Compact Biographies

“What have I got? No looks, no money, no education. Just talent.” – Sammy Davis Jr.

Sammy Davis Jr. Biography

Samuel George Davis Junior, who will forever be known as Sammy, was born in Harlem, New York City, New York, USA on 8 December 1925. As his name suggests, he is the son of Sammy Davis Senior, who was also an entertainer and dancer. His mother, Elvera Sanchez, was an Afro-Cuban tap dancer. They split when Sammy Davis Jr. was only three years old and because he didn’t want to lose custody of him, his father took him on tour. The young Sammy learned to dance from his father and his uncle, Will Mastin and during this time as a young boy, his father and his uncle did their best to shield Sammy from prejudice. By all accounts they did a pretty good job as when Sammy joined the United States Army during World War II, the eighteen year old entered a world that looked completely different to the one he was used to as he became a target for racism and hate.

It could certainly have been worse for Sammy though. He served in the Special Services (entertainment) Unit, which was integrated and Sammy found that even prejudiced white men showed a certain amount of respect for, if not him, then for his performances. Sammy said, “My talent was my weapon”. When Sammy was discharged from the army at the end of the war, he re-joined the family act and toured clubs around the city of Portland in Oregon. He also had a recording deal with Capitol Records, for which he sang blues songs, albeit not under his own name.

A performance of the Will Mastin Trio at Ciro’s in March 1951 would change everything. The crowd, which was full of celebrities, were so enthusiastic, that their twenty minute supporting role went on for over an hour and led to them receiving top billing at future performances. Shortly afterwards, Sammy would be singled out due to his dancing and singing talents. He received huge praise by critics and released a number of albums. In 1954, he sang the title track to the movie Six Bridges to Cross for Universal Pictures. This in turn led to a starring role in the 1956 Broadway show Mr. Wonderful.

In the same year that he sang the title to Six Bridges to Cross, Sammy Davis Jr. was involved in an automobile accident that nearly cost him his life. It occurred at the intersection between Cajon Boulevard on Route 66 and Kendall Drive. The bullet shaped horn button on his Cadillac cost him his left eye. His actor friend Jeff Chandler said that he would donate one of his eyes to Sammy if it would prevent him from going blind. As it was, Sammy had to wear an eye patch for six months after he left hospital. He can be seen wearing the patch on the cover of his 1955 album called Starring Sammy Davis Jr. He would subsequently wear a glass eye for the rest of his life.

In 1957 Sammy Davis Jr. was involved with a young actress called Kim Novak. However, due to the taboo that existed at the time around inter-racial relationships, a mobster was hired to put the frighteners on Sammy. The threat also included a requirement for him to be married to a black woman with 48 hours or he would lose his other eye. Sammy hastily married dancer Loray White, but the marriage was never consummated and it was dissolved after only nine months.

Sammy Davis Jr. and May Britt

In 1960 Sammy would court controversy again though, when he married a Swedish born actress called May Britt. She of course, was white and Sammy received hate mail. Even so, the couple went on to have a daughter called Tracey and they also adopted two boys. However, as Sammy was on the road so much, the couple divorced in 1968.

Only three years after this first starring role, Sammy Davis Jr. joined Dean Martin, Joey Bishop, Peter Lawford and Frank Sinatra to form The Rat Pack. Led by Sinatra, the group was initially going to be called The Clan,

“Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them.” – Bruce Lee

Bruce Lee Biography

Lee Jun-fan (Bruce Lee was his professional name) was born on 27 November 1940 in the Chinatown district of San Francisco, USA. He was the fourth of five children born to father Lee Hoi-chuen who was a leading actor in Cantonese opera and his mother wealthy mother Grace Ho. His siblings were two sisters called Phoebe and Agnes and two brothers called Peter and Robert. Although born in San Francisco, Bruce didn’t grow up there as when he was only three months old, his parents returned to Hong Kong.

Due to Bruce’s mother’s family connections, he grew up in a privileged and affluent environment but this did not prevent his neighbourhood from becoming overcrowded and dangerous, mainly due to the influx of refugees who were fleeing Communist China. The area was full of gangs and rivalries frequently led to outbreaks of violence. After Bruce had been involved in a number of fights, his parents decided that he needed to be taught martial arts and his first lessons in the Wu-style t’ai chi ch’uan were given to him by his father.

