A seasoned, Emmy Award-winning, comedic character actress best known for her role as the eternally wise and wise-cracking housekeeper Alice Nelson on The Brady Bunch, Ann Bradford Davis was born in Schenectady, New York, on May 5, 1926, to Cassius Miles and Marguerite Scott Davis. She had a twin sister, Harriet, and an older brother, Evans. When Davis was just 3 years old, her father, an electrical engineer, and her mother, an amateur actress, moved the family to Erie, where she attended school at Longfellow and Gridley, graduating from Strong Vincent High School in 1944. The family first lived at the corner of Eighth and Sassafras streets, then moved to Oxford Street. Davis, who made her debut in show business at age 6 earning $2.00 in a puppet show, had planned to study medicine, but became interested in acting again after seeing her older brother's performance of Oklahoma. She went on to earn a degree in drama and speech from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1948. L. Newell Tarrant, former managing director of the Erie Playhouse, cast Davis' mother, Marguerite, in his first production in Erie, Kiss and Tell, in which she played a maid. "That must be where I learned," Davis joked about being typecast as a maid, when she returned to Erie in 1990 for a Playhouse reunion. Davis, who starred on the Playhouse stage before and after graduating from the University of Michigan, was described as a dependable actress with a cheerful outlook — Past Playhouse alumni included Dom DeLuise and Rue McClanahan, neither of which were Erieites.
Schultzy on "The Bob Cummings Show"
In the 1953–1954 season Davis appeared as a musical judge on ABC's Jukebox Jury while continuing her acting career in Erie at the Playhouse and touring with a variety of musicals before she was recommended by her boyfriend, a casting director, in 1955, for the role of Charmaine Schultzy Schultz, the lovesick and outspoken assistant to photographer and womanizer Bob Collins, on The Bob Cummings Show. The series ran for four years and was later titled Love That Bob for syndication. Davis was nominated for Emmy Awards four times for her performance on the show, and won for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her last two nominations, in 1958 and 1959.
Commercials and Guest Appearances
For a period in the 1960s and 1970s Davis was known for her appearances in television commercials for the Ford Motor Company, particularly for the mid-sized Ford Fairlane models. She appeared on January 23, 1958, as a guest star on The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford. Davis was also featured in commercials for Minute Rice until the mid-1980s.
In the 1965–1966 television season Davis appeared as Miss Wilson, a physical education teacher at a private girls' academy in John Forsythe's single-season NBC sitcom, The John Forsythe Show.
Davis' other television credits include Wagon Train, The Dating Game, Love American Style and The Love Boat.
Davis also toured Vietnam, Thailand and Korea with the USO.
Alice on "The Brady Bunch"
In 1969 Davis was cast as the flip and funny live-in housekeeper and peacemaker Alice Nelson on a new family sitcom, The Brady Bunch, starring Florence Henderson and Robert Reed as the parents of a blended family. Davis often stole the scenes and got the biggest laughs while mediating family disputes with her friendly but sarcastic words of wisdom.
Throughout most of the show, Davis's character, Alice, dated Sam the Butcher (Sam Franklin), played by Allan Melvin. The Brady Bunch aired 117 episodes, running until 1974, followed by reunion shows, TV movies and spin-offs. In the Brady Bunch sequels, Alice eventually married her bowling-loving butcher, but in real life, Davis never married.
Davis, like other cast members, capitalized on the show’s popularity in a string of mostly ill-conceived follow-up projects, including The Brady Bunch Variety Hour, a 1976-77 series, and the television movies The Brady Girls Get Married and A Very Brady Christmas in the 1980s. When the torch passed to a new generation in The Brady Bunch Movie (1995), starring Shelley Long and Gary Cole in the roles originated by Florence Henderson and Robert Reed, Ms. Davis made a cameo appearance with a wink to older moviegoers. She played a truck driver named Schultzy. (The comedian Henriette Mantel played Alice.)
While on hiatus from The Brady Bunch, Davis had no trouble finding work in regional theaters, starring in Arsenic and Old Lace, Once Upon a Mattress and Auntie Mame, among other productions. She toured Southeast Asia with the United Service Organizations and, in the mid-1990s, appeared on Broadway in Crazy for You, featuring the music of George and Ira Gershwin.
Movie Career
Davis' first motion picture part was in Strategic Air Command (1955) with James Stewart, as a waitress who sets a cake in front of Stewart. The scene was later cut out of the film.
In 1961 Davis appeared in the movie Lover Come Back, a romantic comedy, with Doris Day and Rock Hudson. Her other film credits from this period include A Man Called Peter (1955), Pepe (1960) and All Hands on Deck (1961). Davis took her Brady Bunch persona with her for a brief appearance in Naked Gun 33 1/3.
On February 8, 1960, Davis was honored by the entertainment industry with her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Later Years & Death
In 1976 Davis sold her home in Los Angeles, California, to move to Denver, Colorado, where she met Bishop William C. Frey and joined an Episcopal community called Trinity School for Ministry which was led by the Bishop at the time. Davis, Bishop Frey, his wife, Barbara, and their five would all become lifetime friends, Davis becoming a lifelong member of the Frey family. In 1989 when Bishop Frey became the third dean and president of the community’s seminary school located at Ambridge in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, Davis relocated to the school with the Frey family. In 1996 Bishop Frey resigned from his position at the school. Afterwards, Davis, Bishop Frey and his family, moved to San Antonio, Texas where Davis became a lifelong volunteer for the Episcopal Church, working at the General Convention, attending services at churches around the country.
Though Davis quit show business for the most part she continued to make occasional TV and film appearances.
In 1994 Davis published Alice's Brady Bunch Cookbook, a compilation of recipes with dishes such as Marcia, Marcia, Marcia Muffins and Groovy Old-Fashioned Pancakes.
Although reportedly in good health, Davis fell in her bathroom at the Frey’s home and hit her head on June 1, 2014. She suffered a subdural hematoma and passed away later that day at the hospital in San Antonio, at the age of 88.
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| Ann B. Davis. |
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| Publicity photo of Bob Cummings and Ann B. Davis from the television program "The Bob Cummings Show." |
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| Ann B. Davis as "Schultzy" with Bob Cummings as Grandpa on "The Bob Cummings show." |
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| Ann B. Davis appearance on "The John Forsythe Show." |
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| Ann B. Davis as "Alice" on "The Brady Bunch" Television sitcom. |
