Frank Sinatra was never a great actor, but he had a naturalistic quality that worked well for him in his better movies ("From Here To Eternity", "The Manchurian Candidate", etc.). Funny story: He was incensed that the character of Johnny Fontane in "The Godfather" was so obviously based on him (Sinatra lived for a time in Hasbrouck Heights, NJ, and was friendly with Willie Moretti, a very powerful local crime boss who also had "friendships" with Lou Costello and Jerry Lewis. Sinatra sang at the wedding of Moretti's daughter and they had a very close relationship, although Sinatra would later deny this. The father of a childhood friend of mine worked for Moretti as a young man, and although he always talked badly of Costello, he never mentioned Sinatra to me. Moretti was "rubbed out" in 1951 in a cafe across the street from Palisades Park.). Once, Sinatra crossed paths in a NY restaurant with Mario Puzo, the author of book on which the movie was based, and vilified him in the most obscene, ugly terms imaginable. Later, when they were making "Godfather II", he approached the film-makers and asked if they had a part in it for him. They turned him down.
