Frank Sinatra Jr dies, aged 72

Frank Sinatra Jr, who carried on his father’s legacy with his own music career and whose kidnapping as a young man added a bizarre chapter to the family’s story, has died at the age of 72.

The younger Sinatra died of cardiac arrest while on tour in Florida.

His real name was Francis Wayne Sinatra — his father’s full name was Francis Albert Sinatra — but the younger man went professionally by Frank Sinatra Jr.

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 on May 14 1998, at 82.

In 1963, when Sinatra Jr was 19, 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.

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