. Richards affirms that Jean had "a form of marriage" to Ahmed Hasni through a ceremony on May 31, 1979 that had no legal force because she was still married to Berry. As per Richards, in July, Hasni persuaded her to sell her second apartment on the Rue du Bac, and he kept the proceeds (reportedly 11 million francs in cash), announcing that he would use the money to open a Barcelona restaurant. The couple departed for Spain but she was soon back in Paris alone, and went into hiding from Hasni, who she said had grievously abused her. Charles Champlin, film and arts critic for the ''Los Angeles Times'', wrote in 1979 a piece entitled "Jean Seberg: A Hollywood tragedy", where he affirms that in her later life, Seberg dealt with clinical depression, something he asserts was not revealed until after her death.

Death

In August 1979, she went missing and was found dead eleven days later in the back seat of her car, which was parked close to her Paris apartment in the 16th arrondissement. The police report stated that she had taken a massive overdose of barbiturates and alcohol (8g per liter). A suicide note ("Forgive me. I can no longer live with my nerves.") was found in her hand, and "probable suicide" was ultimately ruled the official cause of death by the French coroner. However, it is often questioned how she could have operated a car with that amount of alcohol in her body, and without the corrective lenses she needed for driving. One year later, her former husband Romain Gary committed suicide.

Seberg was interred in the Cimetière du Montparnasse, Paris, France.

Legacy

In 1995, a documentary of her life was made by Mark Rappaport, titled ''From the Journals of Jean Seberg''. Mary Beth Hurt played Seberg in a voice-over. Appropriately, Hurt was also born in Marshalltown, Iowa, in 1948, attended the same high school as Seberg, and Seberg had been her babysitter. A musical, ''Jean Seberg'', by librettist Julian Barry, composer Marvin Hamlisch, and lyricist Christopher Adler, based on Seberg's life, was presented in 1983 at the National Theatre in London.

Mexican author and diplomat Carlos Fuentes mirrored their short-termed alleged love story in his 1994 novel ''Diana o La Cazadora Solitaria'' (''Diana, or The Solitary Hunter'').

The short 2000 film ''Je t'aime John Wayne'' is a tribute parody of ''Breathless'', with Camilla Rutherford playing Seberg's role.

In 2004, the French author Alain Absire published ''Jean S.'', a fictionalised biography. Seberg's son, Alexandre Diego Gary, brought a lawsuit unsuccessfully attempting to stop publication.

In 1991, Jodie Foster, a fan of her performance in ''Breathless'', purchased the film rights to the David Richards' biography about Seberg, ''Played Out: The Jean Seberg Story''. She was going to produce and star in the film. The project was cancelled two years later.

In 2011, filming began in New York City on a biopic tentatively titled, 'Jean', starring artist and heiress Daphne Guinness as Jean Seberg.

Filmography

''Saint Joan'' (1957)

''Bonjour tristesse'' (1958)

''The Mouse That Roared'' (1959)

''Breathless'' (''A bout de souffle'') (1959)

''Let No Man Write My Epitaph'' (1960)

''Les Grandes Personnes (Time Out for Love)'' (1961)

''La récréation (Playtime / Love Play)'' (1961, with husband François Moreuil)

''L'Amant de cinq jours'' (1961)

''Congo Vivo'' (1962)

''In the French Style'' (1962)

''Les Plus Belles Escroqueries du Monde (The World's Greatest Swindles) (1964)

''Lilith'' (1964)

''The Beautiful Swindlers'' (1964)

''Échappement libre'' (''Backfire'') (1964)

''Moment to Moment'' (1965)

''Un Milliard dans un Billard'' (Diamonds are Brittle) (1965)

''A Fine Madness'' (1966)

''La Ligne de démarcation'' or ''Line of Demarcation'' (1966)

''Estouffade à la Caraïbe (Gold Robbers)'' (1967)*Who's Got the Black Box (1967)

''The Road to Corinth'' (1968)

''Birds in Peru'' (1968, with husband Romain Gary)

''Pendulum'' (1969)

''Paint Your Wagon'' (1969)

''Ondata di Calore (Dead of Summer)'' (1970)

''Airport'' (1970)

''Macho Callahan'' (1970)

''Kill!'' (1972)

''Questa Specie d'Amore (This Kind of Love)'' (1972)

''L'attentat (The French Conspiracy)'' (1972)

''Camorra'' (1972)

''The Corruption of Chris Miller'' (1973)

''Mousey (or Cat & Mouse)'' (1974)

''Les Hautes solitudes'' (1974)

''Ballad for the Kid'' (1974) (also contributed to script, direction, editing)

''White Horses of Summer'' (1975)

''Le Grand Délire (Die Große Ekstase)'' (1975, with husband Dennis Berry)

''The Wild Duck'' (1976)

''La Légion Saute sur Kolwezi'' (1980 - scenes shot before her suicide were never shown)

Bibliography

References

External links

1958 Mike Wallace interview January 4, 1958

Category:1938 births Category:1979 deaths Category:Actors from Iowa Category:Actors who committed suicide Category:American expatriates in France Category:American film actors Category:American people of Swedish descent Category:Burials at Montparnasse Cemetery Category:Drug-related suicides in France Category:People from Marshall County, Iowa Category:University of Iowa alumni

ca:Jean Seberg da:Jean Seberg de:Jean Seberg es:Jean Seberg eo:Jean Seberg fr:Jean Seberg it:Jean Seberg he:ג'ין סיברג lb:Jean Seberg hu:Jean Seberg nl:Jean Seberg ja:ジーン・セバーグ no:Jean Seberg pl:Jean Seberg pt:Jean Seberg ro:Jean Seberg ru:Сиберг, Джин sh:Jean Seberg fi:Jean Seberg sv:Jean Seberg tr:Jean Seberg uk:Джин Сіберг

"The Man" is a slang phrase that may refer to the government or to some other authority in a position of power. In addition to this derogatory connotation, it may also serve as a term of respect and praise. Also, " The Man is coming" is a term used to frighten small children who are misbehaving.

The phrase "the Man is keeping me down" is commonly used to describe oppression. The phrase "stick it to the Man" encourages resistance to authority, and essentially means "fight back" or "resist", either openly or via sabotage.

History

The term "the Man" in the American sense dates back to the late 19th Century. In the Southern U.S. states, the phrase came to be applied to any man or any group in a position of authority, or to authority in the abstract. From about the 1950s the phrase was also an underworld code word for police, the warden of a prison or other law enforcement or penal authorities.

It was also used as a term for a drug dealer in the 1950s and 1960s and can be seen in such media as Curtis Mayfield's "No Thing On Me", William Burroughs's novel ''Naked Lunch'', and in the Velvet Underground song "I'm Waiting for the Man", in which Lou Reed sings about going to Uptown Manhattan, specifically Lexington Avenue and 125th Street, to buy heroin.

The use of this term was expanded to counterculture groups and their battles against authority, such as the Yippies, which, according to a May 19, 1969 article in ''U.S. News and World Report'', had the "avowed aim ... to destroy 'The Man', their term for the present system of government". The term eventually found its way into humorous usage, such as in a December 1979 motorcycle ad from the magazine ''Easyriders'' which featured the tagline, "California residents: Add 6% sales tax for The Man."

In present day, the phrase has been popularized in commercials and cinema.

Use as praise

The term has also been used as an approbation or form of praise. This may refer to the recipient's status as the leader or authority within a particular context, or it might be assumed to be a shortened form of a phrase like "He is the man (who is in charge)." One example of this usage dates to 1879 when Otto von Bismarck commented, referring to Benjamin Disraeli's pre-eminent position at the Congress of Berlin, "The old Jew, he is the man."

In more modern usage, it can be a superlative compliment ("you da man!") indicating that the subject is currently standing out amongst his peers even though they have no special designation or rank, such as a basketball player who is performing better than the other players on the court. It can also be used as a genuine compliment with an implied, slightly exaggerated or sarcastic tone, usually indicating that the person has indeed impressed the speaker but by doing something relatively trivial.

See also

Absentee landlord

Big Brother (''Nineteen Eighty-Four'')

New World Order (conspiracy theory)

Ruling class

The Establishment

Power elite

Corrections officer

YTMND

Notes

References

Lighter, J.E. (Ed.). (1997). ''Random House Dictionary of American Slang''. New York: Random House.

