Sammy Davis, Jr.

Sammy Davis, Jr. (born December 8, 1925, Harlem, Manhattan, New York, U.S.—died May 16, 1990, Los Angeles, California) was an American singer, dancer, actor, and entertainer who broke down barriers for African American performers in the 20th century. Considered a consummate showman, he earned the nickname “Mr. Entertainment” for his versatile talents and his seemingly boundless energy on the stage and screen. With Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, he was a core member of the Rat Pack, a close-knit group of entertainers who became a legendary fixture on the Las Vegas nightclub scene and acted in several films together. Of his legacy, Davis once said, “This is what I want on my tombstone. Sammy Davis Jr., the date, and underneath, one word: ‘Entertainer.’ That’s all, because that’s what I am, man.”

Early life and career in vaudeville

Davis’s parents—Sammy Davis, Sr., and Elvera (née Sanchez) Davis—were vaudeville performers. While his parents were on the road, Sammy, Jr., was raised by his paternal grandmother in Harlem. When he was about two and a half years old, his parents divorced, and his father subsequently raised him. At age three Davis began performing in vaudeville shows with his father and his uncle, Will Mastin, in the Will Mastin Trio. Davis learned tap dancing from the great Bill (“Bojangles”) Robinson but never received a formal education. He made his screen debut at the tender age of seven in the 1933 short film Rufus Jones for President, in which he played the title character, a child who falls asleep and dreams about being elected president.

Encounters with racism and drive to entertain

Davis encountered virulent racial prejudice early in his career; as he and his father and uncle toured the American vaudeville circuit, many hotels and restaurants would not serve or accommodate them. At 18 he was drafted into the U.S. Army’s first integrated unit. While in the army Davis was frequently taunted and humiliated by white soldiers. On one occasion he was accused of being too friendly with a white female officer, and he was subsequently forced to tap dance for the other soldiers, who also painted his body with racist slurs. As he would recount in his 1965 autobiography, Yes I Can, such experiences only fueled his performances and his desire to please his audiences, in the hope of “neutralizing” their prejudice and hatred. He wrote, “My talent was the weapon, the power, the way for me to fight. It was the one way I might hope to affect a man’s thinking.”

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Rise to stardom and recording career

After World War II Davis returned to performing with the Will Mastin Trio. By this time he had become the act’s central figure. He not only sang and danced but also played trumpet, drums, piano, and vibraphone; moreover, he was an accomplished mime and comedian. The trio began performing in nightclubs and appearing with such headliners as Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope, and Mickey Rooney. In the meantime Davis recorded several singles with Capitol Records; one of these, “The Way You Look Tonight” (1949), was named the record of the year by Metronome magazine, which also anointed Davis that year’s “Most Outstanding New Personality.”

With the trio, Davis broke through to television in the early 1950s, appearing on Ed Sullivan’s Toast of the Town (later renamed The Ed Sullivan Show) and on The Colgate Comedy Hour. Davis’s star power soared. In 1954, however, he was injured in a car crash that resulted in the loss of his left eye. During his recovery he took an interest in Judaism, to which he eventually converted. Meanwhile, he wore an eye patch in public, which he continued wearing after returning to performing and receiving a prosthetic eye. In Yes I Can Davis explained that he was fearful of how audiences would react if he went onstage without the patch; he also thought it made him look more distinctive. On the advice of actor Humphrey Bogart, however, he stopped wearing it, realizing he did not want to become known as “the kid with the patch.”

In 1955 Davis released his first album, Starring Sammy Davis Jr., under the Decca Records label. Throughout his long recording career, he earned three Grammy Award nominations, including a best male pop vocal performance nod for his signature song, “The Candy Man” (1971).

Success on Broadway and joining the Rat Pack

By the late 1950s Davis’s father and uncle had retired from performing, leaving him to pursue a solo career. Along with his nightclub and recording career, Davis was successful on Broadway in Mr. Wonderful (1956) and in a 1964 revival of Clifford Odets’s Golden Boy, for which he received a Tony Award nomination for best actor in a musical. His many films include the musicals Porgy and Bess (1959) and Sweet Charity (1969).

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In 1960 Davis starred with his friends Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin in Ocean’s Eleven. The film, which also featured Peter Lawford, Shirley MacLaine, Angie Dickinson, and Joey Bishop, marked the emergence of the Rat Pack. During the movie’s production in Las Vegas, Davis, Sinatra, Martin, Lawford, and Bishop regularly performed at the Sands Hotel and Casino; their boozy, humorous appearances soon became legendary. Davis appeared again with various members of the Rat Pack in a series of motion pictures, including Sergeants 3 (1962) and Robin and the 7 Hoods (1964).

Personal life and activism

Davis was married three times. His first marriage, to dancer Loray White in 1958, ended in divorce the next year. In 1960 he married Swedish actress May Britt. Their interracial relationship was strained by the racism directed against Davis. In 1961 he was disinvited from the inauguration celebration for Pres. John F. Kennedy because of concerns that his presence would alienate Kennedy supporters who objected to “miscegenation.” During this time Davis also struggled with substance use. The couple had three children—daughter Tracey and two adopted sons, Mark and Jeff—before divorcing in 1968. Two years later he married dancer Altovise Gore, with whom he adopted another son, Manny.

In the 1950s Davis helped integrate nightclubs, hotels, and casinos by refusing to perform at venues with policies of racial segregation. Black performers were typically allowed to appear onstage, but they were refused access to public amenities such as pools and on-site restaurants. Davis’s boycotts would have meant a loss in revenue at venues, such was his increasing popularity. In the 1960s Davis supported the civil rights movement by raising funds for Martin Luther King, Jr., appearing at the March on Washington in 1963, and participating in the Selma March in Alabama in 1965. Later Davis attracted criticism for endorsing Richard Nixon’s presidential campaign in 1972, although he withdrew his support for Nixon during the Watergate scandal.

Later career and death

Throughout the 1970s and ’80s Davis continued to perform in film and on television, as well as on the stage. In 1981 he reunited with Martin in the comedy film The Cannonball Run and also appeared in its sequel Cannonball Run II (1984). Diagnosed with throat cancer in 1989, Davis acted that year in episodes of the popular TV sitcom The Cosby Show, which earned him an Emmy Award nomination for guest appearance by an actor in a comedy series, and the drama series Hunter. In the film Tap (1989) he played an aging hoofer and had a memorable tap battle scene with costar Gregory Hines.

His final screen credit is the TV movie The Kid Who Loved Christmas, which was posthumously released in December 1990, several months after Davis died of cancer. His tombstone reads, “ ‘The Entertainer’: He Did It All.”

Memoirs and honors

Davis wrote three autobiographical books, Yes I Can (1965; with Jane and Burt Boyar), Hollywood in a Suitcase (1980), and Why Me? (1989; also with Jane and Burt Boyar).

Davis received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960 and was a Kennedy Center honoree in 1987. He was inducted into the NAACP Image Awards Hall of Fame in 1989, and the Recording Academy posthumously recognized him for lifetime achievement in 2001. The following year his 1962 recording of “What Kind of Fool Am I?” was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.