29 years ago today, CBS aired music icon Frank Sinatra”s final screen role. He guest starred in an episode of Magnum, P.I.
In the episode, titled “Laura,” Sinatra played a retired New York cop who learns that his granddaughter was murdered during his retirement celebration. He asks Magnum for help in his hunt for the murderers.
Sinatra appeared on the cover of TV Guide with Magnum, P.I. star Tom Selleck the week his episode aired.
Though the CBS detective series was Sinatra”s final screen acting role, he could have had a part in The Godfather: Part III afterward. Francis Ford Coppola offered Sinatra the role of Don Altobello, but he didn”t end up taking the part. Oddly enough, the part went to Eli Wallach, whom Sinatra replaced in From Here to Eternity.
Other notable February 25 happenings in pop culture history:
• 1950: Variety show Your Show of Shows premiered on NBC.
• 1964: The Beatles finished recording “Can”t Buy Me Love” at EMI Studios (now known as the famous Abbey Road Studios).
• 1972: Led Zeppelin performed in Auckland while on their first and only tour of New Zealand and Australia. During that tour, Jimmy Page shaved his trademark beard, and he remained clean-shaven for the rest of the band”s career.
• 1973: Stephen Sondheim musical A Little Night Music opened on Broadway at the Shubert Theatre.
• 1985: Tears for Fears released their second studio album, Songs From the Big Chair, featuring their hit “Shout.”
• 1986: “We Are the World” won four awards, including Song of the Year, at the 28th Annual Grammy Awards.
• 1998: An extra crashed Bob Dylan”s performance at the 40th Annual Grammy Awards, dancing wildly across the stage shirtless with the words “Soy Bomb” in marker on his chest. Dylan won Album of the Year that night for Time Out of Mind, and Shawn Colvin won Song of the Year for “Sunny Came Home.”
• 2004: Mel Gibson”s The Passion of Christ opened in U.S. theaters.
• 2007: Battlestar Galactica episode “Dirty Hands” first aired, giving BSG fans a look at the blue collar side of the fleet that carries what remains of the human race.