Category:Slang expressions Category:Stock characters Category:English idioms Category:Pejorative terms for people Category:Military-industrial complex

Coordinates	35°27′″N139°38′″N
Name	Frank Sinatra
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Francis Albert Sinatra
Alias	Ol' Blue EyesThe Chairman of the Board
Birth date	December 12, 1915
Birth place	Hoboken, New Jersey, U.S.
Death date	May 14, 1998
Death place	Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Death cause	Heart attack
Instrument	Vocals
Genre	Traditional pop, jazz, swing, big band, vocal
Occupation	Singer, actor, producer, director, conductor
Years active	1935–95
Label	Columbia, Capitol, Reprise, Apple Records
Associated acts	Rat Pack, Bing Crosby, Nancy Sinatra, Judy Garland, Quincy Jones, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Frank Sinatra, Jr., Dean Martin, Count Basie, Sammy Davis, Jr.
Website
Spouse	Nancy Barbato (1939–1951)Ava Gardner (1951–57)Mia Farrow (1966–1968)Barbara Marx (1976–1998) }}

Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 May 14, 1998) was an American singer and film actor.

Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the "bobby soxers", he released his first album, ''The Voice of Frank Sinatra'' in 1946. His professional career had stalled by the 1950s, but it was reborn in 1954 after he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in ''From Here to Eternity''.

He signed with Capitol Records in 1953 and released several critically lauded albums (such as ''In the Wee Small Hours'', ''Songs for Swingin' Lovers'', ''Come Fly with Me'', ''Only the Lonely'' and ''Nice 'n' Easy''). Sinatra left Capitol to found his own record label, Reprise Records in 1961 (finding success with albums such as ''Ring-a-Ding-Ding!'', ''Sinatra at the Sands'' and ''Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim''), toured internationally, was a founding member of the Rat Pack and fraternized with celebrities and statesmen, including John F. Kennedy. Sinatra turned 50 in 1965, recorded the retrospective ''September of My Years'', starred in the Emmy-winning television special ''Frank Sinatra: A Man and His Music'', and scored hits with "Strangers in the Night" and "My Way".

With sales of his music dwindling and after appearing in several poorly received films, Sinatra retired for the first time in 1971. Two years later, however, he came out of retirement and in 1973 recorded several albums, scoring a Top 40 hit with "(Theme From) New York, New York" in 1980. Using his Las Vegas shows as a home base, he toured both within the United States and internationally, until a short time before his death in 1998.

Sinatra also forged a successful career as a film actor, winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in ''From Here to Eternity'', a nomination for Best Actor for ''The Man with the Golden Arm'', and critical acclaim for his performance in ''The Manchurian Candidate''. He also starred in such musicals as ''High Society'', ''Pal Joey'', ''Guys and Dolls'' and ''On the Town''. Sinatra was honored at the Kennedy Center Honors in 1983 and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Ronald Reagan in 1985 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 1997. Sinatra was also the recipient of eleven Grammy Awards, including the Grammy Trustees Award, Grammy Legend Award and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Early life

Born December 12, 1915, in Hoboken, New Jersey, Sinatra was the only child of Italian immigrants Natalie Della Garaventa and Antonino Martino Sinatra and was raised Roman Catholic. He left high school without graduating, having attended only 47 days before being expelled because of his rowdy conduct. Sinatra's father, often referred to as Marty, served with the Hoboken Fire Department as a Captain. His mother, known as Dolly, was influential in the neighborhood and in local Democratic Party circles, but also ran an illegal abortion business from her home; she was arrested several times and convicted twice for this offense. During the Great Depression, Dolly nevertheless provided money to her son for outings with friends and expensive clothes. In 1938, Sinatra was arrested for carrying on with a married woman, a criminal offense at the time. For his livelihood, he worked as a delivery boy at the ''Jersey Observer'' newspaper, and later as a riveter at the Tietjan and Lang shipyard, but music was Sinatra's main interest, and he carefully listened to big band jazz. He began singing for tips at the age of eight, standing on top of the bar at a local nightclub in Hoboken. Sinatra began singing professionally as a teenager in the 1930s, although he learned music by ear and never learned how to read music.

Career

1935–40: Start of career, work with James and Dorsey

Sinatra got his first break in 1935 when his mother persuaded a local singing group, The Three Flashes, to let him join. With Sinatra, the group became known as the Hoboken Four, and they sufficiently impressed Edward Bowes. After appearing on his show, ''Major Bowes Amateur Hour'', they attracted 40,000 votes and won the first prize – a six month contract to perform on stage and radio across the United States.

Sinatra left the Hoboken Four and returned home in late 1935. His mother secured him a job as a singing waiter and MC at the Rustic Cabin in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, for which he was paid $15 a week.

On March 18, 1939, Sinatra made a demo recording of a song called "Our Love", with the Frank Mane band. The record has "Frank Sinatra" signed on the front. The bandleader kept the original record in a safe for nearly 60 years. In June, Harry James hired Sinatra on a one year contract of $75 a week. It was with the James band that Sinatra released his first commercial record "From the Bottom of My Heart" in July, 1939— US Brunswick #8443 and UK Columbia #DB2150.

Fewer than 8,000 copies of "From the Bottom of My Heart" (Brunswick #8443) were sold, making the record a very rare find that is sought after by record collectors worldwide. Sinatra released ten commercial tracks with James through 1939, including "All or Nothing At All" which had weak sales on its initial release but then sold millions of copies when re-released by Columbia at the height of Sinatra's popularity a few years later.

In November 1939, in a meeting at the Palmer House in Chicago, Sinatra was asked by bandleader Tommy Dorsey to join his band as a replacement for Jack Leonard, who had recently left to launch a solo career. This meeting was a turning point in Sinatra's career. By signing with Dorsey's band, one of the hottest at the time, he greatly increased his visibility with the American public. Though Sinatra was still under contract with James, James recognized the opportunity Dorsey offered and graciously released Sinatra from his contract. Sinatra recognized his debt to James throughout his life and upon hearing of James' death in 1983, stated: "he [James] is the one that made it all possible."

On January 26, 1940, Sinatra made his first public appearance with the Dorsey band at the Coronado Theater in Rockford, Illinois. In his first year with Dorsey, Sinatra released more than forty songs, with "I'll Never Smile Again" topping the charts for twelve weeks beginning in mid-July.

Sinatra's relationship with Tommy Dorsey was troubled, because of their contract, which awarded Dorsey one-third of Sinatra's lifetime earnings in the entertainment industry. In January 1942, Sinatra recorded his first solo sessions without the Dorsey band (but with Dorsey's arranger Axel Stordahl and with Dorsey's approval). These sessions were released commercially on the Bluebird label. Sinatra left the Dorsey band late in 1942 in an incident that started rumors of Sinatra's involvement with the Mafia. A story appeared in the Hearst newspapers that mobster Sam Giancana coerced Dorsey to let Sinatra out of his contract for a few thousand dollars, and was fictionalized in the movie ''The Godfather''. According to Nancy Sinatra's biography, the Hearst rumors were started because of Frank's Democratic politics. In fact, the contract was bought out by MCA founder Jules Stein for $75,000.

1940–50: Sinatramania and decline of career

In May 1941, Sinatra was at the top of the male singer polls in the Billboard and Down Beat magazines. His appeal to bobby soxers, as teenage girls of that time were called, revealed a whole new audience for popular music, which had been recorded mainly for adults up to that time.

On December 31, 1942, Sinatra made a "legendary opening" at the Paramount Theater in New York. Jack Benny later said, "I thought the goddamned building was going to cave in. I never heard such a commotion... All this for a fellow I never heard of." When Sinatra returned to the Paramount in October 1944, 35,000 fans caused a near riot outside the venue because they were not allowed in.

During the musicians' strike of 1942–44, Columbia re-released Harry James and Sinatra's version of "All or Nothing at All" (music by Arthur Altman and lyrics by Jack Lawrence), recorded in August 1939 and released before Sinatra had made a name for himself. The original release did not even mention the vocalist's name. When the recording was re–released in 1943 with Sinatra's name prominently displayed, the record was on the best–selling list for 18 weeks and reached number 2 on June 2, 1943.

