American singer, actor and activist Sammy Davis Jr. was BOTD in 1925. Born in Harlem, New York, he was raised by his grandmother while his parents toured in vaudeville shows. He began performing with his father and uncle in the Will Mastin Trio from early childhood, learning tap-dancing from Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, and appearing in the Ethel Waters film Rufus Jones for President when he was seven. During World War Two, he was drafted into the US Army’s first integrated unit, and was frequently abused and humiliated by white officers from the segregated South. After the war, he returned to New York lead the Will Mastin Trio, and began performing in nightclubs alongside Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope and Mickey Rooney. He had a national hit with his recording of the song The Way You Look Tonight, establishing him as a star crooner. He rose to wider national attention with appearances on Ed Sullivan’s TV variety show Toast of the Town and The Colgate Comedy Hour. In 1954, aged 29, he nearly died in a car accident, losing his left eye. Undaunted, he wore a glass eye, converted to Judaism and returned to show business with the bestselling 1955 album Starring Sammy Davis Jr. He took Broadway by storm in the musical Mr Wonderful, and starred in a celebrated revival of Clifford Odet’s play Golden Boy, earning him a Tony Award nomination. He starred in the film adaptation of George Gershwin‘s musical Porgy and Bess, but achieved major stardom in the 1960 heist film Ocean’s Eleven alongside Sinatra and Dean Martin. The trio became key members of the Rat Pack, dominating the 1960s Las Vegas nightclub scene and appearing in a series of successful crime capers including Sergeants 3 and Robin and the 7 Hoods, and starred in his own TV variety show. A prominent figure in the Black civil rights movement, Davis challenged Jim Crow laws by refusing to perform in segregated nightclubs, appearing at the 1963 March on Washington and joining civil rights marches in Alabama with Martin Luther King Jr and Bayard Rustin. He continued to perform on stage, film and television into the 1980s, attracting new generations of fans with the comedy film The Cannonball Run, appearances in TV sitcom The Cosby Show, the dance film Tap and a successful reunion stage tour with Sinatra, Martin and Liza Minnelli. Married three times and with four children, his relationships with white actresses Kim Novak and May Britt caused major scandals in pre-integrated America, leading to Davis receiving death threats, a brief sham marriage to Black dancer Loray White to protect himself from mob violence, and lifelong struggles with alcohol and drug addiction. His bisexuality was a relatively open secret in Hollywood, and confirmed by his friend Paul Anka after his death. He died in 1990, aged 64. His tombstone reads “‘The Entertainer’: He Did It All.”