He was a world-famous crooner, an infamous ladies' man and a style icon who helped define a generation.
CTV News archival footage captured Canada's reaction to the death of the great Frank Sinatra, who passed away on May 14, 1998 at the age of 82.
The tributes were touching, amusing and heartfelt, as Canada's jazz community mourned the loss of the man and celebrated the music he left behind.
Archived video from CTV National News a day after Sinatra’s death includes several clips of the crooner’s Canadian performances throughout the years, as well as a snapshot of CTV News, circa 1998.
"Frank Sinatra certainly wasn't shy about performing or touring," CTV National News anchor Lloyd Robertson said on the newscast. "He was at home in Canada, where he had thousands of fans."
Former CTV News reporter Rosemary Thompson's report on Sinatra includes several clips of his appearances in Canada. A 1988 snippet of Sinatra singing "Love and Marriage" in Vancouver shows him on stage in a tuxedo, crooning away with a microphone in one hand and a mixed drink in the other.
Another clip shows Sinatra accepting a bronze polar bear statuette from then-Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau in 1983. "It's beautiful," Sinatra says in the clip.
In the report, Sinatra's fans remembered him for his incredible musical talent and his mercurial personality that was alternately soft or hard, inviting or standoffish.
"Sometimes he was gentle, soft. He could use his voice that way," jazz singer John Labelle told CTV Montreal back in 1998, after Sinatra's death. "Other times he was a tough guy."
Labelle said Sinatra was a master performer who played well to the crowd. "He made love to an audience. He caressed them, he talked to them."
Labelle attempts to get a swoon out of reporter Rosemary Thompson in the story, crooning Sinatra's "The Nearness of You" to her on a park bench in Montreal. "Frank is turning over in his grave," Labelle says after singing a bar from the song.
The late Toronto jazz pianist Oscar Peterson, who toured with Sinatra, said at the time that Sinatra's music "will always be with us."
"The man may be gone. The music never leaves," Peterson said in a 1998 interview.
Concert promoter Donald Tarlton brought Sinatra to perform in Montreal in 1975, and he says he was struck by the singer's commanding presence. "He was the man with the swagger," Tarlton told CTV News. "He was the man with the attitude. He was the man on top of the perch and no one dared knock him off."
Sinatra left behind a long list of classic songs that remain popular today, including "Fly Me to the Moon," "I've Got You Under My Skin" and "Luck Be a Lady."
The Hoboken, N.J., native was leader of the Rat Pack group of entertainers and performed at casinos and on film with his fellow members, including Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Joey Bishop and Peter Lawford. His "pack" also included actors Humphrey Bogart, Cary Grant, Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn.
Sinatra was well-known for his very public and tumultuous relationships with the likes of Judy Garland, Lauren Bacall, Juliet Prowse, Angie Dickinson and Marilyn Monroe, in between turbulent marriages to Nancy Barbato, Ava Gardner and Mia Farrow. He eventually settled down with Barbara Marx, former wife to comedian Zeppo Marx, at the age of 60.
