Frankie Vaughan

Frankie Vaughan (real name Francis Abelson) was born in Liverpool on 3 February 1928. He was the grandson of Russian Jewish immigrants and was later inspired to take the stage name Frankie Vaughan from his maternal grandmother, who referred to him as her ‘number vawn’ grandson.  A British pop crooner, Frankie was a throwback to the music hall tradition taking to the stage in a top hat and cane.  While studying commercial art at the Leeds College of Art, Vaughan won a singing competition and after touring for three years as a dance band crooner, he achieved fame only after he started recording.

Considered by many to be Britain's Frank Sinatra, Vaughan had a string of hits including Istanbul, Garden of Eden, Kisses Sweeter Than Wine and a song that became his signature tune Give Me The Moonlight.

An outspoken critic, he railed against juvenile delinquency and criticised the behavour of rock entertainers such as Elvis Presley and The Beatles.  As an actor he appeared in a number of films, playing a pop singer in two of them, The Heart of A Man and The Lady Is A Square.  Drawn to Hollywood, he appeared opposite Marilyn Monroe in Let's Make Love.  However, he took an instant dislike to Hollywood and the film was not a success, its production having been plagued by difficulties, not helped by Monroe's off-screen affair with Montand. Monroe was rumoured to have attempted to seduce Vaughan too but he resisted, and cited familial reasons for his early return to London. He did, however, perform for several seasons in Las Vegas during the 1950s and 1960s.

Remaining popular in Britain, in the Seventies he hosted his own television series and set a record with his three-month run at London's Talk of The Town nightclub. In 1985 Vaughan successfully took over the lead in the West End musical 42nd Street. This role proved to be his swansong, as he was forced to leave the cast after a year when he contracted peritonitis, having ignored the onset of the illness amid the show's hectic performance schedule.