Sammy Davis Jr. died owing the IRS about $7 million, and his widow lost the rights to his name and music

Sammy Davis Jr. died of throat cancer at his Beverly Hills home in May 1990, aged 64. He was impoverished and deeply in debt to the IRS. The tax liabilities against his estate came to about $7 million. Biographer Matt Birkbeck called it "the largest single open case of an individual taxpayer debt in the nation." The IRS liquidated the couple's assets, including the Beverly Hills home and personal possessions^†. His widow, Altovise Davis, hired Albert "Sonny" Murray Jr., a lawyer in the Poconos, who reached a settlement with the IRS in 1997. The terms were not disclosed. Altovise said her husband would have preferred a settlement to bankruptcy. She and Murray parted in 2001. By 2008 she was nearly penniless and struggling with alcohol addiction, and the Associated Press described the estate as "in tatters." In 2008 she sued two former business partners, Barrett LaRoda and Anthony Francis^†, alleging they tricked her into signing away the rights to her husband's estate. The suit was pending when she died after a stroke at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in March 2009. NPR, reporting on Birkbeck's book, said the estate had lost all rights to his name, image and music. In February 2026 8 News Now reported that the couple's adopted son, Manny Davis, became administrator of the estate after her death.