Donald Davis (actor)

For other persons, see Donald Davis (disambiguation).

Donald George Davis (February 26, 1928 – January 23, 1998) was a Canadian film and theatre actor, theatre director and theatre producer. He was a founder of the Crest Theatre in Toronto, which pioneered Canadian actors, directors and plays.

Donald Davis
Donald Davis in 1984
Born	February 26, 1928 Newmarket, Ontario, Canada
Died	January 23, 1998(1998-01-23) (aged 69) Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Occupations	actor director producer

Career

He was born in Newmarket, Ontario, where his grandfather Elihu James Davis (and his uncle, Aubrey Davis) owned the Davis Leather Company. He attended St. Andrew's College from 1941 to 1946, graduating with the Class of 1946, and studied theatre at the University of Toronto. He performed at the Woodstock Playhouse in New York in 1947. In 1948, with his brother, Murray Edward Davis, he founded a summer theatre company, the Straw Hat Players, at Muskoka, Ontario. Davis performed in Britain from 1950 to 1953. In 1953, with his brother and sister (Barbara Chilcott), he co-founded the Crest Theatre in Toronto, which operated until 1966. As well as acting at the Crest, he also directed several plays. He performed at the Stratford Festival and on radio and television. In 1959, he left Canada to act in the United States.

He was also a member of the acting company at the American Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford, Connecticut. In 1959, he began performing off-Broadway. He played Krapp in the North American premiere production of Samuel Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape, for which he won an Obie Award.^[1] He performed in regional theatres in Canada and the United States. He appeared on television in "The Wild Wild West" S3 E18 "The Night of the Vipers" as the scheming Mayor Vance Beaumont. The episode aired on 1/10/1968.

Death

Davis died of emphysema at Toronto in 1998 at age 69. St. Andrew's College opened the Donald Davis Theatre posthumously in his honour.

Selected filmography

• San Diego, I Love You (1944)
• The Return of Rusty (1946)
• Joy in the Morning (1965)
• And Then You Die (1987)