EXCLUSIVE: 'I thought Sammy Davis Jr was my adopted father but now I know he was my real dad.' Rat Packer's love child reveals extraordinary family secret - and that despite his father's wealth, he works in Costco

• Mark Davis believed Sammy Davis Jr had adopted him when he was two  
• On his deathbed, Sammy told Mark: 'You are my son,' but he did not realize the significance of what he was saying 
• But it was only when he saw his birth certificate for the first time that he discovered Sammy Davis Jr was named as his father
• The certificate names Sammy's then wife as his mother but Mark says she is not his real mother and has no idea who gave birth to him 
• Mystery white woman was his mother at a time when inter-racial relationships were still all too often taboo
• 'I am a living question mark. I have never understood where I come from,' Mark Davis told Daily Mail Online  
• He and his father had a turbulent relationship and the Rat Pack member even tried to steal a girlfriend   

By Shekhar Bhatia In Los Angeles, For Dailymail.com

Published: 10:45 EST, 10 February 2015 | Updated: 12:45 EST, 10 February 2015

Sammy Davis Jr had a secret love child who he brought up as his adopted son, DailyMail.com can reveal today.

The entertainer, who died 25 years ago, always told friends and family that Mark Davis, 55, had been adopted.

But the man who was a member of the Hollywood Rat Pack alongside Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, entered his name as Mark's biological father on his birth certificate.

As he lay dying from throat cancer, he called Mark to his death bed and told him: 'You are my son.'

They were among the last words uttered to Mark, who is virtually penniless and who we traced to his job behind a photo counter at a Costco supermarket on the outskirts of Hollywood.

SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO 

United: Sammy Davis jr, Mark - who thought then that he was the star's adopted son - and May Britt, his adoptive mother, as Mark graduated from George Whittell High School , near Lake Tahoe, Nevada

Contrast: Mark Davis at his father's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. While his father was part of the Rat Pack, he works at Costco, as the IRS seized his father's estate 

Similarity: Mark and Jeff Davis with Sammy at Lake Tahoe, Nevada, in 1981. Jeff was adopted by Sammy Davis Jr two years after Mark 

Mark,  55, who has never spoken publicly before about the relationship between him and the man whose signature tune was 'Mr Bojangles' said there had always been uncertainty running through his life.

Now married and a a father of two sons, Mark tells Daily Mail Online: 'I am a huge living question mark and that is because I have never understood anything 100 per cent about where I came from,' he told Daily Mail Online.

He said he first heard the word 'adopted' when Life magazine ran a feature on the singer and his family in the 1960s and reported that Sammy had adopted Mark at around the age of two.

But his birth certificate, only unearthed in 2013, confirms Sammy as his biological father and names his wife of the time May Britt, the Swedish actress, as the natural mother.

However, Britt has told Mark that she did not give birth to him and has declined to say whether she knows the identity of the woman who did.

Sammy, who was known to have had affairs and to be have been a heavy drinker, appears to have fathered Mark illegitimately with a mystery white woman at a time when inter-racial marriages were forbidden by law in more than half of the United States

Indeed, when Sammy made Swedish-born May his wife on November 13 1960, it was reported that John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy had urged Frank Sinatra to tell Davis not to marry her until after the 1960 Presidential Election because they feared political repercussions.

Kennedy won the election a week before the wedding. 

But Mark, who says his youngest, teenage son Ryan has identical features to Sammy and is a natural drummer like his grandfather, says he had been told repeatedly by those within the singer's inner circle that he was Sammy's natural son.

'If I am Dad's natural son, and I believe very much that could be the case, then there could have been many reasons why I was put down as adopted.

Sammy Davis Jr's 'adopted' son's extraordinary family secret

Childhood: Mark has no photographs or information on his life before he was two, when he became part of Sammy Davis Hr and May Britt's home, where this picture was taken 

Confusing family: May Britt, left, and Sammy Davis, Jr., with their children Mark and Tracey in, 1962. Mark was officially adopted aged two, even though he was older than Tracey, the couple's biological child

Grandson: Ryan Davis, Mark's son, who is 17 and a talented drummer. His father says he can clearly see the resemblance to Sammy Davis Jr, who Ryan was born too late to meet

'Maybe it was the whole showbiz thing and the scandal it might cause or the color thing or even that my natural mother's identity had to remain secret too.

'Dad was very loving when I was a kid, but being adopted never made sense to me as Dad and Mum had a daughter Tracey who is a year younger than me. Why would they adopt an older child after having Tracey?

