Frank Sinatra Jr.  dies

Singer Frank Sinatra Jr. died Wednesday of cardiac arrest while on tour in Daytona Beach, Florida. He was 72.

His real name was Francis Wayne Sinatra — his father's full name is Francis Albert Sinatra — but went professionally by Frank Sinatra Jr.

Sinatra Jr. was the middle child of Sinatra and Nancy Barbato Sinatra, who was the elder Sinatra's first wife and the mother of all three of his children.

Sinatra Jr.'s older sister was Nancy Sinatra, who had a successful musical career of her own, and his younger sister was TV producer Tina Sinatra.

He was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, in 1943, just as his father's career was getting started, and he would watch his dad become one of the most famous singers of all time.

Sinatra Jr. got to see many other storied performers like Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. and Count Basie.

"I saw all the top stars perform," Sinatra Jr. told the AP in 2002.

Sinatra Jr. followed his father into music as a teenager, eventually working for the senior Sinatra as his musical director and conductor.

The elder Sinatra died of a heart attack May 14, 1998, at 82.

When Sinatra Jr. was 19 in 1963, three men kidnapped him at gunpoint from a Lake Tahoe hotel. He was returned safely after two days when his family paid $240,000 for his release.

Barry Keenan, a high school friend of Nancy Sinatra, was arrested with the other two suspects, Johnny Irwin and Joe Amsler, and convicted of conspiracy and kidnapping.

Keenan masterminded the kidnapping, prosecutors said. He was sentenced to life plus 75 years in prison, but was declared legally insane at the time of the crime, had his sentence reduced and was paroled in 1968 after serving 4½ years.

Sinatra Jr. was married in 1998, but divorced in 2000. He is survived by a son, Michael.