Sammy Davis Jr.

American entertainer (1925–1990)

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Lived 1925–1990, aged 65United States

United States ActorsActor

Wikipedia
45 languages
Cross-language footprint
Era
1925–1990
Aged 65
Known for
The Cannonball Run
1981

Summary

Updated 2026-06-13

He called himself a one-eyed Negro who's Jewish — and the line wasn't a joke, it was a map. Davis turned every obstacle the mid-century threw at him into forward motion, and by the time "The Candy Man" hit number one in 1972, he'd already spent decades cracking open stages that weren't supposed to let him in.

Biography

About

Davis started at four, touring vaudeville with his father and the Will Mastin Trio, then moved into film by age eight. After military service he came back to nightclubs, breaking through at Ciro's in 1951. Three years later a car accident took his left eye; two years after that his relationship with a white actress drew backlash in a country where interracial marriage was still illegal. He converted to Judaism in 1960, seeing a shared history of oppression. Broadway gave him Mr. Wonderful in 1956 and Golden Boy in 1964 — the latter staged the first interracial kiss on Broadway and earned him a…

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