Rant #1,632: He Did It His Way (Junior Version)

I woke up to hear that Frank Sinatra Jr., the son of the legendary performer and a singer, musician and orchestra leader in his own right, died while on tour.

He was 72 years of age.

If anyone was ever in the shadow of a parent, Junior was the one. He was the son of perhaps the most famous singer in the world, and on top of that, he was the brother of a pop sensation of the 1960s, Nancy Sinatra.

Yes, he was also the brother of Tina Sinatra, but when you have the pedigree of a Sinatra, you have a lot to live up to.

Sinatra looked like his father, sounded like his father, and really, he could never carve out his own real niche in the show business world that was part of his blood.

But he soldiered on, first as a young singer/actor at the same time that his sister Nancy was making great strides in her career, and later, as the Sinatra that carried on the flame the most for dad Frank.

But the most famous thing that happened to Junior actually had nothing to do with anything that he did as a performer, and it happened when he was a teen.

When Junior was 19, he was kidnapped from a Lake Tahoe hotel. He was held for two days when his family paid nearly a quarter of a million dollars for his release.

A friend of his sister, Nancy, was the mastermind of the plot, and he, along with two other men, were convicted of the kidnapping, and served prison time for this deed.

A lot of people said it was a publicity stunt, but the law found that it actually happened, but to this day, some say that even though it actually took place, it was a stunt to generate excitement in Junior's burgeoning career.

Whatever the case, Junior appeared in a number of movies and TV shows during his early years in show business, and he made a few records, but he really could never escape the shadow of his father, or his sister.

The majority of his career ended up being spent helping his father with his own concerts, often serving as musical director. When his father died, Junior basically kept his father's legacy going, touring and often performing his father's hits himself, with his own arrangements of these songs, across the country.

He was married once, had one child, and was linked romantically to the infamous Heidi Fleiss, madam to the stars.

Frank Sinatra Jr. was something of an enigma. Although he never escaped the shadow of his famous father, he came to terms with that burden, and made it work for him, and now that it is all said and done, that is his legacy.