As a teenager Bruce had started to learn Wing Chun and in 1957, he began to study under the Wing Chun teacher Yip Man. In order to try and steer his students away from street fighting, Yip Man encouraged them to enter competitions. However, this did not prevent Bruce from getting into fights. He gave a severe beating to the son of a feared triad leader and when, in the Spring of 1959 the police were called after another of Bruce’s fights, his father decided that, for his own safety, Bruce should leave Hong Kong and return to the United States. So, in April 1959, Bruce left Hong Kong and went to live with his sister Agnes who was living with friends of the family in San Francisco.

Later that year, Bruce, who was now 18 years old, moved to Seattle and started working as a waiter for Ruby Chow in one of her restaurants. Ruby Chow’s husband, was a friends of Bruce’s father, and whilst there, Bruce went on to complete his high school education at Edison Technical School from where he received his diploma. During this time, Bruce also began teaching marital arts which was literally known as Bruce Lee’s Kung Fu and was his variation of Wing Chun from the Lee Jun Fan Gung Fu Institute, his first martial arts studio in Seattle.

Bruce enrolled at the University of Washington in 1961 and majored in drama, but also studied philosophy and psychology. A fellow student of Bruce’s called Linda Emery was studying to become a teacher and the pair met, fell in love, and were married in August 1964. During their time together, Bruce and Linda had two children. Brandon Lee was born in 1965 and Shannon Lee came along in 1969.

Bruce dropped out of college in 1964 and moved to Oakland where he opened his second Jun Fan martial arts studio along with James Yimm Lee who was well known on the martial arts circuit and was twenty years Bruce’s senior. James introduced Bruce to Ed Parker during this time who was the organiser of the Long Beach International Karate Championships and where Bruce would be ‘discovered’ by Hollywood.

Bruce Lee appeared at the championships in 1964 and demonstrated his two finger push-ups and the one inch punch. One of the volunteers upon which Bruce demonstrated the punch was Bob Baker from Stockton, California, who later said in an interview that he had to stay home from work following the demonstration due to the pain his chest which he described as ‘unbearable’.

It was during the 1964 championships that Bruce met Jhoon Goo Rhee, a Taekwondo master, and the pair became friends and taught each other different techniques.

After a controversial private fight between Bruce Lee and Wong Jack Man in Oakland in 1964 which allegedly arose as a challenge to try and stop Bruce from teaching non-Chinese people in his studio,

In the seventh episode of the fourth season of the 5 Minute Biographies podcast, we take a brief look at the tragically short life of the martial arts movie legend that was - Bruce Lee.

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Julius Caesar Biography

Julius Caesar is sometimes regarded as more myth than man due to his famous, or perhaps rather notorious, place in history as the harbinger of the end of the Roman Republic and the first emperor in the Roman Empire. A brilliant tactician, politically savvy, and intellectually enlightened writer of Latin prose, Julius Caesar was the embodiment of all that was right – and wrong – in the Roman Republic.

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Julius Caesar’s family was of little note during the first century. They were minor nobility at best, although the Caesar lineage claims that it harkens back all the way to a Trojan prince who was the son of the Goddess Venus. However, for his family, those high glory days seemed to be long gone. They were not bad off but they were certainly not a family great leadership was expected to hail from.

Julius Caesar himself was born in 100 BC, the son of Gaius Julius Caesar, and little is known of his early days and childhood apart from the death of his father while he was still young. With the death of his father, Julius became the head of the family at the age of 16. During the same period, the family was involved with some political rivalry which had arisen between Julius Caesar’s uncle and another politician, Lucius Sulla. Unfortunately, this rivalry led to a Roman civil war and Caesar’s family found themselves on the losing side, a situation which was effectively the beginning of the end for the Roman Republic. Stripped of title, nobility, and political influence, Julius Caesar went into hiding for his own safety after the end of the civil war.