Sinatra signed with Columbia on June 1, 1943, as a solo artist, and he initially had great success, particularly during the 1942–44 musicians' strike. Although no new records had been issued during the strike, he had been performing on the radio (on ''Your Hit Parade''), and on stage. Columbia wanted to get new recordings of their growing star as fast as possible, so Sinatra convinced them to hire Alec Wilder as arranger and conductor for several sessions with a vocal group called the Bobby Tucker Singers. These first sessions were on June 7, June 22, August 5, and November 10, 1943. Of the nine songs recorded during these sessions, seven charted on the best–selling list.

Sinatra did not serve in the military during World War II. On December 11, 1943, he was classified 4-F ("Registrant not acceptable for military service") for a perforated eardrum by his draft board. Additionally, an FBI report on Sinatra, released in 1998, showed that the doctors had also written that he was a "neurotic" and "not acceptable material from a psychiatric standpoint". This was omitted from his record to avoid "undue unpleasantness for both the selectee and the induction service". Active-duty servicemen, like journalist William Manchester, said of Sinatra, "I think Frank Sinatra was the most hated man of World War II, much more than Hitler", because Sinatra was back home making all of that money and being shown in photographs surrounded by beautiful women. His exemption would resurface throughout his life and cause him grief when he had to defend himself. There were accusations, including some from noted columnist Walter Winchell, that Sinatra paid $40,000 to avoid the service – but the FBI found no evidence of this.

In 1945, Sinatra co-starred with Gene Kelly in ''Anchors Aweigh''. That same year, he was loaned out to RKO to star in a short film titled ''The House I Live In''. Directed by Mervyn LeRoy, this film on tolerance and racial equality earned a special Academy Award shared among Sinatra and those who brought the film to the screen, along with a special Golden Globe for "Promoting Good Will". 1946 saw the release of his first album, ''The Voice of Frank Sinatra'', and the debut of his own weekly radio show.

By the end of 1948, Sinatra felt that his career was stalling, something that was confirmed when he slipped to No. 4 on ''Down Beat'''s annual poll of most popular singers (behind Billy Eckstine, Frankie Laine, and Bing Crosby).

The year 1949 saw an upswing, as Frank co-starred with Gene Kelly in ''Take Me Out to the Ball Game''. It was well received critically and became a major commercial success. That same year, Sinatra teamed up with Kelly for a third time in ''On the Town''.

1950–60: Rebirth of career, Capitol concept albums

After two years' absence, Sinatra returned to the concert stage on January 12, 1950, in Hartford, Connecticut. His voice suffered and he experienced hemorrhaging of his vocal cords on stage at the Copacabana on April 26, 1950. Sinatra's career and appeal to new teen audiences declined as he moved into his mid-30s.

This was a period of serious self-doubt about the trajectory of his career. In February 1951, he was walking through Times Square, past the Paramount theatre, keystone venue of his earlier phenomenal success. The Paramount marquee glowed in announcement of Eddie Fisher in concert. Swarms of teen-age girls had gathered in frenzy, swooning over the current singing idol. For Sinatra this public display of enthusiasm for Fisher validated a fear he had harbored in his own mind for a long time. The Sinatra star had fallen; the shouts of "Frankieee" were echoes of the past. Agitated and disconsolate he rushed home, closed his kitchen door, turned on the gas and laid his head on the top of the stove. A friend returned to the apartment not long after to find Sinatra lying on the floor sobbing out the melodrama of his life, proclaiming his failure was so complete he could not even commit suicide''.

In September 1951, Sinatra made his Las Vegas debut at the Desert Inn. A month later, a second series of the ''Frank Sinatra Show'' aired on CBS. Ultimately, Sinatra did not find the success on television for which he had hoped. The persona he presented to the TV audience was not that of a performer easily welcomed into homes. He projected an arrogance not compatible with the type of cozy congeniality that played well on the small screen.

Columbia and MCA dropped him in 1952.

The rebirth of Sinatra's career began with the eve-of-Pearl Harbor drama ''From Here to Eternity'' (1953), for which he won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. This role and performance marked a turnaround in Sinatra's career: after several years of critical and commercial decline, becoming an Oscar-winning actor helped him regain his position as the top recording artist in the world.

Also in 1953, Sinatra starred in the NBC radio program ''Rocky Fortune''. His character, Rocko Fortunato (aka Rocky Fortune) was a temp worker for the Gridley Employment Agency who stumbled into crime-solving by way of the odd jobs to which he was dispatched. The series aired on NBC radio Tuesday nights from October 1953 to March 1954, following the network's crime drama hit ''Dragnet''. During the final months of the show, just before the 1954 Oscars, it became a running gag that Sinatra would manage to work the phrase "from here to eternity" into each episode, a reference to his Oscar-nominated performance.

In 1953, Sinatra signed with Capitol Records, where he worked with many of the finest musical arrangers of the era, most notably Nelson Riddle, Gordon Jenkins, and Billy May. With a series of albums featuring darker emotional material, Sinatra reinvented himself, including ''In the Wee Small Hours'' (1955)—Sinatra's first 12" LP and his second collaboration with Nelson Riddle—''Where Are You?'' (1957) and ''Frank Sinatra Sings For Only The Lonely'' (1958). He also incorporated a hipper, "swinging" persona into some of his music, as heard on ''Swing Easy!'' (1954), ''Songs For Swingin' Lovers'' (1956), and ''Come Fly With Me'' (1957).

By the end of the year, Billboard had named "Young at Heart" Song of the Year; ''Swing Easy!'', with Nelson Riddle at the helm (his second album for Capitol), was named Album of the Year; and Sinatra was named "Top Male Vocalist" by ''Billboard'', ''Down Beat'' and ''Metronome''.

A third collaboration with Nelson Riddle, ''Songs For Swingin' Lovers'', was both a critical and financial success, featuring a recording of "I've Got You Under My Skin".

''Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely'', a stark collection of introspective saloon songs and blues-tinged ballads, was a mammoth commercial success, spending 120 weeks on ''Billboard'''s album chart and peaking at #1. Cuts from this LP, such as "Angel Eyes" and "One for My Baby (and One More for the Road)", would remain staples of Sinatra's concerts throughout his life.

Through the late fifties, Sinatra frequently criticized rock and roll music, much of it being his reaction to rhythms and attitudes he found alien. In 1958 he lambasted it as "sung, played, and written for the most part by cretinous goons. It manages to be the martial music of every sideburned delinquent on the face of the earth."

Sinatra's 1959 hit "High Hopes" lasted on the Hot 100 for 17 weeks, more than any other Sinatra hit did on that chart, and was a recurring favorite for years on "Captain Kangaroo".

1960–70: ''Ring-A-Ding-Ding'', Reprise records, Basie, Jobim, "My Way"

Sinatra started the 1960s as he ended the 1950s. His first album of the decade, ''Nice 'n' Easy'', topped ''Billboard'''s chart and won critical plaudits. Sinatra grew discontented at Capitol and decided to form his own label, Reprise Records. His first album on the label, ''Ring-A-Ding-Ding'' (1961), was a major success, peaking at No.4 on ''Billboard'' and No.8 in the UK.

His fourth and final Timex TV special was broadcast in March 1960, and earned massive viewing figures. Titled ''It's Nice to Go Travelling'', the show is more commonly known as ''Welcome Home Elvis''. Elvis Presley's appearance after his army discharge was somewhat ironic; Sinatra had been scathing about him in the mid fifties, saying: "His kind of music is deplorable, a rancid smelling aphrodisiac. It fosters almost totally negative and destructive reactions in young people." Presley had responded: "... [Sinatra] is a great success and a fine actor, but I think he shouldn't have said it... [rock and roll] is a trend, just the same as he faced when he started years ago." Later, in efforts to maintain his commercial viability, Sinatra recorded Presley's hit "Love Me Tender" as well as works by Paul Simon ("Mrs. Robinson"), The Beatles ("Something", "Yesterday"), and Joni Mitchell ("Both Sides Now").

Following on the heels of the film ''Can Can'' was ''Ocean's 11'', the movie that became the definitive on-screen outing for "The Rat Pack".

