NAMES IN THE NEWS : Sammy Davis Credits Kindness

Hats off to radiation treatment, Sammy Davis Jr. says, but it was really the kindness of friends and strangers that pulled him through.

“A hundred letters a day is a lot of mail, you know, for somebody who ain’t got a hit series or hit records,” Davis, 64, said in the Jan. 29 issue of People magazine. “It was such an outpouring, it was unbelievable.”

He said Frank Sinatra and Bill Cosby offered their planes to fly him to Paris and New York for treatment for throat cancer. Liza Minnelli showed up at his home, bags in hand and stayed for four days. Jerry Lewis scoured the medical community for the right doctor. Steve Lawrence said he “tried to cheer him up, kinda like a wife.”

For inspiration, Davis turned to his friend Jill Ireland, who has been fighting cancer for years--and to a 7-year-old boy he met in a hospital.

“He had no hair, he had no legs and here I am complaining about what by comparison was nothing but a minor inconvenience,” he said. “From that day on, I think, I stopped feeling sorry for myself.”