Billy Daniels

William Boone Daniels was born on September 12, 1915, in Jacksonville, Florida, where his father worked as a postmaster and notary and his mother served as a schoolteacher and organist. His ancestry included Portuguese, Native American (Choctaw), African American, and frontiersman heritage through Daniel Boone. In 1935, Daniels relocated to New York City with the intention of studying law at Columbia University, but the economic pressures of the Depression redirected his path. His grandmother, a seamstress for the Ziegfeld Follies in Harlem, encouraged him to perform, and he began singing at Dickie Wells, a club where he had initially worked as a dishwasher and then as a singing waiter. Bandleader Erskine Hawkins discovered him there and brought him on as a featured vocalist.

During his early years in New York, Daniels worked with several accompanists, including Nat Cole. In 1948 he formed a lasting partnership with Benny Payne, a former pianist for Cab Calloway at the Cotton Club, who remained his accompanist for the remainder of his career. Daniels recorded his first signature song, "Diane," for Bluebird in 1941, having established it as a trademark through his New York radio appearances. His second and more enduring signature song, "That Old Black Magic," written by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer, was first recorded for Apollo Records in 1948. His 1950 Mercury recording of the song became a million-selling hit and defined his public identity for decades. His recordings span the transition from 78-rpm formats to microgroove technology, and his discography includes releases on Mercury, Verve, Pickwick, Wing, King, and other labels across four decades.

Daniels made his Broadway debut in 1945 in a minor role in Memphis Bound!, a short-lived musical. He returned to Broadway in 1964 for Golden Boy, starring Sammy Davis Jr. and directed by Arthur Penn, a production that ran for more than 700 performances. In 1975, Daniels toured the United States in an all-Black production of Hello, Dolly! alongside Pearl Bailey. Beyond Broadway, he headlined a 1978 West End production of Bubbling Brown Sugar in London.

Daniels was a significant figure in the early history of American television. On October 12, 1952, ABC debuted The Billy Daniels Show, a 15-minute program broadcast on Sunday evenings from WJZ-TV in New York, from the studio that would later become The Ed Sullivan Theater. Sponsored by the vitamin tablet Rybutol, the series was the first sponsored network television program to star a Black performer. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Daniels made television appearances in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada, including performances on The Milton Berle Show and The Ed Sullivan Show. He first toured Australia in 1954 with the Andrews Sisters. His film credits include When You're Smiling (Columbia, 1950), Sunny Side of the Street (Columbia, 1951), and Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder (Columbia, 1952). In 1977, Daniels received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Daniels was married four times. His first marriage, to Gladys Gordan, ended in divorce in 1940; they had one daughter, Yvonne. His second wife, Florence Clotworthy, died in 1947; together they had three children: Diane, Billy Jr., and Bruce. In 1950 he married socialite Martha Braun, who later filed for divorce in Juarez, Mexico, citing mental cruelty. His fourth marriage, to Pierrette Cameron, whom he had hired as governess for his children, lasted from 1955 until his death. They had two daughters, Andrea and Dominique. Following Daniels's death, his widow Pierrette and daughter Dominique established the Billy Daniels Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization supporting arts education for underserved youth, with Dominique serving as Chief Executive Officer.

Daniels underwent heart bypass surgery in both 1982 and 1987 and continued performing through the summer of 1988. In August of that year he was admitted to the Scripps Clinic in San Diego, where physicians discovered a bleeding ulcer and inoperable stomach cancer. He died on October 7, 1988, at the Kenneth Norris Cancer Hospital in Los Angeles at the age of 73 and is buried at El Camino Memorial Park in Sorrento Valley, San Diego, California.