Born Donald George Davis, February 26, 1928, in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada; died of lung disease, January 23, 1998, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Actor, director, and producer.
Donald took on various challenging roles in his long stage career. He was just at home in a classic Shakespeare drama or a modern Samuel Beckett play. Educated at St. Andrew's College and the University of Toronto, Davis made his debut as Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night at Toronto's Hart House Theater in 1937. He acted in England for a few years then, with brother Murray Davis, founded the Crest Theater in Toronto. In the mid-1950s he acted with the Stratford Shakespearian Festival Company, appearing in Hamlet, Measure for Measure, Oedipus Rex, Julius Caesar, Henry V,and The Merry Wives of Windsor. Davis made his London debut in 1957 playing Angus McBane in The Glass Cage and his Broadway debut in 1956 playing Agydas in Tamburlain the Great. In 1960, he landed the title role in Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape, for which he won an Obie Award. Hisother stage appearances include Antony and Cleopatra (1960), Macbeth (1961), As You Like It (1961), Creditors (1962), Becket (1962), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1962), Photo Finish (1963), The Ballad of the Sad Cafe (1965), An Evening's Frost (1965), Brother to Dragons (1965), Hay Fever (1965), Elizabeth the Queen (1966), The Birds (1966), The Entertainer(1968), The American Dream (1968), The Zoo Story (1968), TheLion in Winter (1968), The Merchant of Venice (1970), The Sorrows of Frederick (1971), Mourning Becomes Electra (1972), Lear (1973), The Dybbuk (1974), Play and Other Plays (1977-78),Old World (1980) and Ohio Impromptu (1983). Besides acting, Davis also directed plays such as The Glass Cage (1957), Deathwatch (1961-62), Toy for the Clowns (1962), The Imaginary Invalid (1967), The Royal Family (1972), and Laura and French WithoutTears (1948-55). He also squeezed in some television appearances on The Defenders (1962, 63 and 65), The Nurses (1962), The Doctorsand the Nurses (1964), and Mission Impossible (1966). He appearedin the films Oedipus Rex (1957), Joy in the Morning (1965), Agency (1981) and Samuel Lount (1986).
OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES
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