Biographie

Despite being 64 at the time of his death, he was survived by his mother Elvera Sanchez (1905-2000) and his grandmother, Elvera's mother Luisa (who died in 1995 at 112).

He lost his left eye in a car crash when he was on his way to record the theme song for the Tony Curtis film, La police était au rendez-vous (1955). He wore an eyepatch for sometime after that, but Humphrey Bogart ultimately convinced him to unmask when he told him that he didn't want to be known as the kid with the eyepatch.

Shortly after his death on May 16, 1990, the hotels on the Las Vegas Strip turned off their exterior lights for 10 minutes in tribute. There is currently an outdoor theater in Las Vegas named in his honor, the Sammy Davis Jr. Festival Plaza.

Was given a gift, of a black sapphire ring, by Elvis Presley, who told him, "This is the biggest black star I've seen, so I'm giving it to the biggest black star I know.".

He and the other members of the Rat Pack were banned from Marilyn Monroe's funeral by Joe DiMaggio

Being a star has made it possible for me to get insulted in places where the average Negro could never hope to get insulted.

[when asked what his golf handicap was] My handicap? Man, I am a one-eyed black Jew! THAT'S my handicap!

I'm colored, Jewish and Puerto Rican. When I move into a neighborhood, I wipe it out!

You have to be able to look back at your own life and say, "Yeah, that was fun." The only person I ever hurt was myself and even that I did to the minimum. If you can do that and you're still functioning, you're the luckiest person in the world.

I'm 64 years old, but I feel I've lived the life of a person at 164.