From his youth, Sinatra displayed sympathy for African Americans and worked both publicly and privately all his life to help them win equal rights. He played a major role in the desegregation of Nevada hotels and casinos in the 1960s. On January 27, 1961, Sinatra played a benefit show at Carnegie Hall for Martin Luther King, Jr. and led his fellow Rat Pack members and Reprise label mates in boycotting hotels and casinos that refused entry to black patrons and performers. He often spoke from the stage on desegregation and repeatedly played benefits on behalf of Dr. King and his movement. According to his son, Frank Sinatra, Jr., King sat weeping in the audience at a concert in 1963 as Sinatra sang ''Ol' Man River'', a song from the musical ''Show Boat'' that is sung by an African-American stevedore.

On September 11 and 12, 1961, Sinatra recorded his final songs for Capitol.

In 1962, he starred with Janet Leigh and Laurence Harvey in the political thriller, ''The Manchurian Candidate'', playing Bennett Marco. That same year, Sinatra and Count Basie collaborated for the album ''Sinatra-Basie''. This popular and successful release prompted them to rejoin two years later for the follow-up ''It Might as Well Be Swing'', which was arranged by Quincy Jones. One of Sinatra's more ambitious albums from the mid-1960s, ''The Concert Sinatra'', was recorded with a 73-piece symphony orchestra on 35mm tape.

Sinatra's first live album, ''Sinatra at the Sands'', was recorded during January and February 1966 at the Sands Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.

In June 1965, Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Dean Martin played live in Saint Louis to benefit Dismas House. The concert was broadcast live via satellite to numerous movie theaters across America. Released in August 1965 was the Grammy Award–winning album of the year, ''September of My Years'', containing the single "It Was A Very Good Year", which won the Grammy Award for Best Vocal Performance, Male in 1966. A career anthology, ''A Man and His Music'', followed in November, winning Album of the Year at the Grammys in 1966. The TV special, ''Frank Sinatra: A Man and His Music'', garnered both an Emmy award and a Peabody Award.

In the spring, ''That's Life'' appeared, with both the single and album becoming Top Ten hits in the US on ''Billboard'''s pop charts. ''Strangers in the Night'' went on to top the ''Billboard'' and UK pop singles charts, winning the award for Record of the Year at the Grammys. The album of the same name also topped the ''Billboard'' chart and reached number 4 in the UK.

Sinatra started 1967 with a series of important recording sessions with Antônio Carlos Jobim. Later in the year, a duet with daughter Nancy, "Somethin' Stupid", topped the ''Billboard'' pop and UK singles charts. In December, Sinatra collaborated with Duke Ellington on the album ''Francis A. & Edward K.''.

During the late 1960s, press agent Lee Solters would invite columnists and their spouses into Sinatra's dressing room just before he was about to go on stage. ''The New Yorker'' recounted that "the first columnist they tried this on was Larry Fields of the ''Philadelphia Daily News'', whose wife fainted when Sinatra kissed her cheek. 'Take care of it, Lee,' Sinatra said, and he was off." The professional relationship Sinatra shared with Solters focused on projects on the west coast while those focused on the east coast were handled by Solters' partner, Sheldon Roskin of Solters/Roskin/Friedman, a well-known firm at the time.

Back on the small-screen, Sinatra once again worked with Jobim and Ella Fitzgerald on the TV special, ''A Man and His Music + Ella + Jobim''.

''Watertown'' (1970) was one of Sinatra's most acclaimed concept albums but was all but ignored by the public. Selling a mere 30,000 copies and reaching a peak chart position of 101, its failure put an end to plans for a television special based on the album.

With Sinatra in mind, singer-songwriter Paul Anka wrote the song "My Way", inspired from the French "Comme d'habitude" ("As Usual"), composed by Claude François and Jacques Revaux. (The song had been previously commissioned to David Bowie, whose lyrics did not please the involved agents.) "My Way" would, ironically, become more closely identified with him than any other song over his seven decades as a singer even though he reputedly did not care for it.

1970–80: Retirement and comeback

On June 13, 1971 – at a concert in Hollywood to raise money for the Motion Picture and TV Relief Fund – at the age of 55, Sinatra announced that he was retiring, bringing to an end his 36-year career in show business.

In 1973, Sinatra came out of retirement with a television special and album, both entitled ''Ol' Blue Eyes Is Back''. The album, arranged by Gordon Jenkins and Don Costa, was a great success, reaching number 13 on ''Billboard'' and number 12 in the UK. The TV special was highlighted by a dramatic reading of "Send in the Clowns" and a song and dance sequence with former co-star Gene Kelly.

In January, 1974, Sinatra returned to Las Vegas, performing at Caesars Palace despite vowing in 1970 never to play there again after the manager of the resort, Sanford Waterman, pulled a gun on him during a heated argument. With Waterman recently shot, the door was open for Sinatra to return.

In Australia, he caused an uproar by describing journalists there – who were aggressively pursuing his every move and pushing for a press conference – as "fags", "pimps", and "whores". Australian unions representing transport workers, waiters, and journalists went on strike, demanding that Sinatra apologize for his remarks. Sinatra instead insisted that the journalists apologize for "fifteen years of abuse I have taken from the world press". The future Prime Minister of Australia, Bob Hawke, then the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) leader, also insisted that Sinatra apologize, and a settlement was eventually reached to the apparent satisfaction of both parties, Sinatra's final show of his Australian tour was televised to the nation.

In October 1974, Sinatra appeared at New York City's Madison Square Garden in a televised concert that was later released as an album under the title ''The Main Event – Live''. Backing him was bandleader Woody Herman and the Young Thundering Herd, who accompanied Sinatra on a European tour later that month. The TV special garnered mostly positive reviews while the album – actually culled from various shows during his comeback tour – was only a moderate success, peaking at No.37 on ''Billboard'' and No.30 in the UK.

In August, 1975, Sinatra held several back-to-back concerts together with the newly-risen singer, John Denver. Soon they became friends with each other. John Denver later appeared as a guest in the ''Sinatra and friends'' TV Special, singing "September Song" together with Sinatra. Sinatra covered the John Denver hits "My Sweet Lady" and "Leaving on a Jet Plane". And, according to Denver, his song "A Baby Just Like You" was written at Sinatra's request.

In 1979, in front of the Egyptian pyramids, Sinatra performed for Anwar Sadat. Back in Las Vegas, while celebrating 40 years in show business and his 64th birthday, he was awarded the Grammy Trustees Award during a party at Caesars Palace.

1980–90: ''Trilogy'', ''She Shot Me Down'', ''L.A. Is My Lady''

In 1980, Sinatra's first album in six years was released, ''Trilogy: Past Present Future'', a highly ambitious triple album that found Sinatra recording songs from the past (pre-rock era) and present (rock era and contemporary) that he had overlooked during his career, while 'The Future' was a free-form suite of new songs linked à la musical theater by a theme, in this case, Sinatra pondering over the future. The album garnered six Grammy nominations – winning for best liner notes – and peaked at number 17 on ''Billboard'''s album chart, while spawning yet another song that would become a signature tune, "Theme from New York, New York", as well as Sinatra's much lauded (second) recording of George Harrison's "Something" (the first was not officially released on an album until 1972's ''Frank Sinatra's Greatest Hits, Vol. 2'').

The following year, Sinatra built on the success of ''Trilogy'' with ''She Shot Me Down'', an album that revisited the dark tone of his Capitol years, and was praised by critics as a vintage late-period Sinatra. Sinatra would comment that it was "A complete saloon album... tear-jerkers and cry-in-your-beer kind of things".

Also in 1981, Sinatra was embroiled in controversy when he worked a ten-day engagement for $2 million in Sun City, South Africa, breaking a cultural boycott against apartheid-era South Africa. See Artists United Against Apartheid

He was selected as one of the five recipients of the 1983 Kennedy Center Honors, alongside Katharine Dunham, James Stewart, Elia Kazan, and Virgil Thomson. Quoting Henry James in honoring his old friend, President Ronald Reagan said that "art was the shadow of humanity" and that Sinatra had "spent his life casting a magnificent and powerful shadow".

In 1984, Sinatra worked with Quincy Jones for the first time in nearly two decades on the album, ''L.A. Is My Lady'', which was well received critically. The album was a substitute for another Jones project, an album of duets with Lena Horne, which had to be abandoned. (Horne developed vocal problems and Sinatra, committed to other engagements, could not wait to record.)

