The Sinatra Acting Technique: How Ol' Blue Eyes Never Followed Stanislavsky

Listen up all you wannabe actors out there studying the Stanislavsky method and getting a little too close for comfort studying your stage or movie role: Go over to Turner Classic Movies on Sunday and Wednesday nights during the May of this writing. There, you'll get a chance to see a large collection of Frank Sinatra's movies that admittedly vary in quality--yet show Sinatra usually managing to carry most of the film himself. That probably seems like hyperbole when you see other co-stars such as Natalie Wood or Deborah Kerr acting in these films and attempting to overshadow everybody else in the room. Yet, Sinatra's compelling nature and palpable focus made him believable in almost every single part he played and no matter how much of a turkey the film was.

As one who's had some study in film, I can tell you that at least ¾ of the 40 Sinatra films Turner Classic Movies is screening this month are well worth your time--if the other quarter still worth seeing just for their curio factor.

What you actors should be studying is one thing that increasingly-protracted acting technique should start considering: The art of focused spontaneity. If you've ever read extensively on the life on Sinatra, you'll find that, starting with his more serious roles from 1953's "From Here to Eternity" on, he somehow managed to squeeze in making good movies in the middle of grueling recording sessions, concert dates, time spent with friends, family (or having spats with Ava Gardner), doing television shows & specials and eventually opening and running his own recording studio. The man was basically about five people rolled into one during the peak of his career.