'Dad was a great photographer and a coffee table book has been released of his pictures. But there are no pictures of me before the age of two.

'I don't know anything about those two years. Nobody can tell me anything. Was I brought in by dad from hiding after that because the heat died down? I just don't know.'

Sammy and May had married in 1960,and another 'adopted' son Jeff also emerged during the eight year marriage.

Both loving sons live quietly and out of the public eye, while retired actress May, 88, lives in a small bungalow near Los Angeles.

Mark added: 'Dad did things with us, like taking us to Hawaii and Disneyland.

'He would goof around with us like having running races along hotel lobbies or jump into swimming pools with the kids, even though he couldn't swim.

'He would wear a floating aid and swim from one side to the other holding his breath in one go and it would make us laugh.

'But the thing with Dad was that he was always preoccupied. You were never really with him for long and he was continually surrounded by people.

'I met a lot of famous people like Uncle Frank [Sinatra] or Michael Jackson who would ask Dad to show him some moves.'

But Sammy and May split in 1968 over his infidelity and she moved permanently to Lake Tahoe. The divorce made his relationship with his father more distant.

All together: May Britt (left), Mark, his sister Tracey who was a year younger than him but born before he was adopted, and his younger adopted brother Jeff with their father Sammy Davis Jr

Posing: Mark Davis still treasures images from his childhood with his mother May Britt and Sammy Davis Jr

Rat packer: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jnr, Peter Lawford, and  Joey Bishop in 1960, at the height of their fame. Mark knew Sinatra as Uncle Frank and remembers him fondly

Taboo: Such was the racial tension created by an inter-racial marriage that the Kennedys wanted Sammy Davis Jr to postpone his wedding to May Britt before the 1960 election. The couple were photographed in 1965 

Celebrity: In 1961 Sammy Davis Jr and May Britt were the center of attention at the Cocoanut Grove Club, in Hollywood's Ambassador Hotel 

'One time he was doing a run of shows at Lake Tahoe and I only got to know through second hand means,' Mark said.

'He had been performing there twice-a-night for weeks and hadn't got in touch.

'When I went to see him, his people made me wait three hours outside his hotel suite in Vegas. I kept asking if I could see my Dad and his security just said 'You gotta wait son'.

'Eventually I gave up and went home. It would be fair to say I was a little upset by it.

'I knew my father had big scars over the things he had gone through with all the racial stuff and the showbusiness pressures and all that, but I loved him.

'Later we got in touch and I took up golf at the age of 13 to get the chance to be with him because he loved golf. We did have some great times together on the course. To spend that four-and-half-hours with him was nice because that was my time.

'He took me to one of his charity PGA tournaments, the Greater Hertford Open where I got to tee off with him.

'But I never had in-depth conversations with him. He was in this different world of showbusiness while I had a regular life with Mom and my siblings.

'He would often say to me 'Pull in Your Coat Tail' which was meant to require me to pull myself into line and be of good behavior, be quiet or obey what he instructed.' 

The truth: The birth certificate Mark Davis was finally show two years ago, which told him the dramatic truth that his adopted father was his real father - but raised a whole new question over who his real mother was 

Follow: Sammy Davis Jr had converted to Judaism and Mark was brought up in the faith, having his bar mitvah at a synagogue in Lake Tahoe in 193

Happy: Mark Davis remembers his childhood as a happy time - until his father split from May Britt and he lost almost all contact with Sammy Davis Jr

Sammy married former showgirl Altovise Gore in 1970 and Mark said contact with his father was minimal afterwards. 

'When I tried to call him, he was never available. It was very tough just to get a phone call and it got to the point that after his divorce from Mum, we were disappointed with him.

'Every two to four years, we might have had the chance to speak to him.

'One time I called him and left a message and he called back six months later.

'When he was at Harrah's Casino in Lake Tahoe, it would be days before I knew he was there even though he was in the area.

'My feeling was like "Whatever" and decided not to try and see him. I just took it as the thing to do.

'I'd get a birthday card now and then if I was lucky and I always treasured them,' he said.

'But Dad had so much going on in his life. He always seemed to be on the run doing shows at Vegas, or flying across the world to appear on TV specials and I believe he performed for The Queen too.'

Davis played a Royal Variety Performance in London in 1980, having previously played it three times at the height of his Rat Pack fame: in 1960; the following year; and then in 1966.

Mark said in the 1980s and without a father figure present to guide him, however, he slipped into a life of heavy drinking, and became an alcoholic.

