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Tracey Hillevi Davis, the daughter of entertainer Sammy Davis Jr. and Swedish actress May Britt, died November 2, 2020, in Franklin, Tennessee. She was 59. Her ex-husband, Guy Garner, confirmed her death to The Associated Press, according to contemporaneous reports. Garner said Davis died after a short illness.
Those reports said that the cause and manner of death had not been determined or publicly disclosed. No reliable source establishes a definitive cause of death, and there is no basis for speculation.
Who was Tracey Davis?
Born July 5, 1961, in Los Angeles, Tracey Davis was Sammy Davis Jr.’s only daughter. Her parents married in 1960 and divorced in 1968. Sammy Davis Jr. and May Britt also adopted two sons, Mark and Jeff. Davis’s father later adopted another son, Manny, with his third wife, Altovise Gore. Hachette’s author biography described Tracey as a television and commercial producer as well as the mother of four children: Sam, Montana, Greer and Chase.
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She spent much of her life negotiating the gap between her own identity and her father’s enormous public reputation. Accounts of her first memoir describe the phrase “Tracey, comma, daughter of Sammy Davis Jr., comma” as a way of expressing how often her name was treated as an extension of his.
That tension shaped both of the books she wrote about her father. Davis did not simply document the career of a famous entertainer; she examined what it meant to grow up inside a celebrated but complicated family.
Her relationship with Sammy Davis Jr.
Sammy Davis Jr. was frequently away while Tracey was growing up, working as a singer, dancer, actor and comedian. In later accounts, Davis remembered him as loving but unable to put family ahead of the demands of his career. The result was an early relationship marked by distance, disappointment and missed family occasions.
The relationship began to change when Davis was an adult. According to accounts of her memoir, she confronted her father in Las Vegas in 1986. The conversation helped lead to a reconciliation, and the two became closer as they spent more time together.
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1Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute2Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems3Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesA 2014 Los Angeles Times profile reported that Sammy met Davis’s newborn son, Sam, in 1990, shortly before his death. Sammy Davis Jr. died that year after throat cancer.
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Tracey Davis’s books about her father
Sammy Davis Jr.: My Father (1996)
Davis co-wrote Sammy Davis Jr.: My Father with Dolores A. Barclay, a former Associated Press arts and entertainment editor. Published in 1996, the memoir focused on the private history between father and daughter: Sammy’s absences during Davis’s childhood, the resentment those absences caused, the 1986 confrontation and their eventual reconciliation.
The book is most useful as a family memoir rather than a conventional career biography. It places the reader inside the emotional consequences of Sammy’s fame while also offering Tracey’s perspective on the man behind the stage persona. Readers looking for the account most directly centered on their relationship can start with Sammy Davis Jr.: My Father.
Sammy Davis Jr.: A Personal Journey With My Father (2014)
Davis’s second book, Sammy Davis Jr.: A Personal Journey With My Father, was published by Running Press in 2014. It should not be confused with the 1996 memoir. The later book is shorter and more reflective, built around Davis’s conversations with her father during the final period of his life.
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As Publishers Weekly’s book record notes, the account covers Sammy’s childhood in show business, his marriage to May Britt, his years with the Rat Pack, the racism and discrimination he encountered, and his conversion to Judaism. It also preserves the stories he shared with his daughter while he was suffering from throat cancer. The listed print ISBN is 978-0-7624-5017-6; the ebook ISBN is 978-0-7624-5064-0.
Together, the books show two different sides of Davis’s project. The first is an intimate account of estrangement and repair. The second uses late-life conversations to place Sammy’s family experiences within the larger story of his work, identity and public struggles.
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What her books added to Sammy Davis Jr.’s legacy
Sammy Davis Jr. was one of the most recognizable American entertainers of the 20th century. He began performing as a child and became known for his work as a singer, dancer, actor and comedian. He was also associated with Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin as a member of the Rat Pack.
Public accounts of his career often emphasize his versatility and show-business success. Tracey Davis’s books added a family perspective to less comfortable parts of that story: the costs of relentless touring, the discrimination Sammy faced as a Black entertainer, his Jewish faith and conversion, and the difficulty of reconciling devotion to work with responsibility as a parent.
The Forward’s account of Davis’s writing particularly connected her understanding of her father’s Jewish identity with the memoirs she co-authored about him. Her work therefore served both as a daughter’s account and as a record of how Sammy understood his own life near its end.
Her work beyond the books
Davis was described in contemporary profiles and publisher material as a television and commercial producer. She also had limited acting and documentary-related credits. IMDb lists appearances or credits connected with Dreadnought Dominion, Sammy Davis, Jr.: I’ve Gotta Be Me, Inside Edition and Unsung Hollywood.
Those database listings are useful for identifying screen credits, but they should not be treated as the sole authority for major biographical claims. Davis’s strongest documented public work was her television and commercial production career and her two books about her father.
The reported Sammy Davis Jr. biopic
News of Davis’s death came shortly after a report about a potential film adaptation of Sammy Davis Jr.: My Father. On October 14, 2020, TheWrap reported that MGM was developing a Sammy Davis Jr. biopic, with Lena Waithe, Rishi Rajani, Julia Lebedev and Eddie Vaisman attached as producers and David Matthews writing the screenplay.
That was a report about development activity in 2020—not confirmation that the film had been completed or released. The available research does not establish a current production status, release date or streaming availability, so the project should not be described as an available movie.
Tracey Davis’s surviving family
Contemporaneous reports said Davis was survived by her four children, her mother, May Britt, and her brothers. Her family life remained central to the way she understood her father: not only as a major entertainer, but as a parent whose love and absences shaped the family around him.
Tracey Davis died at a time when renewed interest in Sammy Davis Jr.’s life was bringing her first memoir back into the conversation. Her lasting contribution was not simply preserving stories about a famous man. It was insisting that the story include the daughter who knew him away from the stage.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Frequently Asked Questions
When did Tracey Davis die?
Tracey Davis died on November 2, 2020, in Franklin, Tennessee, at age 59. Her ex-husband, Guy Garner, confirmed the death, saying she had died after a short illness.
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What was Tracey Davis’s cause of death?
No definitive cause of death has been established by the reliable sources reviewed for this article. Contemporaneous reports said the cause and manner of death had not been determined or publicly disclosed.
What books did Tracey Davis write about Sammy Davis Jr.?
She co-wrote Sammy Davis Jr.: My Father, published in 1996, and Sammy Davis Jr.: A Personal Journey With My Father, published by Running Press in 2014.
Was Tracey Davis Sammy Davis Jr.’s only daughter?
Yes. Tracey Davis was the only daughter of Sammy Davis Jr. and Swedish actress May Britt. The couple also adopted sons Mark and Jeff.
The Bottom Line
Tracey Davis died in Franklin, Tennessee, on November 2, 2020, at age 59, after what her ex-husband described as a short illness. Her cause of death was not publicly disclosed. Through Sammy Davis Jr.: My Father and Sammy Davis Jr.: A Personal Journey With My Father, she left a personal record of her complicated relationship with—and eventual reconciliation with—one of America’s most famous entertainers.
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