Frank Sinatra gave three-word apology to daughter on his death bed
Tina Sinatra’s voice cracks as she talks about the days leading up to the final curtain for her father. Frank, she says, was a proud man who lived life his way but, just before his death, acknowledged that it was perhaps not the best way.
“Dad suffered terrible guilt,” Tina, 75, recalls. “I had a talk with him near his end, and he told me he was sorry. I said, ‘Dad, it’s a long time ago. Leaving mum was so long ago’ and he just said, ‘I think I hurt you most because you were so young’. He knew it hurt that I never knew what it was like to have breakfast with my dad.
“My dad’s nickname for me was ‘Pigeon’ and I’ll never forget at the end of his life, in the middle of the night in the dark, he said, ‘I’m sorry, Pigeon’.” Tina was just seven months old when her father left the family home, leaving her mother Nancy Barbato, to bring up her and older siblings, Frank Junior, then five, and nine-year-old Nancy.
Although in regular contact, he was a “physically distant” father. And his passing in 1998, aged 82, left Tina with her own feelings of regret after her intense dislike for her stepmother, Frank’s fourth wife Barbara Marx, drove a rift between father and daughter. “In his later years, he was very dependent on my stepmother. She manipulated him,” Tina, who lives alone in LA, says.
Frank with first wife, Nancy Barbato (Getty Images)“I didn’t like what was going on for quite a long time, so much so that I did not talk to him for a year. And I will regret that year for the rest of my life.” In 2018, the death of Tina’s mother at the age of 101 also left her in deep mourning. “My father died when I was 50 and my mother died when I was 70. All that time I had with them and I am full of questions. I think about what I didn’t say or ask them.
Queen's sister offended major Hollywood stars and was 'barred' from US
“I would get into bed with them and pull over the covers if I could. I would urge people not to be like me. Make the most of the time with your parents as much as you can.” She has however found a way to reconnect with her parents through Sinatra The Musical, which recently had its world premiere at the Birmingham Rep.
Produced by Tina, it is an all-singing-all-dancing retelling of the early years of her father’s career featuring over 20 of his legendary songs. “Seeing these actors who have so perfectly embodied them, has been very helpful to me, “ says Tina. “It’s been cathartic.” Acclaimed Broadway actor Matt Doyle takes on the titular role in the show that at its heart is a love triangle with first wife, Nancy, played by Phoebe Panaretos, and screen siren Ava Gardner (Ana Villafañe).
The Tony award-winning actor used his own struggles with mental health to help him play the role - as well as the music lyrics. Matt says: "His ability to communicate a song is what made him stand out on top of his voice He made you really feel the lyrics of a song which is why he was such a brilliant actor. "
Frank with Ava Gardner (Getty Images)
Tina (left) with the family in 1968 (Redferns)The production shows Sinatra struggling to balance family life against Hollywood temptations and covers a bleak period in the early Forties to mid-Fifties. “His singles were not selling like they used to, the film roles were not great, his affairs were hitting the headlines.” Frank had flings with Lana Turner, Judy Garland, and Marlene Dietrich before falling in love with Ava Gardner while still married to Nancy.
But the volatile relationship with Ava coupled with his career downturn caused Frank, who called himself an 18-carat depressive, to contemplate suicide. “My father was a very emotional, gentle man who felt things deeply. He always needed to fill his life with people. He hated being alone,” Tina recalls. “Dad said he didn’t need to write a biography because he left behind the songs.”
My Way is a clear autobiographical contender, and so too is That’s Life, which Matt performs as suicidal Frank. After riding high one moment and being shot down as a washed up has-been the next, his turbulent relationship with Ava also hit rock bottom. The women in her father’s life were crucial to his well-being and wielded great influence, which is why Tina says she needed a female director for the musical in Kathleen Marshall.
“I wanted a female as I felt a woman’s sensibilities would absolutely relate him to women and to men,” Tina explains. The key women in Frank’s life – his wife Nancy, his mother Dolly and Ava – were all a huge influence. Second wife Ava was instrumental in Frank’s comeback, which has been dubbed “the biggest in showbiz history”.
Matt Doyle as Frank, and Ana Villafane as Ava Gardner, in Sinatra The Musical (DAILY EXPRESS)The production gives a nod to Frank’s known mobster connections, but it was Ava “not a bloody horse head in his bed” that persuaded studio boss Harry Cohn to cast him in 1953 film From Here to Eternity, says Tina. Frank went on to win a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for the 1953 movie, but there was no Happy Ever After with Ava. The couple divorced in 1957. However, they remained friends until Ava’s death in 1990 aged 67.
Tina has only fond memories of “other woman” Ava. “We could not go see her until after they married. Even then, I guess I could sense my mum’s discomfort at the situation but she never said a harsh word about Ava in front of us. She expected us to be polite and have a good time with her. And I did.”
She adds: “My siblings really suffered. Nancy suffered tremendously. Nancy lived through all those things when he wouldn’t show up or when he couldn’t show up.” Their mother never remarried and kept her husband’s clothes in his closet for years after he left. “When I was tiny, I’d just go in there and smell his shirts and smell him.”
Elaine Paige hails West Side Story and My Fair Lady in top 10 movie musicals
Frank Junior, who died in 2016, and Nancy, 83, both pursued singing careers, while Tina became a producer and took over managing the family estate. On reconciling the stage icon with the reality of a flawed human being in this new musical, Tina says: “To be anything other than honest would have been a waste of time. Nancy hasn’t watched the show yet,but she’s very supportive.”
Tina has produced the new show (Darren Quinton/Birmingham Live)Growing up as the offspring of Hollywood royalty did come with exciting Rat Pack perks. “My dad was there for us when he could be. I went to school with Dean Martin’s daughter Deana and for our concerts, our dads would always show up together to watch us. That was thrilling.”
Tina also remembers nights around the piano with Nat King Cole, visits to Judy Garland’s home and being friends with Judy’s daughter Liza Minnelli. Tina met Marilyn Monroe several times as a child: “Marilyn was always barefoot with no make-up. She did not walk around like you saw her on film. She was sweet, soft. My dad really cared for Marilyn. I’m unsure if it was a romantic relationship, but they were good friends.”
Romance spread beyond his own life too and, as Tina acknowledges in the show introduction, many audience members would not have been conceived if not for her father’s songs and the way he sang them. “The music, more than anything else, was his life’s passion.”
* Sinatra The Musical is on at The Birmingham Rep until October 28. For more info go here.
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