Due to the intervention of his mother who still wielded some influence with Sulla, Caesar was allowed to return but still concerned for his personal safety, decided to join the army instead. Julius Caesar’s time in the army was met with distinction and he received a number of commendations. After the death of his rival Sulla, Julius felt it was time to return to Rome. He became a popular advocate for the common man fighting against corrupt politicians in Rome and for the next several years, Caesar’s fortunes rose. Between favourable political appointments in Spain, successful military campaigns, and the beginning of a successful political career, Julius Caesar’s star was on the rise.

As his political star rose, so, too, did his ability to gain greater command of the military. With four legions under his command and several provinces bordering his that were unclaimed territory, the time was ripe for Caesar’s famous conquest of Gaul. After years of successful conquests, Gaul was to be one of Caesar’s greatest challenges. The Germanic tribes that resided in the area were more than a match for the Roman military of the era; however, internal squabbles and tribal divisions kept them from uniting into a force strong enough to resist the Roman advance. Gaul, with only a few minor setbacks, was taken for Rome and would remain Roman for the next five hundred years. Caesar attempted to follow up these conquests with an advance into Britain, but due to famine and logistical reasons, Britain was never to be fully conquered by Julius Caesar.

Caesar’s success as a military general as well as his position as a politician began to put him at odds with the leader of the Republic, Pompey. The issue was that his military command was far too strong, and Caesar far too capable, thus he represented a danger to the republic. In an attempt to quell this potential danger, Pompey actually succeeded in causing it. Pompey ordered Caesar to disband his military and come to Rome. Caesar, rightly, fearing that he would be prosecuted or imprisoned by his political rivals were he to enter Rome without an army, refused. Caesar was branded a traitor and insubordinate. In response to this,

In the sixth episode of the fourth season of the 5 Minute Biographies podcast, we take a look at the life of the man who brought about the fall of the Roman Republic and the rise of the Roman Empire, its first Emperor - Julius Caesar.

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“No man is good enough to govern any woman without her consent.” – Susan B. Anthony

Susan B. Anthony Biography

When people think of the rights of women, of the protection of those rights, and of those who fought most vigorously to secure them, few names come to mind swifter, in the United States at least, than that of the passionate women’s suffrage leader Susan B Anthony. Susan B Anthony holds a special place of honour in the history of equality for her unflinching devotion to the cause, her unwavering leadership, and her determination to see women receive the vote. So who was she and what led her down the path of this righteous crusade?

Susan Brownell Anthony was born on 15 February 1820 to a family of reformers. Some of her brothers would later fight against pro-slavery forces in Kansas in order to ensure that when Kansas joined the Union on 29 January 1861, it would do so as a free state. Although they were Quakers by religion, they did not hold with many traditional Quaker ideals. Their family was considered too liberal at the time and a rift grew between them and the rest of the congregation after Susan’s father Daniel Anthony allowed a dance to occur at his home.

In 1837, economic panic struck the country and the Anthonys lost most of their material wealth. Although an uncle bought their belongings at auction and returned them to the family, they were still desperately short of money and so Susan decided to go to work as a teacher at a Quaker school. The Anthonys continued to be at the fringes of society due to their passionate reforming nature and their farm became a place where other like-minded individuals who sought reformation came, including the great Frederick Douglass who was a well-known abolitionist in Rochester, New York.

As Susan B Anthony grew older, she taught herself a range of social reform concepts and worked tirelessly to improve both her knowledge of the subject and her eloquence when it came to delivering her message. For a brief time, she was even a strong proponent of wearing the highly controversial blooming dress, which did not go all the way down to the ankles. Although the dress was far more comfortable and easier for women to wear, she was eventually forced to stop wearing the improved garment so that opponents would be compelled to address her ideas instead of merely criticizing her clothing.

In 1851 at Seneca Falls, Susan B Anthony met another strong and motivated woman called Elizabeth Cady Stanton who had previously written the Declaration of Sentiments which being based upon the United States Declaration of Independence made the proclamation that men and women were created equal and that women should be allowed to vote. The meeting between the pair was fortuitous as Elizabeth and Susan had mutually beneficial skills with Elizabeth being an outstanding writer and Susan being a highly effective organizer and strategist. The pair worked well together and their friendship grew as they continued to work hard in the women’s suffrage movement.

