Sammy Davis Jr.
American entertainer (1925–1990)
Samuel George Davis Jr. (December 8, 1925 – May 16, 1990) was an American singer, actor, comedian and dancer. Known as "Mr. Entertainment" and "Mister Show Business", Davis was regarded as one of the most popular entertainers of the 20th century and as a black entertainer, he helped to break racial barriers in several venues, including nightclubs, music, film and television.
Davis began his career at the age of two in vaudeville with his father Sammy Davis Sr. and Will Mastin in the Will Mastin Trio. At seven, he started his film career with the musical shorts Rufus Jones for President and Seasoned Greetings. In 1951, Davis's career breakthrough came after he and the Will Mastin Trio opened for Janis Paige the week before the 23rd Academy Awards at the Hollywood nightclub Ciro's.
Three years later he became the first black entertainer to headline a show in Las Vegas and two years later starred in his first Broadway musical, Mr. Wonderful.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q297816. VIAF identifies the subject as 54184962. The Library of Congress control number is n80040663. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1925, 1990 and 1951.
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This entry incorporates text from “Sammy Davis Jr.” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.