Christopher Riordan costarred with Ol’ Blue Eyes several times and later choreographed a dance scene for his eldest daughter.

Frank Sinatra was ‘not fun to work with,’ says Hollywood dancer, but his daughter Nancy was ‘one of the sweetest people’

Christopher Riordan costarred with Ol’ Blue Eyes several times and later choreographed a dance scene for his eldest daughter.

By Kathleen Perricone

September 17, 2026 6:37 p.m. ET

Frank Sinatra circa 1965. Credit:

Screen Archives/Getty

- Frank Sinatra was “not fun to work with,” says actor-dancer Christopher Riordan, his costar in several films.

- “He would show up in his helicopter... get out and do his scene... and that was it,” Riordan said of Sinatra.

- By contrast, his daughter Nancy Sinatra was “one of the sweetest people I ever worked with,” recalled Riordan.

Frank Sinatra did it *his way* on movie sets, says an actor-dancer who costarred with Ol’ Blue Eyes on several productions in the 1960s.

Christopher Riordan, who’s worked with Hollywood’s biggest stars from Elvis Presley to Elizabeth Taylor, shared the screen with Sinatra in two of his more notable films, *Von Ryan’s Express* and *Marriage on the Rocks*. In a new interview on the *That’s Classic!* podcast, the 88-year-old was asked about the experience — and his answer was, well, frank.

Frank Sinatra and Deborah Kerr in ‘Marriage on the Rocks’ (1965).

FilmPublicityArchive/United Archives via Getty

“Let me just preface by saying I think he’s a wonderful musician,” began Riordan, who most recently played Chris on all five seasons of NBC’s *Superstore*. “But he was not fun to work with. I mean, he would show up in his helicopter, you know, that would land, and he’d get out and do his scene. And he wouldn’t do it more than twice. And then he’d get in his helicopter and go away, and that was it.”

And during his one and only take, his scene partner “better be ready.”

On the set of *Von Ryan’s Express*, a World War II adventure film about Allied POWs who attempt to escape to Switzerland, “cold” Sinatra was particular about Riordan’s placement.

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“If it’s his closeup, he wants you right by the camera so he has you to play with,” recalled the actor who portrayed a fellow POW. “But if it’s my closeup, he’s not there to give the same back to you.”

Riordan does, however, have one “story that I enjoy” from working with Sinatra on the film. “I was standing right next to him when John Leyton introduced him to Mia Farrow,” the 21-year-old *Peyton Place *actress whom Sinatra, 50, married in 1966.

Not long after *Von Ryan’s Express*, Riordan was working as a choreographer for American International Pictures when he learned his next production, *The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini*, featured Ol’ Blue Eyes’ eldest daughter Nancy.

“I thought, ‘Oh God, another Sinatra,’” he recalled.

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But the young singer proved to be the opposite of her father. “Nancy Sinatra turned out to be one of the sweetest people that I ever worked with,” said Riordan. “At the end of the whole thing, she came up and gave me a kiss and thanked me for making her look good.”

Nancy Sinatra with Aron Kincaid in ‘The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini’ (1966).

Hulton Archive/Getty

She reminded Riordan of her mother, Sinatra’s first wife also named Nancy, whom he had met at the 1964 premiere of *My Fair Lady*.

“What a wonderful, beautiful, gracious woman she was,” recalled Riordan, who played several background roles in the Audrey Hepburn musical. “I said to myself, ‘Why in the world did he ever leave her?’”

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