Frank Sinatra Jr., 72, dies of cardiac arrest while on tour

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Frank Sinatra Jr., who carried on his famous father's legacy with his own music career and whose kidnapping as a young man added a bizarre chapter to his father's legendary life, died Wednesday. He was 72.

The younger Sinatra died unexpectedly of cardiac arrest while on tour in Daytona Beach, Fla., the Sinatra family said in a statement to The Associated Press.

The statement said the family mourns the untimely passing of their son, brother, father and uncle. No other details were provided.

His real name was Francis Wayne Sinatra – his father's full name was Francis Albert Sinatra – but he 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, N,J., in 1944, 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. But he usually watched from a distance, as Sinatra was constantly away on tours and making movies.