Exposed - Sinatra's secret Rat Pack: Exclusive candid pictures introduced by his daughters Nancy and Tina show Ol' Blue Eyes, as always, doing it His Way...

How would I describe my dad in one word? Truthful. He was honest to a fault. You didn't want to ask him anything unless you were prepared to hear the truthful answer. That honesty, plus the overwhelming generosity of spirit, was present in every scene, in every film and every song he sang. And let's not forget his talent, his intelligence, his ambition, and the twinkle in his eyes. The camera loved that twinkle. He was able to tap into his real-life experiences without studying how to do that! I don't have to watch his films or play his recordings to remember him. I carry his blood in my veins, his life's music in my heart and see his immortal soul in the bright, loving eyes of my children and my granddaughter. For me, and millions of others, he has never left us and never will. Nancy Sinatra Jr

The one thing I can say about my dad with absolute certainty is that he never took a bad picture. Why is that? Was it his to-die-for blue eyes? Or was it his gleaming white teeth and warm, engaging smile? Personally, I think he was just gorgeous. I can hear him now – 'GORGEOUS, ME? NAAAH!' OK, so maybe gorgeous is the wrong word. How about 'handsome with oodles of sex appeal'? Now, that he'd like! To this day, I miss my dad most at five o'clock in the afternoon. That was the time he would call from wherever he was in the world; ten miles or ten thousand, he would call. One by one, we'd take the telephone receiver and chatter on like magpies about our individual days. This had to crack him up! Photographs arranged throughout our home played an important part in keeping us close, despite the long distances. God knows he was prominently displayed in my bedroom, perhaps more than anywhere else in our house in Holmby Hills. At some point, I had decided to decorate my little domain with all Dad's Capitol album covers. This was cool with Mum until I started Scotch-Taping them to the wallpaper. Likewise, Dad carried our images in accordion-folded leather picture books, small enough to carry in his kit bag. Mum made sure to have John Engstead, the renowned Hollywood portrait photographer, shoot us every couple of years, a ritual that continued until my siblings and I were old enough to say 'no!' I'm kind of sorry we did that. When Dad died, I found all these very worn picture folders dropped in among his things – it's the little treasures that can mean the most. Tina Sinatra 

Sinatra says: 'My mother wasn't tough, the neighbourhood was tough. She was firm. She wanted me to be safe, to be a gentleman... She influenced me a great deal. She was a self-taught woman, and very bright, and had good common sense. She was very modern in a sense and fairly ambitious... Whatever she undertook, she was a hard worker. And if there was a problem somewhere, in any one of the families… the first thing you heard was, 'You better call Dolly'

Sinatra says: 'There was a time when I was with a bunch of kids my own age, 13 or 14. In the summer we used to go swimming in a pool at Palisades Park in New Jersey. I was lucky – I had a pass to get in… I'd get in on my card, go around to the back, and slip another guy the same card through the fence. He'd get in and I'd go back and hand the card to another guy until we were all inside… One day the attendant caught on… this big guy grabs me by the neck and beats the hell out of me. When he gets through he boots me out the gate. I was hurt all right, but I was hurting from something more. All those times I got those guys into the swimming pool, but when I was getting clobbered not one of them came over to help me. They just… scramsville'

Sinatra enjoys coffee and donuts in his trailer during a break in filming, circa 1950

Sinatra says: 'At the start of the relationship we [Sinatra and Ava Gardner] were really deeply in love; almost too much in love. She was working at Metro doing a picture here, a picture there, and then came a job to do a picture in Spain. Things all of a sudden didn't fall into place. This was a turmoil that the whole world knew about, and I was chasing her around the world and I was borrowing money to go visit with her. I was broke… all the guys who made hundreds of thousands of dollars with me never called and said what can we do for you, do you need any money? At that point I had nobody, the only guy I could talk to was Jimmy Van Heusen and he'd give me a few dollars for my pocket'

Sinatra says: 'Sammy was always the butt of our jokes and he loved it… He took the jokes and was a lot of fun and is a very, very big talent!'

Sinatra says: 'When we worked at The Sands hotel in Las Vegas, every evening at 5 o'clock, we would go into the steam room… or just lie around and take it easy and order pies… when everyone got in their tuxedos we'd throw the pies at each other'

Sinatra at the helm in the mid-Fifties. He enjoyed spending time on his boat with pals such as Humphrey Bogart

Relaxing in a swimming pool in Palm Springs in the late Fifties

At CTC Studios in London in 1962, recording the album Great Songs From Great Britain

Sinatra, actress Angie Dickinson, jazz singer Nancy Wilson (and friend) backstage at the Cow Palace in San Francisco, on July 31, 1964. Sinatra was there to sing at a benefit for the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People)

An unpublished promotional shot for 1965 movie Marriage On The Rocks. The comedy also starred Dean Martin, Deborah Kerr and Nancy Sinatra Jr

Sinatra had a lifelong fascination with photography. He is pictured holding a Rolleiflex medium-format camera

Relaxing at home in Palm Springs for a Life magazine shoot in 1965

Sinatra with his dog, Ringo

On assignment for LIFE magazine at Madison Square Garden for the Ali v Frazier 'Fight of the Century' on March 8, 1971. Burt Lancaster is next to Frank

Sinatra's picture was used as the magazine's front cover

Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin rehearsing in the Seventies

On the Warner back lot for this unseen cover photograph of the unreleased Sinatra-Jobim album. It was reworked and released in 1971 as Sinatra And Company