New wife: Sammy Davis Jr. and Altovise Gore, arriving in England on the QEII during their honeymoon. His split from May Britt left Mark Davis with little contact with the man he knew as his adopted father

Difficult: Mark Davis had a turbulent relationship with Sammy Davis Jr as an adult, with his father unavailable to him for years at a time, and falling out over an attempt to steal his son's girlfriend

'I was partying my ass off. I drank heavily and was probably trying to be like him I suppose. I was out of control.Luckily, I grew out of it after rehab three times.'

He said Sammy was clearly disappointed, although he never told him personally.

But after Mark had overcome his drink problems, Sammy gave him a job as assistant stage manager as he toured the US. He would prepare Sammy's props like a glass of whisky, his tap shoes and his autocue so that he could easily reel off his lyrics as the orchestra played.

'I used to watch his warm-ups and rehearsals and marvel at his genius. He was called the world's greatest entertainer and I loved him to death. There has never been another like him.'

'I couldn't talk to my father because all the messages came from other people around him. He wouldn't take phone calls, he wouldn't return messages and he largely ignored me. It is never going to be the same between my sons and me.'

Mark said he has heard that his father had affairs, but this was brought home to him when Sammy got upset in a row over a Vegas dancer.

'I was dating her. He wanted her, he couldn't get that girl and he got jealous. I was 37 years old and because of that rejection, he never talked to me for at least eight months.

'It was ridiculous because he could have pretty much had any woman that he wanted.'

Mark said he tried to reason with his father, but Sammy called security to force him to leave.

'After I was thrown out I told the security nobody told me he wanted my lady. He never discussed it with me. What kind of s--- was that!'

Mark said he rarely saw his father in the last years of his life, but was at his side when he died in Beverley Hills. 

Four generations: Sammy Davis Jr (left) with his son Mark, his then newborn son Andrew, now 29, and Sammy Davis Sr, together in 1985. Sammy Davis Sr died in 1988, his son passed away two years later

Father's love: Mark Davis was determined to bring his sons up without the uncertainty of his own upbringing. 'I do my best to be the best father to my sons and to make a living working at Costco,' he told Daily Mail Online

'The throat cancer was eating him up and he had these awful lumps from his neck. He was heavily on morphine.

'I had arrived from lake Tahoe, which was about eight hours away.

'He called me to his bed and I will never forget what he said as he pulled me close.

"You are my son" were his last words to me and I have from that day wondered what he meant.

'I had been acknowledged publicly as his adopted son in the media and in interviews he gave. But many people who knew him had regularly told me: ' You know he's your real dad.'

'I know I have his features as does Ryan, who is a natural drummer just like Dad.

'But I might never know what he actually meant. Was he confessing to being my real father?

'Was he just thanking me for coming to see him as he was dying? Was he just trying to make it up to me in those last few moments and telling me he really loved me?

'I just don't have the answers. But two years ago I was given my birth certificate and it has my father's name on it. I don't know which way to look at it.'

Hours after Sammy died, officials from the IRS arrived and turfed him out of the Beverley Hills mansion, seizing the singer's assets. He owed 7.5m dollars to the government.

'There's no bitterness from me over that. I know they also auctioned off my Dad's personal items to pay his tax bill.

'How all that came about I just don't know. Altovise, who died a few years ago, got what was left of the estate in Dad's will.'

Mark, who has been married three times added: 'The other day I was watching the Super Bowl and they played one of Dad's songs during a break to publicize the new 'Blacklist' TV series.

'I turned to somebody and said "I'm not getting any of those royalties and I never will."

Playtime: May Britt, Sammy Davis Jr with life saving float, and Mark enjoying playtime at Lake Tahoe. His father would goof around with the float to make his children laugh

Mark said he now concentrates on being a father to his two sons to give them a relationship he never had with his father.

'I have two sons Ryan who is 17 and Andy who is 29 and I hug them to death. I grew up not knowing who the f**k I am and that is with me all my life. I am 55 now and I just want to be the best dad that I never had.

'They are the joy of my life and I try and be the father to them that Sammy wasn't to me. Parent hood is not perfect, but me and my father never had the communication. I want it to be different with my sons. 

'I do my best to be the best father to my sons and to make a living working at Costco. I also want to look after my mother and brother. I have all these people to love. That's fine by me. 

'I would like to know for sure who I really am. But I can get by with the love of the people I care for.' 

Comments (61)

Share what you think

• Newest
• Oldest
• Best rated
• Worst rated

 View all

The comments below have not been moderated.

 View all

The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline.

Add your comment

Enter your comment

By posting your comment you agree to our house rules.

Submit Comment Clear

Who is this week's top commenter? Find out now