The rights of women in the early and mid-19th century were few and limited. Women did not traditionally work in roles outside of the household and so had little say in society. Added to this, any woman who was successful and generated an income would be compelled by force of law to hand any money over to her spouse. This meant that even a financially capable and successful woman, if she were married, would not have any say in her own financial solvency. Additionally, women were not generally allowed to own any property, and as they could not vote, they could do nothing to alter the situation either.

Between the lack of economic options and the lack of voting power, the rights of women were severely curtailed. However, the women’s reform movement did not grow up in a vacuum and many of the movers and shakers of the women’s rights movement first got their feet...

In the fifth episode of the fourth season of the 5 Minute Biographies podcast, we take a look at the life of the American social reformer and women's rights activist, Susan B. Anthony.

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In the fourth episode of the fourth season of the 5 Minute Biographies podcast, we take a brief look at the life of a President of the United States who became known as The Great Emancipator - Abraham Lincoln.

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“No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar.” – Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln was a fairly simple man, and with the hindsight of history, some have judged him unfairly, attempting to hold a 19th-century man to 21st century standards. However, when viewed as a man of his times, what he said and did was revolutionary, and unlike other historical figures, Abraham Lincoln’s story is one that has continued to shine for generations. A man who was born into poverty in a one-room log cabin deep in the Kentucky wilderness rose to become one of the most influential presidents in American history.

Abraham Lincoln was born to Thomas and Nancy Lincoln in that small Kentucky log cabin on 12 February 1809. Frontier life was bitter and back-breaking work. Many did not survive, including Nancy Lincoln who died in 1818 at the relatively young age of only 34. Abraham was not best suited to this sort of life, with his lean, gangly frame, and a strong dislike of physical work, preferring to read and write poetry instead. This attitude led many of those in his life at the time to believed that Lincoln was simply lazy and that he would never amount to much. Abraham Lincoln, though, had other ideas. Far removed from civilization, Lincoln’s formal schooling was likely less than a year in total, so he became a voracious reader, devouring such classics as Pilgrim’s Progress and Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography. He also spent many hours studying the Bible. The Lincoln family did not stay in Kentucky, and in 1830 moved to Illinois where in December 1839 Abraham would meet Mary Todd, a well-educated young woman from a large, wealthy slave-holding Kentucky family. They married on 4 November 1842 and the couple went on to have four sons together.

Throughout the first half of the 1800s, the United States was embroiled in a severe political and moral struggle over the issue of slavery. A generation before, the founding fathers had failed to address the issue of slavery as they felt at the time that national unity was far more important, and so they left provisions for addressing the issue of slavery for future politicians to grapple with. Unfortunately, instead, the rural agrarian culture of the South became more reliant on slavery and this led not only to the issue not being resolved, but it became a more entrenched way of life and its continuance was fought for by Southern Democrats both in the House and in the Senate. As new states were being admitted to the Union, the most contentious issue of all was always whether a state would be a free state like Illinois where slavery was illegal or a slave-holding state like Kentucky.

Throughout the 1840s and 1850s, Abraham Lincoln would have a variety of jobs in order to try and bring in some sort of income. At various points, he was a shop owner, the head of a local militia, a fairly successful lawyer, and an unsuccessful politician coming in nearly dead last when he ran for the Illinois General Assembly. However, his fortunes began to change as people noted his quick wit, his towering physical presence, and his homely way of speaking. His recognition grew immensely when he faced off against the well-known debater and orator Stephen Douglas in what became known as the Lincoln-Douglas debates. Lincoln, who had been a nobody, was widely considered to have trounced a supposedly superior debater with his intelligence and wit.

Abraham Lincoln’s growing popularity caused a new political party to back him as their candidate for the presidency with its biggest platform item being the absolute end of slavery. The Republican anti-slavery party quickly gained huge momentum in the North where most of the abolitionists were located. The campaigning was fierce and throughout the country turmoil and unrest were starting to spread due to this ever growing moral cri...

In the third episode of the fourth season of the 5 Minute Biographies podcast, we take a brief look at the often turbulent life of musician and civil rights activist Nina Simone.

Please consider supporting the show by buying me a coffee at http://www.5minutebiographies.com/coffee/ - Thanks!