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Sammy Davis Jr: he could do it all!
Born in Sammy Davis in Harlem on December 8, 1925
Recognized throughout much of his career as "the world's greatest living entertainer,"
Sammy Davis, Jr." was a remarkably popular and versatile performer equally adept
at acting, singing, dancing and impersonations -
At the age of seven Sammy Davis made his film debut in the legendary musical short
Rufus Jones for President, and later received tap-
In 1943 Davis joined the U.S. Army, where he endured a constant battle with racism; upon his return from duty, the group was renamed the Will Mastin Trio. Three years later they opened for Mickey Rooney, who encouraged Sammy Davis to begin including his many impersonations in the Trio's act; where previously they had exclusively performed music, the addition of comedy brought new life to the group, and by the beginning of the next decade they were headlining venues including New York's Capitol club and Ciro's in Hollywood.
In 1952, at the invitation of Frank Sinatra, they also played the newly-
A member of the famed Rat Pack, he was among the very first African-
Sammy Davis made his stage debut at the age of three performing with Holiday in Dixieland, a black vaudeville troupe featuring his father and helped by his de facto uncle, Will Mastin; dubbed "Silent Sam, the Dancing Midget," he proved phenomenally popular with audiences and the act was soon renamed Will Mastin's Gang Featuring Little Sammy.
In 1972 Sammy Davis topped the pop charts with "The Candy Man," from the film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory; from 1975 to 1977, he hosted his own syndicated variety show, Sammy and Company, and in 1978 starred in the film Sammy Stops the World.
However, in the late 1970s and through much of the 1980s Sammy's profile diminished, and he was primarily confined to the casino circuit, with a 1988 comeback tour he mounted with Sinatra and Martin largely unsuccessful.
His appearance in the 1989 film Tap was much acclaimed
........but it was to be his last screen performance .........
a lifelong smoker, Sammy Davis died of cancer on May 16, 1990.
The Rat Pack
Also in 1959 he became a charter member of the Rat Pack, a loose confederation of Sinatra associates (also including Dean Martin, Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop) which began regularly performing together at the Sands casino in Las Vegas.
In 1960 they made Ocean's Eleven, the first in a series of hip and highly self-
His earlier conversion to Judaism had been met with considerable controversy within
the African-
Still, Davis remained a major star, appearing in the 1962 Rat Pack film Sergeants
3 and scoring a major hit with "What Kind of Fool Am I?" Two years later he returned
to Broadway in the long-
In 1964, the third Rat Pack film, Robin and the Seven Hoods, was released; two years
later, in the wake of the publication of his autobiography Yes I Can, Sammy Davis
was also among a number of musical luminaries, including Sinatra and Louis Armstrong,
who co-
In 1968 he and Lawford teamed as Salt and Pepper; the picture was a hit, and a sequel, One More Time, appeared in 1970. In between the two Sammy Davis delivered one of his most memorable screen performances in Bob Fosse's 1969 musical Sweet Charity; he also appeared in a number of television features, including The Pigeon, The Trackers and Poor Devil.
A year later Sammy Davis made his Broadway debut in the musical Mr. Wonderful, starring in the show for over 400 performances and launching a hit with the song "Too Close for Comfort."
In 1958 Sammy Davis resumed his film career after a quarter-
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