1990s: ''Duets'', final performances

In 1990, Sinatra did a national tour, and was awarded the second "Ella Award" by the Los Angeles–based Society of Singers. At the award ceremony, he performed for the final time with Ella Fitzgerald.

In December, as part of Sinatra's birthday celebrations, Patrick Pasculli, the Mayor of Hoboken, made a proclamation in his honor, declaring that "no other vocalist in history has sung, swung, crooned, and serenaded into the hearts of the young and old... as this consummate artist from Hoboken." The same month Sinatra gave the first show of his Diamond Jubilee Tour at the Brendan Byrne Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

In 1993 Sinatra made a surprise return to Capitol and the recording studio for ''Duets'', which was released in November.

The other artists who added their vocals to the album worked for free, and a follow-up album (''Duets II'') was released in 1994 that reached No.9 on the ''Billboard'' charts.

Still touring despite various health problems, Sinatra remained a top concert attraction on a global scale during the first half of the 1990s. At times during concerts his memory failed him and a fall onstage in Richmond, Virginia, in March, 1994, signaled further problems.

Sinatra's final public concerts were held in Japan's Fukuoka Dome in December, 1994. The following year, on February 25, 1995, at a private party for 1200 select guests on the closing night of the Frank Sinatra Desert Classic golf tournament, Sinatra sang before a live audience for the very last time. ''Esquire'' reported of the show that Sinatra was "clear, tough, on the money" and "in absolute control". His closing song was "The Best is Yet to Come".

Sinatra was awarded the Legend Award at the 1994 Grammy Awards, where he was introduced by Bono, who said of him, "Frank's the chairman of the bad attitude... Rock 'n roll plays at being tough, but this guy is the boss—the chairman of boss... I'm not going to mess with him, are you?" Sinatra called it "the best welcome...I ever had", but his acceptance speech ran too long and was abruptly cut off, leaving him looking confused and talking into a dead microphone.

In 1995, to mark Sinatra's 80th birthday, the Empire State Building glowed blue. A star-studded birthday tribute, ''Sinatra: 80 Years My Way'', was held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. At the end of the program Sinatra graced the stage for the last time to sing the final notes of "New York, New York" with an ensemble. It was Sinatra's last televised appearance.

In recognition of his many years of association with Las Vegas, Frank Sinatra was elected to the Gaming Hall of Fame in 1997.

Film career

Sinatra enjoyed a huge film career and began making movies almost as soon as his singing career took off. His most important pictures include ''The Manchurian Candidate'' with Angela Lansbury, ''From Here to Eternity'' with Burt Lancaster, ''The Man With the Golden Arm'' with Arnold Stang, ''Kings Go Forth'' with Natalie Wood, ''Guys and Dolls'' with Marlon Brando, ''High Society'' with Bing Crosby, ''Pal Joey'' with Rita Hayworth, ''Some Came Running'' with Dean Martin, ''Never So Few'' with Steve McQueen, ''A Hole in the Head'' with Edward G. Robinson, ''Meet Danny Wilson'' with Shelley Winters, ''On the Town'' with Gene Kelly, ''Robin and the 7 Hoods'' with Bing Crosby and the Rat Pack, ''Ocean's 11'' and ''Sergeants 3'' with the Rat Pack (Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop), ''Step Lively'', ''None But the Brave'' (directed by Sinatra), ''The Detective'' with Lee Remick, ''Come Blow Your Horn'' with Lee J. Cobb and Barbara Rush, and ''The Pride and the Passion'' starring Cary Grant, among many others spanning most of his lengthy career.

Personal life

Sinatra had three children, Nancy, Frank Jr., and Tina, all with his first wife, Nancy Barbato (married 1939–51). He was married three more times, to actresses Ava Gardner (1951–57), Mia Farrow (1966–68), and finally to Barbara Marx (married 1976), to whom he was still married at his death.

Throughout his life, Sinatra had mood swings and bouts of depression. Solitude and unglamorous surroundings were to be avoided at all cost. He struggled with the conflicting need "to get away from it all, but not too far away." He acknowledged this, telling an interviewer in the 1950s: "Being an 18-karat manic depressive, and having lived a life of violent emotional contradictions, I have an over-acute capacity for sadness as well as elation." In her memoirs ''My Father's Daughter'', his daughter Tina wrote about the "eighteen-karat" remark: "As flippant as Dad could be about his mental state, I believe that a Zoloft a day might have kept his demons away. But that kind of medicine was decades off."

Alleged organized crime links

Sinatra garnered considerable attention due to his alleged personal and professional links with organized crime, including figures such as Carlo Gambino, Sam Giancana, Lucky Luciano, and Joseph Fischetti. The Federal Bureau of Investigation kept records amounting to 2,403 pages on Sinatra. With his alleged Mafia ties, his ardent New Deal politics and his friendship with John F. Kennedy, he was a natural target for J. Edgar Hoover's FBI. The FBI kept Sinatra under surveillance for almost five decades beginning in the 1940s. The documents include accounts of Sinatra as the target of death threats and extortion schemes. They also portray rampant paranoia and strange obsessions at the FBI and reveal nearly every celebrated Sinatra foible and peccadillo.

For a year Hoover investigated Sinatra's alleged Communist affiliations, but found no evidence. The files include his rendezvous with prostitutes, and his extramarital affair with Ava Gardner, which preceded their marriage. Celebrities mentioned in the files are Dean Martin, Marilyn Monroe, Peter Lawford, and Giancana's girlfriend, singer Phyllis McGuire.

The FBI's secret dossier on Sinatra was released in 1998 in response to Freedom of Information Act requests.

The released FBI files reveal some tantalizing insights into Sinatra’s lifetime consistency in pursuing and embracing seemingly conflicting affiliations. But Sinatra’s alliances had a practical aspect. They were adaptive mechanisms for behavior motivated by self-interest and inner anxieties. In September 1950 Sinatra felt particularly vulnerable. He was in a panic over his moribund career and haunted by the continual speculations and innuendos in circulation regarding his draft status in World War II. Sinatra “was scared, his career had sprung a leak.” In a letter dated September 17, 1950 to Clyde Tolson, Sinatra offered to be of service to the FBI as an informer. An excerpted passage from a memo in FBI files states that Sinatra “feels he can be of help as a result of going anywhere the Bureau desires and contacting any people from whom he might be able to obtain information. Sinatra feels as a result of his publicity he can operate without suspicion…he is willing to go the whole way.” The FBI declined his assistance.

Political views

Sinatra held differing political views throughout his life.

Sinatra's parents had immigrated to the United States in 1895 and 1897 respectively. His mother, Dolly Sinatra (1896–1977), was a Democratic Party ward boss.

Sinatra remained a supporter of the Democratic Party until the early 1970s when he switched his allegiance to the Republican Party.

Political activities 1944–1968

In 1944, after sending a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Sinatra was invited to meet Roosevelt at the White House, where he agreed to become part of the Democratic party's voter registration drives.

He donated $5,000 to the Democrats for the 1944 presidential election and by the end of the campaign was appearing at two or three political events every day.

After World War II, Sinatra's politics grew steadily more left wing, and he became more publicly associated with the Popular Front. He started reading liberal literature and supported many organizations that were later identified as front organizations of the Communist Party by the House Un-American Activities Committee in the 1950s, though Sinatra was never brought before the committee.

Sinatra spoke at a number of New Jersey high schools in 1945, where students had gone on strike in opposition to racial integration. Later that year Sinatra would appear in ''The House I Live In'', a short film that stood against racism. The film was scripted by Albert Maltz, with the title song written by Earl Robinson and Abel Meeropol (under the pseudonym of Lewis Allen).

In 1948, Sinatra actively campaigned for President Harry S. Truman. In 1952 and 1956, he also campaigned for Adlai Stevenson. a rival singer and a Republican, for Kennedy's visit to Palm Springs, in 1962. Kennedy had planned to stay at Sinatra's home over the Easter holiday weekend, but decided against doing so because of Sinatra's alleged connections to organized crime. Kennedy stayed at Bing Crosby's house instead. Sinatra had invested a lot of his own money in upgrading the facilities at his home in anticipation of the President's visit. At the time, President Kennedy's brother, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, was intensifying his own investigations into organized crime figures such as Chicago mob boss Sam Giancana, who had earlier stayed at Sinatra's home.

