Donald George Davis (February 26, 1928 – January 23, 1998) was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

actor.

Career

He was born in

Newmarket, Ontario Newmarket ( 2021 population: 87,942) is a town and regional seat of the Regional Municipality of York in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is part of Greater Toronto in the Golden Horseshoe region of Southern Ontario. The name stems from the ...

, 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 The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

. 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 The District Municipality of Muskoka, more generally referred to as the District of Muskoka or Muskoka, is a regional municipality in Central Ontario, Canada. Muskoka extends from Georgian Bay in the west, to the northern tip of Lake Couchiching ...

. Davis performed in

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

from 1950 to 1953. In 1953, with his brother and sister (

Barbara Chilcott Barbara Chilcott Davis (September 10, 1922 – January 1, 2022) was a Canadian actress. Career After the war she studied at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London, making her West End debut in 1949. On her return to Canada in 1950, she ...

), he founded the Crest Theatre in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

, which operated until 1966. He performed at the

Stratford Festival The Stratford Festival is a theatre festival which runs from April to October in the city of Stratford, Ontario, Canada. Founded by local journalist Tom Patterson in 1952, the festival was formerly known as the Stratford Shakespearean Festival ...

and on radio and television. He was also a member of the acting company at the

American Shakespeare Theatre The American Shakespeare Theatre was a theater company based in Stratford, Connecticut, United States. It was formed in the early 1950s by Lawrence Langner, Lincoln Kirstein, John Percy Burrell, and philanthropist Joseph Verner Reed. The Amer ...

in Stratford,

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

. In 1959, he began performing off-Broadway. He played Krapp in the North American premiere production of

Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish novelist, dramatist, short story writer, theatre director, poet, and literary translator. His literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal and tragicomic expe ...

's ''

Krapp's Last Tape ''Krapp's Last Tape'' is a 1958 one-act play, in English, by Samuel Beckett. With a cast of one man, it was written for Northern Irish actor Patrick Magee and first titled "Magee monologue". It was inspired by Beckett's experience of listenin ...

'', for which he won an Obie Award. He performed in regional theatres in Canada and the United States.

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 ''San Diego, I Love You'' is a 1944 American comedy film directed by Reginald Le Borg and starring Jon Hall, Louise Allbritton and Edward Everett Horton.McLaughlin p.249 Synopsis Philip McCooley, a widowed high school teacher in small-town Cali ...

'' (1944) * ''

The Return of Rusty ''The Return of Rusty'' is a 1946 American drama film directed by William Castle and starring Ted Donaldson, John Litel and Mark Dennis. It was the second in the eight part Rusty film series produced by Columbia Pictures.Blottnerp.280 Cast * Ted ...

'' (1946) * '' Joy in the Morning'' (1965)

References

External links

Entry from the Canadian Encyclopedia

by Mel Gussow, January 28, 1998 in

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

.
UK National Portrait Gallery
* Goodwin, Jill Tomasson. "A Career in Review: Donald Davis Canadian Actor, Producer, Director." Theatre Research in Canada 10.2 (1989): 132–151. * 1928 births 1998 deaths Canadian male stage actors Canadian people of British descent People from Newmarket, Ontario Male actors from Ontario 20th-century Canadian male actors Canadian expatriates in England Canadian expatriate male actors in the United Kingdom Canadian expatriate male actors in the United States {{Canada-stage-actor-stub