Rudy Vallee was the first of the American 20th-century crooners. Long before Sinatra came along, New Englander Vallee was making women swoon with his singing style. He first came to fame in the late 1920s, splitting time between his music career and a burgeoning film career. By the '30s, Vallee had become a bona fide pop idol, with popular songs and hit films. As late as the '60s, when even Vallee's successors had long gone out of fashion, he was still enjoying popularity on screen, and he continued in show business until his death in 1986.