Despite his break with Kennedy, however, he still mourned over Kennedy after he learned he was assassinated. He also re-stated his support for Humphrey on a live election-eve national telethon.

Political activities 1970–1984

In 1970, the first sign of Sinatra's break from the Democratic Party came when he endorsed Ronald Reagan for a second term as Governor of California;

Death

Sinatra began to show signs of dementia in his last years and after a heart attack in February 1997, he made no further public appearances. After suffering another heart attack, he died at 10:50 pm on May 14, 1998 at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, with his wife Barbara by his side. He was 82 years old. Sinatra's final words, spoken after Barbara encouraged him to "fight" as attempts were made to stabilize him, were "I'm losing." The official cause of death was listed as complications from dementia, heart and kidney disease, and bladder cancer. His death was confirmed by the Sinatra family on their website with a statement accompanied by a recording of the singer's version of "Softly As I Leave You". The next night the lights on the Las Vegas Strip were dimmed for 10 minutes in his honor. President Bill Clinton, as an amateur saxophonist and musician, led the world's tributes to Sinatra, saying that after meeting and getting to know the singer as President, he had "come to appreciate on a personal level what millions of people had appreciated from afar". Elton John stated that Sinatra, "was simply the best – no one else even comes close". Tony Curtis, Liza Minnelli, Kirk Douglas, Robert Wagner, Bob Dylan, Don Rickles, Nancy Reagan, Angie Dickinson, Sophia Loren, Bob Newhart, Mia Farrow, and Jack Nicholson. A private ceremony was held later that day at St. Theresa's Catholic Church in Palm Springs. Sinatra was buried following the ceremony next to his parents in section B-8 of Desert Memorial Park in Cathedral City, a quiet cemetery on Ramon Road where Cathedral City meets Rancho Mirage and near his compound, located on Rancho Mirage's tree-lined Frank Sinatra Drive. His close friends, Jilly Rizzo and Jimmy Van Heusen, are buried nearby in the same cemetery.

The words "The Best Is Yet to Come" are imprinted on Sinatra's grave marker.

Legacy

The U.S. Postal Service issued a 42-cent postage stamp in honor of Sinatra on May 13, 2008. The design of the stamp was unveiled Wednesday, December 12, 2007 – on what would have been his 92nd birthday – in Beverly Hills, California, with Sinatra family members on hand. The design shows a 1950s-vintage image of Sinatra, wearing a hat. The design also includes his signature, with his last name alone. The Hoboken Post Office was renamed in his honor in 2002. The Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Astoria, Queens and the Frank Sinatra Park in Hoboken were named in his honor.

The U.S. Congress passed a resolution on May 20, 2008, designating May 13 as Frank Sinatra Day to honor his contribution to American culture. The resolution was introduced by Representative Mary Bono Mack.

To commemorate the anniversary of Sinatra's death, Patsy's Restaurant in New York City, which Sinatra frequented, exhibited in May 2009 fifteen previously unseen photographs of Sinatra taken by Bobby Bank. The photos are of his recording "Everybody Ought to Be in Love" at a nearby recording studio.

Stephen Holden wrote for the 1983 ''Rolling Stone Record Guide'': : Frank Sinatra's voice ''is'' pop music history. [...] Like Presley and Dylan – the only other white male American singers since 1940 whose popularity, influence, and mythic force have been comparable – Sinatra will last indefinitely. He virtually invented modern pop song phrasing.

Wynn Resorts dedicated a signature restaurant to Sinatra inside Encore Las Vegas on December 22, 2008. Memorabilia in the restaurant includes his Oscar for "From Here to Eternity", his Emmy for "Frank Sinatra: A Man and His Music", his Grammy for "Strangers in the Night", photographs and a gold album he received for "Classic Sinatra".

There is a residence hall at Montclair State University named for him in recognition of his status as an iconic New Jersey native.

The Frank Sinatra International Student Center at Israel's Hebrew University, Mt. Scopus campus, was dedicated in 1978 in recognition of Sinatra's charitable and advocacy activities on behalf of the State of Israel.

Film portrayals

In 1992, CBS aired a TV mini-series about the entertainer's life called ''Sinatra'', directed by James Steven Sadwith and starred Philip Casnoff as Sinatra. Opening with his childhood in Hoboken, New Jersey, the film follows Sinatra's rise to the top in the 1940s, through the dark days of the early 1950s and his triumphant re-emergence in the mid-1950s, to his status as pop culture icon in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. In between, the film hits all of the main events, including his three marriages, his connections with the Mafia and his notorious friendship with the Rat Pack. Tina Sinatra was executive producer. Casnoff received a Golden Globe nomination for his performance.

In 1998, Ray Liotta portrayed Sinatra in the HBO movie ''The Rat Pack'', alongside Joe Mantegna as Dean Martin and Don Cheadle as Sammy Davis, Jr. It depicted their contribution to John F. Kennedy's election as U.S. president in 1960.

In 2003, Sinatra was portrayed by James Russo in "Stealing Sinatra", which revolved around the kidnapping of Frank Sinatra Jr. in 1963

Also in 2003, he was portrayed by Dennis Hopper in ''The Night We Called It a Day'', based upon events that occurred during a tour of Australia where Frank had called a member of the news media a "two-bit hooker" and all the unions in the country came crashing down on him.

Sinatra was also portrayed by Sebastian Anzaldo in the film ''Tears of a King'', who also impersonated Sinatra in a TV episode of ''The Next Best Thing''.

Brett Ratner is currently developing a film adaptation of George Jacobs' memoir ''Mr. S: My Life With Frank Sinatra''. Jacobs, who was Sinatra's valet, will be portrayed by Chris Tucker. Martin Scorsese is developing a biopic of Sinatra's life to be scripted by Phil Alden Robinson and produced by Scott Rudin. When the film as first announced, three actors were said to be in contention for the part: Leonardo DiCaprio was Scorsese's preference, Johnny Depp was the studio's, and the Sinatra estate preferred George Clooney. Scorsese later mentioned that he wanted Al Pacino for Sinatra and Robert DeNiro as Dean Martin. The film covers his whole life, so three or more actors will be playing him at different ages.

Discography

Awards and recognitions

See also

Rat Pack

Sinatra Doctrine

1920 US Census with Sinatras

1930 US Census with Sinatras

List of jazz musicians

Best selling music artists

Frank Sinatra discography

Frank Sinatra filmography

The Frank Sinatra Show (CBS)

The Frank Sinatra Show (ABC)

Anthony Martin Sinatra

References

Further reading

Biographies

Freedland, Michael (2000) ''All the Way: A Biography of Frank Sinatra''. St Martins Press. ISBN 0-7528-1662-4

Grudens, Richard (2010) ''Sinatra Singing''. Celebrity Profiles Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9763877-8-7

Havers, Richard (2004) ''Sinatra''. Dorling Kindersley. ISBN 1-4053-1461-3

Kaplan, James (2010) ''Frank: The Voice''. Doubleday. ISBN 978-0385518048

Kelley, Kitty (1986) ''His Way: The Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra''. Bantam Press. ISBN 0-553-26515-6

Lahr, John (1987) ''Sinatra''. Random House. ISBN 0-7538-0842-0

Munn, Michael (2002) ''Sinatra: The Untold Story''. Robson Books Ltd. ISBN 1-86105-537-4

Rockwell, John (1984) ''Sinatra: An American Classic''. Rolling Stone. ISBN 0-394-53977-X

Rojek, Chris (2004) ''Frank Sinatra''. Polity. ISBN 0-7456-3090-1

Santopietro, Tom (2008) ''Sinatra In Hollywood''. Thomas Dunne Books. ISBN 978-0-312-36226-3

Summers, Antony and Swan, Robbyn (2005) ''Sinatra: The Life''. Doubleday. ISBN 0-552-15331-1

Taraborrelli, J. Randall (1998) ''Sinatra: The Man Behind the Myth''. Mainstream Publishing. ISBN 1-84018-119-2

Wilson, Earl (1976) ''Sinatra''.

