For an entire generation, Frank Sinatra, aka Ol’ Blue Eyes, helped transform the entertainment industry, collecting Academy Awards, Golden Globes, and Grammys with ease. His starring role in From Here to Eternity cemented his credentials as a talented and acclaimed actor, while his poems like My Way and Somethin’ Stupid garnered rave reviews from fans. The singer’s life off-camera is as documented as it was when in front of it, with Sinatra enjoying four marriages before his death at the age of 82 in 1998.
The star, who helped form the infamous Rat Pack, has also had a string of strong relationships with fellow stars, including ambitious Marlon Brando.
According to reports, Brando – who was notoriously unprofessional in his demeanor with co-stars – and Sinatra had a huge feud while on the set of Guys and Dolls.
The 1955 musical, created after the success of the Broadway theatrical show, saw the two teams come together as the main male parts of the story.
But Stefan Kanfer, in his 2008 book, Someone Else: The Reckless Life and Fabulous Career of Marlon Brando, outlined just how difficult a working relationship the two giants have already endured.
At the time of the film’s entry into production, Sinatra was already a household name, having won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor earlier in 1954, but losing a role in On the Waterfront to Brando.
When it came to acting in Guys and Dolls, Brando delivered a second blow to Anna Sinatra, being cast in the larger of the pair’s two roles.
Kanfer noted that Sinatra “saw in Marlon a fictitious leader of the youthful rebellion, the embodiment of everything that threatened his career.”
“Despite the wounded bravado, Sinatra was a very anxious man in the mid-fifties,” he added.
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“Frank,” Marlon captivated, “I had never done anything like this before, and I was wondering, maybe I could come into your dressing room and we could just run the conversation together?”
Sinatra was curt: ‘Don’t give me any of those studios of actors. “
While his relationship with stars like Brando was certainly strained, he often showered others with good intentions and love, including the likes of Hollywood golden girl Marilyn Monroe.
Such was the closeness of their relationship that Sinatra was reportedly angry after Monroe’s death in 1962, and even thought there was a cover-up after the news of her death was announced.
At the time of her death, an official investigation from the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office ruled that Monroe likely died of suicide, as a result of a barbiturate overdose.
But Sinatra wasn’t convinced, and according to the 2018 book, Marilyn Monroe: The Private Life of a Public Icon, Ol’ Blue Eyes, despite her deep love for her, didn’t believe the cause of death.
Author Charles Casillo wrote: “Like many men, Frank Sinatra fell under the spell of her charm. He treated her as if he had treated no other woman.”
“He was very protective of her.”
The author argued that it was Sinatra’s love for Monroe that he planned to propose to the actress, a scheme that his lawyers eventually thwarted.
Although others, including Sinatra’s close friend Tony Obedansano, have argued that the two were just really good friends.
“Frank felt that she was so agitated, so fragile, that he couldn’t sleep with her and then turn away from her,” he said.
With Frank cornering Monroe, regardless of their physical relationship, when her death was announced as a suicide, he was heartbroken.
Obedesano recalled how Monroe planned to show how her relationship with US President John F. Kennedy had developed, and that Sinatra was convinced that this led to her death.
He said, “Frank thought had the press conference not been announced, she would have lived much longer.
“Frank thought she was killed and he didn’t get over it.”
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