| Relationships | Son of Sammy Davis Sr (African-American entertainer) and Elvera Sanchez (American-born Cuban tap dancer). Both were vaudeville dancers.
Partner of Kim Novak (white actress) in 1957. Novak was under contract with Columbia Pictures. Harry Cohn, president of Columbia, worried that racist backlash against the relationship could hurt the studio. Davis was threatened by organized crime figures close to Cohn. Davis was threatened with the loss of his other eye or a broken leg if he did not marry a black woman within two days.
Former husband of Loray White (black dancer). Davis married White in 1958 to protext himself from mob violence. He paid her a lump sum to engage in a marriage on the condition that it would be dissolved before the end of the year. The couple never lived together and commenced divorce proceedings in September 1958. The divorce was granted in April 1959.
Former husband of May Britt (white Swedish-born actress). The couple married in 1960, however, while interracial marriage had been legal in California since 1948, anti-miscegenation laws in the United States still stood in 23 states. They divorced in 1968 after Davis admitted to having had as affiar.
Husband of Altovise Gore (black dancer). They married in 1970 and remained married until his death in 1990. |
| Biography | Sammy Davis Jr was an American singer, musician, dancer, actor, vaudevillian, comedian and activist known for his impressions of actors, musicians and other celebrities.
At age three, Davis Jr. began his career in vaudeville with his father Sammy Davis Sr. and his uncle Will Mastin, billed as the Will Mastin Trio, which toured nationally.
During World War II, Davis was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1943. He was frequently abused by white soldiers from the South and later recounted that "I must have had a knockdown, drag-out fight every two days. He was reassigned to the Army's Special Services branch, which put on performances for troops. Davis, who earned the American Campaign Medal and World War II Victory Medal, was discharged in 1945 with the rank of private.
After military service, Davis Jr. returned to the trio and became an overnight sensation following a nightclub performance at Ciro's, West Hollywood after the 1951 Academy Awards. With the trio, he became a recording artist. In 1954, he lost his left eye in a car accident. Several years later, he converted to Judaism, finding commonalities between the oppression experienced by African-American and Jewish communities
In 1959, Davis became a member of the Rat Pack, led by his friend Frank Sinatra, which included fellow performers Dean Martin, Joey Bishop, and Peter Lawford, a brother-in-law of John F. Kennedy. Davis was also a headliner at The Frontier Casino in Las Vegas, but, due to Jim Crow practices in Las Vegas, black performers were required to lodge in a rooming house on the west side of the city, instead of in the hotels as his white colleagues did. No dressing rooms were provided for black performers. Davis later refused to work at places which practiced racial segregation.
After a starring role on Broadway in Mr Wonderful (1956), he returned to the stage in 1964's Golden Boy. Davis Jr.'s film career began as a child in 1933. In 1960, he appeared in the Rat Pack film Ocean's 11. In 1966, he had his own TV variety show, titled The Sammy Davis Jr. Show. While Davis' career slowed in the late 1960s, his biggest hit, "The Candy Man", reached the Hot 100 summit on 10-24 June 1972, and he became a star in Las Vegas, earning him the nickname "Mister Show Business".
In 1972, during the later stages of the Vietnam War, Davis went to Vietnam to observe military drug abuse rehabilitation programs and talk to and entertain the troops. He did this as a representative from President Nixons Special Action Office For Drug Abuse Prevention. He performed shows for up to 15,000 troops. The U.S. Army made a documentary about Davis' time in Vietnam performing for troops on behalf of Nixon's drug treatment program.
After reuniting with Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin in 1987, Davis toured with them and Liza Minnelli internationally. He was recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors in 1987, and in 2001, he was posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. |