Memoirs

Ash, Vic. (2006) ''I Blew it My Way: Bebop, Big Bands and Sinatra''. Northway Publications. ISBN 0-9550908-2-2

Jacobs, George and Stadiem, William. (2003) ''Mr. S.: The Last Word on Frank Sinatra''. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-330-41229-9

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Criticism

Fuchs, J. & Prigozy, R., ed. (2007) ''Frank Sinatra: The Man, the Music, the Legend''. The Boydell Press. ISBN 1-58046-251-0

Granata, Charles L. (1999) ''Sessions with Sinatra: Frank Sinatra and the Art of Recording''. Chicago Review Press. ISBN 978-1-55652-509-4

Hamill, Pete (2003) ''Why Sinatra Matters''. Back Bay Books. ISBN 0-316-73886-7

Mustazza, Leonard, ed. (1998) ''Frank Sinatra and Popular Culture''. Praeger. ISBN 0-275-96495-7

Petkov, Steven and Mustazza, Leonard, ed. (1997) ''The Frank Sinatra Reader''. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-511389-6

Pugliese, S., ed. (2004) ''Frank Sinatra: "History, Identity, and Italian American Culture "''. Palgrave. ISBN 1-4039-6655-9

Smith, Martin (2005) ''When Ol' Blue Eyes Was a Red''. Redwords. ISBN 1-905192-02-9

Zehme, Bill (1997) ''The Way You Wear Your Hat: Frank Sinatra and the Lost Art of Livin'''. Harper Collins. ISBN 0-06-093175-2

"Frank Sinatra – Through the Lens of Jazz", ''Jazz Times Magazine'', May 1998

Friedwald, Will (1999) ''Sinatra! The Song Is You: A Singer's Art''. Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-684-19368-X

Granata, Charles L. (1999) ''Sessions with Sinatra: Frank Sinatra and the Art of Recording''. Chicago Review Press. ISBN 1-55652-509-5

McNally, Karen (2008) ''When Frankie Went to Hollywood: Frank Sinatra and American Male Identity'' University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0-252-03334-5

Pignone, Charles, with foreword by Sinatra, Frank Jr. and Jones, Quincy (2004) ''The Sinatra Treasures''. Virgin Books. ISBN 1-85227-184-1

Pignone, Charles, with foreword by Sinatra, Amanda (2007) ''Frank Sinatra: The Family Album '' Little Brown and Company. ISBN 0-316-00349-2

Sinatra, Julie (2007) ''Under My Skin: My Father, Frank Sinatra The Man Behind the Mystique'' iuniverse.com, ISBN 0-595-43478-9

Sinatra, Nancy (1986) ''Frank Sinatra, My Father''. Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-385-23356-9

Sinatra, Nancy (1998) ''Frank Sinatra 1915–1998: An American Legend''. Readers Digest. ISBN 0-7621-0134-2

Sinatra, Tina (2000) ''My Father's Daughter''. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-684-87076-2

Cultural criticism

Gigliotti, Gilbert L. ''A Storied Singer: Frank Sinatra as Literary Conceit''. Greenwood Press, 2002.

Hamill, Pete. ''Why Sinatra Matters''. Back Bay Books, 2003.

Mustazza, Leonard, ed. ''Frank Sinatra and Popular Culture''. Praeger, 1998.

Petkov, Steven and Mustazza, Leonard, ed. ''The Frank Sinatra Reader''. Oxford University Press, 1997.

Pugliese, S., ed. ''Frank Sinatra: "History, Identity, and Italian American Culture "''. Palgrave, 2004.

Smith, Martin. ''When Ol' Blue Eyes was a red''. Redwords, 2005.

Zehme, Bill. ''The Way You Wear Your Hat: Frank Sinatra and the Lost Art of Livin'''. Harper Collins, 1997.

Other

Gigliotti, Gilbert L., ed. (2008) ''Sinatra: But Buddy I'm a Kind of Poem''. Entasis Press ISBN 978-0-9800999-0-4

Giordmaina, Diane [McCue] (2009) "Sinatra and The Moll". iUniverse. ISBN 978-0-595-53234-6

Havers, Richard (2004) ''Sinatra''. Dorling Kindersley. ISBN 1-4053-1461-3

Ingham, Chris (2005) ''The Rough Guide to Frank Sinatra''. Rough Guides. ISBN 1-84353-414-2

Knight, Timothy (2010) ''Sinatra – Hollywood His Way''. Running Press. ISBN 9780762437436

Kuntz, Tom; Kuntz, Phil (2000) ''The Sinatra Files: The Secret FBI Dossier''. Three Rivers Press ISBN 0-8129-3276-5

Lloyd, David (2003) ''The Gospel According to Frank''. New American Press. ISBN 1-930907-19-2

O'Neill, Terry, ed. Morgan, Robert (2007) ''Sinatra: Frank and Friendly''. Evans Mitchell Books. ISBN 1-901268-32-2

Phasey, Chris (1995) ''Francis Albert Sinatra: Tracked Down'' (Discography). Buckland Publications. ISBN 0-7212-0935-1

''The New Rolling Stone Record Guide'', Rolling Stone Press, 1983.

External links

The House I Live In (1945)

The Frank Sinatra Show (1950–1952)

FBI file on Frank Sinatra

Category:1915 births Category:1998 deaths Category:20th-century actors Category:Academy Honorary Award recipients Category:Actors from New Jersey Category:American people of Italian descent Category:American crooners Category:American film actors Category:American jazz musicians of Italian descent Category:American jazz singers Category:American people of Sicilian descent Category:American philanthropists Category:American pop singers Category:American Roman Catholics Category:Best Musical or Comedy Actor Golden Globe (film) winners Category:Best Supporting Actor Academy Award winners Category:Burials at Desert Memorial Park Category:California Republicans Category:Capitol Records artists Category:Cardiovascular disease deaths in California Category:Columbia Records artists Category:Congressional Gold Medal recipients Category:Deaths from myocardial infarction Category:Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners Category:Kennedy Center honorees Category:Musicians from New Jersey Category:New Jersey Democrats Category:People from Hoboken, New Jersey Category:People with bipolar disorder Category:Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients Category:Qwest Records artists Category:Reprise Records artists Category:Swing singers Category:Torch singers Category:Traditional pop music singers Category:Grammy Legend Award

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Coordinates	35°27′″N139°38′″N
name	Kim Novak
birth name	Marilyn Pauline Novak
birth date	February 13, 1933
birth place	Chicago, Illinois, United States
years active	1954–91
spouse	Richard Johnson (1965–66)Dr. Robert Malloy (1976–present)
residence	Eagle Point, Oregon, US }}

Kim Novak (born February 13, 1933) is an American actress. She is best known for her performance in the 1958 film ''Vertigo''. Novak retired from acting in 1991 and has since become an artist of oil paintings. She lives with her veterinarian husband on a ranch in Eagle Point, Oregon, where they raise livestock.

Early life

Kim Novak was born Marilyn Pauline Novak in Chicago, Illinois, to Joseph and Blanche (née Kral) Novak. Her father was a second-generation Czech immigrant while her mother had a Bohemian-Czech background. Her father worked as a dispatcher on the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad and both her parents had been teachers.

While attending David Glasgow Farragut High School, she won a scholarship to the Art Institute of Chicago. After leaving school, she began a career modeling teen fashions for a local department store. She later received a scholarship at a modeling academy and continued to model part-time. She worked as an elevator operator, a sales clerk and a dental assistant.

After a job touring the country as a spokesman for a refrigerator manufacturer, "Miss Deepfreeze", Novak moved to Los Angeles, where she continued to find work as a model.

Career

The 20-year-old actress began with an uncredited role in ''The French Line'' (1954). Eventually, she was seen by a Columbia Pictures talent agent and filmed a screen test. Novak was signed to a six-month contract, and the studio changed her first name to Kim. Novak debuted as Lona McLane that same year in ''Pushover'' opposite Fred MacMurray and Philip Carey, and played the femme fatale role of Janis in ''Phffft!'' opposite Judy Holliday, Jack Lemmon, and Jack Carson. Novak's reviews were good. People were eager to see the new star, and she received an enormous amount of fan mail. After playing Madge Owens in ''Picnic'' (1955) opposite William Holden, Novak won a Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer and for World Film Favorite. She was also nominated for the British BAFTA Film Award for Best Foreign Actress. That same year she played Molly in ''The Man with the Golden Arm'' with Frank Sinatra. In 1957 she worked with Sinatra again for ''Pal Joey'', which also starred Rita Hayworth, and starred in ''Jeanne Eagels'' with Jeff Chandler. She was on the cover of the July 29, 1957, issue of ''Time Magazine''. That same year, she went on strike, protesting her salary of $1,250 per week.

