FORMER ARMY VET, WORLD WAR 2 BIRTHDAY WISHES, Samuel George Sammy Davis, Jr.(December 8, 1925 – May 16, 1990), was an American entertainer. Primarily a dancer and singer, he was also an actor of stage and screen, musician, and impressionist, noted for his impersonations of actors, musicians and other celebrities. At the age of three Davis began his career in vaudeville with his father and Will Mastin as the Will Mastin Trio, which toured nationally. After military service Davis returned to the trio. Davis became an overnight sensation following a nightclub performance at Ciros (in West Hollywood, California) after the 1951 Academy Awards. With the trio, he became a recording artist. In 1954, he lost his left eye in an automobile accident, and several years later, he converted to Judaism.[1] Daviss film career began as a child in 1933. In 1960, he appeared in the first Rat Pack film,Oceans 11. After a starring role on Broadwayin 1956s Mr Wonderful, Davis returned to the stage in 1964s Golden Boy, and in 1966 had his own TV variety show, The Sammy Davis Jr. Show. Daviss career slowed in the late 1960s, but he had a hit record with The Candy Man in 1972 and became a star in Las Vegas, earning him the nickname Mister Show Business.[2][3][4] As an African-American, Davis was the victim of racism throughout his life and was a large financial supporter of the Civil Rights movement. Davis had a complex relationship with the African-American community, and drew criticism after physically embracing President Richard M. Nixon in 1972. One day on a golf course with Jack Benny, he was asked what his handicap was. Handicap? he asked. Talk about handicap — Im a one-eyed Negro Jew.[5][6] This was to become a signature comment, recounted in his autobiography, and in countless articles.[7] After reuniting with Sinatra and Dean Martinin 1987, Davis toured with them and Liza Minnelli internationally, before he died of throat cancer in 1990. He died in debt to theInternal Revenue Service, and his estate was the subject of legal battles.[8] Davis was awarded the Spingarn Medal by the NAACP and was nominated for a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award for his television performances. He was the recipient of theKennedy Center Honors in 1987, and in 2001, he was posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Early lifeEdit Samuel George Davis, Jr., was born in theHarlem section of Manhattan in New York City, as an only child, to Sammy Davis, Sr., an African-American entertainer, and Elvera Sanchez,[9] a tap dancer of Afro-Cubandescent. At age 7, Davis appeared in a film in which he sang and danced with Ethel Waters[10] During his lifetime, Davis, Jr. stated that his mother was Puerto Rican and born inSan Juan; however, in the 2003 biography In Black and White, author Wil Haygood writes that Davis, Jr.s mother was born in New York City, to parents of Cuban, Afro-Cuban, and African-American descent, and that Davis, Jr. claimed he was Puerto Rican because he feared anti-Cuban backlash would hurt his record sales.[11][12][13] Daviss parents were vaudeville dancers. As an infant, he was reared by his paternal grandmother. When he was three years old, his parents separated. His father, not wanting to lose custody of his son, took him on Davis learned to dance from his father and his uncle Will Mastin, who led the dance troupe his father worked for. Davis joined the act as a child and they became the Will Mastin Trio. Throughout his career, Davis included the Will Mastin Trio in his billing. Mastin and his father shielded him from racism. Snubs were explained as jealousy, for instance. When Davis served in the United States Army during World War II, however, he was confronted by strong racial prejudice. He later said, Overnight the world looked different. It wasnt one color any more. I could see the protection Id gotten all my life from my father and Will. I appreciated their loving hope that Id never need to know about prejudice and hate, but they were wrong. It was as if Id walked through a swinging door for eighteen years, a door which they had always secretly held open.
Posted on: Tue, 09 Dec 2014 03:23:16 +0000
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