Davis made his professional debut at the Woodstock Playhouse in
New York in 1947 in
The Barretts of Wimpole Street. In 1948, with his brother, Murray Davis, he founded a summer theatre company, the Straw Hat Players, at
Muskoka, Ontario. Davis performed in
Britain from 1950 to 1953 with the
Glasgow Citizens' Theatre and the
Bristol Old Vic. In 1953, with his brother Murray and sister
Barbara, 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 in 1954, 1955, 1956, 1969 and 1970. He also acted on radio and television for the
CBC. In 1959, he left Canada to act in the United States. 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. and he repeated the role at the Crest. This was the first in a series of roles in plays by Beckett and directed by
Alan Schneider, and Davis was considered a foremost interpreter of Beckett. In the United States, Davis performed in many regional theatres, including City Centre Theatre in New York,
Provincetown Playhouse,
American Shakespeare Festival, New York's
Mermaid Theatre and Chicago's
Goodman Theatre. He also appeared on US television. Davis appeared in "
The Wild Wild West", season 3, episode 18 "The Night of the Vipers" as the scheming Mayor Vance Beaumont. The episode aired on January 10, 1968. Davis would perform again in New York in a performance of
Beckett Plays in 1983, directed by Schneider. In 1971, Davis returned to Canada. He performed at
Festival Lennoxville, in Toronto at the
St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts with Toronto Arts Productions, CentreStage and Theatre Plusin Toronto, and the
Neptune Theatre in Halifax. He also appeared in several Canadian films. Davis directed theatre also, first with the Straw Hat Players, Festival Lennoxville, the
Shaw Festival, Edmonton's
Citadel Theatre and Ottawa's
National Arts Centre. ==Death==