Roger Davis (television Actor) - Acting Career

Acting Career

Davis first appeared on television in 1962. He portrayed Pvt. Roger Gibson in the ABC television series The Gallant Men. In 1963, he co-starred with Richard Egan in the NBC Western drama Redigo, which was the renamed second season of the previous Empire television series, both set on a ranch in New Mexico. In 1964, Davis also appeared in one episode of The Twilight Zone, "Spur of the Moment", co-starred Diana Hyland.

From 1968-70, Davis garnered attention playing multiple characters on the daytime Gothic soap opera, Dark Shadows. On Dark Shadows, he played Peter Bradford, Jeff Clark, Ned Stuart, Dirk Wilkins, and Charles Delaware Tate.

In 1971, Davis narrated the voice-over theme sequence for the western series Alias Smith and Jones, starring Pete Duel as Hannibal Heyes/Joshua Smith and Ben Murphy as Kid Curry/Thaddeus Jones. He also appeared in one of the episodes ("Smiler with a Gun") as slick gunfighter Danny Bilson. Bilson has the distinction of being the only character kind-hearted Kid Curry was ever driven to kill during the series.

When Pete Duel committed suicide at the end of 1971, Davis replaced him as Hannibal Heyes. However, after Davis completed just seventeen episodes it was clear the show would never achieve the same level of popularity as it had with Pete Duel. The series subsequently ended in 1973. Competition from NBC's popular Flip Wilson Show siphoned the show's ratings.

Davis continued to act in guest starring roles on TV series and movies throughout the 1970s, and he has been the voice over artist for thousands of TV and radio commercials. He also regularly participates in Alias Smith and Jones and Dark Shadows festivals and reunions, and, in early 2011, reprised his role of Charles Delaware Tate in a new Dark Shadows play - The Blind Painter.