In 1958, Novak starred in the Alfred Hitchcock-directed classic thriller ''Vertigo'', playing the roles of a brunette shopgirl, Judy Barton, and a blonde woman named Madeleine Elster.

Today, the film is considered a masterpiece of romantic suspense, though Novak's performance has received mixed reviews. Critic David Shipman thought it "little more than competent", while David Thomson sees it as "one of the major female performances in the cinema". Hitchcock, rarely one to praise actors, dismissed Novak in a later interview. "You think you're getting a lot," he said of her ability, "but you're not." That same year, she again starred alongside Stewart in ''Bell, Book and Candle,'' a comedy tale of modern-day witchcraft that did moderately well at the box office. In 1960, she co-starred with Kirk Douglas in the critically acclaimed ''Strangers When We Meet'' also featuring Walter Matthau and Ernie Kovacs. In 1962, Novak produced her own movie, financing her own production company in association with Filmways Productions. ''Boys' Night Out'', in which she starred with James Garner and Tony Randall. It was received mildly well by critics and the public. She was paired with Lemmon for a third and final time that year in a mystery-comedy, ''The Notorious Landlady''.

In 1964 she played the vulgar waitress Mildred Rogers in a remake of W. Somerset Maugham's drama ''Of Human Bondage'' opposite Laurence Harvey, and starred as barmaid Polly, "The Pistol" in Billy Wilder's ''Kiss Me, Stupid'' with Ray Walston and Dean Martin. Both films were critically panned. After playing the title role in ''The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders'' (1965) with Richard Johnson, Novak took a break from Hollywood acting. She continued to act, although infrequently, taking fewer roles as she began to prefer personal activities over acting

Her comeback came in a dual role as a young actress, Elsa Brinkmann, and an early-day movie goddess who was murdered, Lylah Clare, in producer-director Robert Aldrich's ''The Legend of Lylah Clare'' (1968) with Peter Finch and Ernest Borgnine for MGM. The movie did not do well. After playing a forger, Sister Lyda Kebanov, in ''The Great Bank Robbery'' (1969) opposite Zero Mostel, Clint Walker, and Claude Akins, she stayed away from the screen for another four years. She then played the role of Auriol Pageant in the horror anthology film ''Tales That Witness Madness'' (1973), which also starred Joan Collins. She starred as veteran showgirl Gloria Joyce in the made-for-TV movie ''The Third Girl From the Left'' (1973), and played Eva in ''Satan's Triangle'' (1975). She was featured in the 1977 western ''The White Buffalo'' with Charles Bronson, and in 1979 she played Helga in ''Just a Gigolo'' co-starring David Bowie.

In 1980, Novak played Lola Brewster in the mystery/thriller ''The Mirror Crack'd'', based on the story by Agatha Christie and co-starring Angela Lansbury, Tony Curtis, Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor. She and Taylor portrayed rival actresses. She made occasional television appearances over the years. She co-starred with Ben Kingsley in the 1990 film ''The Children''.

Her most recent appearance on the big screen to date came as a terminally ill writer with a mysterious past in the thriller ''Liebestraum'' (1991), opposite Kevin Anderson and Bill Pullman. However, owing to battles with the director over how to play the role, her scenes were cut. Novak later admitted in a 2004 interview that the film was a mistake. She said

"I got so burned out on that picture that I wanted to leave the business, but then if you wait long enough you think, 'Oh, I miss certain things.' The making of a movie is wonderful. What's difficult is afterward when you have to go around and try to sell it. The actual filming, when you have a good script—which isn't often—nothing beats it."

In an interview with Stephen Rebello in the July 2005 issue of ''Movieline's Hollywood Life'', Novak admitted that she had been "unprofessional" in her conduct with the film's director, Mike Figgis.

Novak has not ruled out further acting. In an interview in 2007, she said that she would consider returning to the screen "if the right thing came along."

Novak appeared for a question-and-answer session about her career on July 30, 2010, at the Egyptian Theatre in Los Angeles, where the American Cinematheque hosted a tribute to her coinciding with the August 3 DVD release of "The Kim Novak Collection."

Along with Tippi Hedren, Eva Marie Saint and Joan Fontaine, she will participate to the Motion Picture Academy Tribute to the “Hitchcock Blondes” (2011).

Honors

For her contribution to motion pictures, Novak was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 6332 Hollywood Boulevard.

In 1995, Novak was ranked 92nd by ''Empire Magazine'' on a list of the 100 sexiest stars in film history. In 1955, she won the Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer-Female. In 1957, she won another Golden Globe–for World Favorite female actress. In 1997, Kim won an Honorary Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival. In 2003, a Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Novak by Eastman Kodak.

In 2005, British fashion designer Alexander McQueen named his first It bag the Novak.

Personal life

Novak has been married to veterinarian Dr. Robert Malloy (born 1940) since March 12, 1976. The couple resides on a ranch where they raise horses and llamas. Novak has two stepchildren.

Novak was previously married to English actor Richard Johnson from March 15, 1965, to April 23, 1966. The two have remained friends. Novak dated Sammy Davis, Jr. and Ramfis Trujillo, in the late 1950s and actor Michael Brandon in the 1970s. She was engaged to director Richard Quine in the early 1960s.

On July 24, 2000, her home in Eagle Point, Oregon, was partially destroyed by fire. Novak lost scripts, several paintings, and a computer containing the only draft of her unfinished autobiography. Of the loss Novak said:

"I take it personally as a sign that maybe I’m not supposed to write my biography; maybe the past is supposed to stay buried. It made me realize then what was really valuable. That’s the day I wrote a gratitude list. We’re safe and our animals are safe."

In December 2001, her home in Oregon was robbed of more than $200,000 worth of firearms and tools. Three men were arrested and charged with burglary, theft, and criminal conspiracy.

In 2006, Novak was injured in a horseback riding accident. She suffered a punctured lung, broken ribs, and nerve damage but made a full recovery within a year.

Novak is an artist who paints in watercolor and oil as well as creating sculpture, stained glass design, poetry, and photography.

In October 2010, it was reported that Novak had been diagnosed with breast cancer according to her manager, Sue Cameron. Cameron also noted that Novak is "undergoing treatment" and that "her doctors say she is in fantastic physical shape and should recover very well."

Filmography

''The French Line'' (1954) (uncredited)

''Pushover'' (1954)

''Phffft!'' (1954)

''Son of Sinbad'' (1955) (uncredited)

''5 Against the House'' (1955)

''Picnic'' (1955)

''The Man with the Golden Arm'' (1955)

''The Eddy Duchin Story'' (1956)

''Jeanne Eagels'' (1957)

''Pal Joey'' (1957)

''Vertigo'' (1958)

''Bell, Book and Candle'' (1958)

''Middle of the Night'' (1959)

''Strangers When We Meet'' (1960)

''Pepe'' (1960) (cameo)

''The Notorious Landlady'' (1962)

''Boys' Night Out'' (1962)

''Of Human Bondage'' (1964)

''Kiss Me, Stupid'' (1964)

''The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders'' (1965)

''The Legend of Lylah Clare'' (1968)

''The Great Bank Robbery'' (1969)

''Tales That Witness Madness'' (1973)

''Satan's Triangle'' (1975)

''The White Buffalo'' (1977)

''Just a Gigolo'' (1979)

''The Mirror Crack'd'' (1980)

''The Children'' (1990)

''Liebestraum'' (1991)

References

Further reading

External links

Photographs and literature

Category:1933 births Category:Living people Category:American painters Category:American film actors Category:American television actors Category:American people of Czech descent Category:Actors from Chicago, Illinois Category:Actors from Illinois Category:People with cancer Category:People from Eagle Point, Oregon Category:People from Jackson County, Oregon

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