Trivia / Sammy Davis Jr.

• Acting for Two: In the Charlie's Angels episode "Sammy Davis Jr. Kidnap Caper", as a liquor-store owner and himself.
• All-Star Cast
  • With the rest of the Rat Pack in Oceans 11 and Robin and the 7 Hoods.
  • With Burt Reynolds, Roger Moore, Farrah Fawcett and many others in The Cannonball Run.
• Breakaway Pop Hit: With "The Candy Man", the opening theme song to Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory became this when the film first debuted, but this was later subverted when the film became Vindicated by Cable, and the song was relegated to commercial jingles.
• Covered Up: Both the aforementioned "The Candy Man" and "What Kind of Fool Am I" were songs originally written and performed by Anthony Newley, the latter song having been written for Newley's musical Stop The World, I Want To Get Off.^note Technically speaking, Newley's own pop recordings of the songs weren't the first recordings, but it still fits this trope since he not only wrote the songs, but recorded them before Sammy Davis, Jr. did.
• Playing Against Type: Davis didn't play serious roles that often, but when given a chance he could excel in them. One example was his guest appearance as a tough gunslinger on The Rifleman, a sympathetic Anti-Villain who wants to avenge his father's death on the town of North Fork.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Davis once suggested an episode of The Twilight Zone (1959) where a white supremacist wakes up one day and discovers he's black. Rod Serling eventually wrote the story "Color Scheme" for his anthology The Season to Be Wary, but the subject matter was considered too risque for 1970s television.
  • Was intended to be the title character in Beetlejuice (as he was Tim Burton's childhood idol), but the deal never went through.
  • He tried to reunite with Sinatra and Martin for the trio's 1987 Together Again tour, but it ended after four performances due to the death of Martin's son. It marks the last time the trio performed together (though Davis would perform with Sinatra for one last tour in 1989).
  • He was supposed to appear As Himself in Diamonds Are Forever during a scene where Bond and Plenty O'Toole were having dinner together, but it got deleted.
  • In Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, both the co-writer of the songs in the film, Anthony Newley, and Sammy Davis, Jr. himself wanted to play the part of "The Candy Man".

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