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| Ann B Davis |
Actress Ann B. Davis, an American television legend who held The Brady Bunch together in her role as housekeeper Alice Nelson, died Sunday. Bishop William Frey, a close friend of Davis, told CNN the actress died at a hospital in San Antonio, Texas, where she was treated after hitting her head in a fall. The actress suffered a subdural hematoma, he said, and never regained consciousness.
Appearing in her trademark light blue maid's uniform with a white apron, Alice anchored "The Brady Bunch" with her cheerful attitude and witty one-liners.
Actress Ann B. Davis, an American television legend who held "The Brady Bunch" together in her role as housekeeper Alice Nelson, died Sunday. Appearing in her trademark light blue maid's uniform with a white apron, Alice anchored "The Brady Bunch" with her cheerful attitude and witty one-liners.
Emmy-winning actress Ann B. Davis, who became the country's favorite and most famous housekeeper as the devoted Alice Nelson of "The Brady Bunch," died Sunday at a San Antonio hospital. Bexar County, Texas, medical examiner's investigator Sara Horne said Davis died Sunday morning at University Hospital. Bill Frey, a retired bishop and a longtime friend of Davis, said she suffered a fall Saturday at her San Antonio home and never recovered. Frey said Davis had lived with him and his wife, Barbara, since 1976.
More than a decade before scoring as the Bradys' loyal Alice, Davis was the razor-tongued secretary on another stalwart TV sitcom, "The Bob Cummings Show," which brought her two Emmys. Davis considered her ordinary look an asset.
Producer Sherwood Schwartz's "The Brady Bunch" debuted in 1969 and aired for five years. Davis' face occupied the center square during the show's opening credits. Eve Plumb, who played Jan Brady on the series, called Davis "an amazing lady."
It returned as "The Brady Bunch Hour" (1977), "The Brady Brides" (1981), "The Bradys" (1990). "The Brady Bunch Movie," with Shelley Long and Gary Cole as the parents, was a surprise box-office hit in 1995. It had another actress as Alice, but Davis appeared in a bit part as a trucker. Older TV viewers remember Davis for another non-glamorous role, on "The Bob Cummings Show," also known as "Love That Bob." It brought Davis supporting actress Emmy Awards in 1958 and 1959.
"Somebody said, `Get your agent to call the new Bob Cummings show. I had such fun with that show.
For many years after "The Brady Bunch" wound up, Davis led a quiet religious life, affiliating herself with a group led by Frey.
Davis never married, saying she never found a man who was more interesting than her career.
Ann B. Davis, the Emmy-winning actress best remembered as the nutty housekeeper on television's "The Brady Bunch," has died.
Davis died Sunday in San Antonio, said her agent, Robert Malcolm. For the last several years Davis had lived in San Antonio with the family of retired Episcopal bishop William Frey, a close friend.
Davis was a two-time Emmy winner playing the wisecracking assistant on "The Bob Cummings Show" in the 1950s, but it was her "Brady Bunch" character that brought her the greatest fame. Since 1976, Davis lived with an Episcopal community, first in Denver, then in western Pennsylvania, finally settling in the Texas hill country near San Antonio. Ann Bradford Davis was born May 5, 1926, in Schenectady, N.Y., and grew up in Erie, Pa., where she and her twin sister Harriet were encouraged to perform in puppet shows and play acting. After college, Davis performed in various nightclubs and stage productions before eventually settling in Los Angeles.
In 1955, she landed the role of Charmaine "Shultzy" Schultz on "The Bob Cummings Show," playing the devoted assistant to Cummings' playboy photographer until the series ended in 1959. "It depends on how old you are whether you remember 'The Cummings Show,'" Davis told the San Antonio News Express in 1998. The Brady family and their housekeeper, from top: Cindy (Susan Olsen), Bobby (Mike Lookinland), Jan (Eve Plumb), Peter (Christopher Knight), Marcia (Maureen McCormack), Greg (Barry Williams), Alice (Ann B. Davis), Carol (Florence Henderson) and Mike (Robert Reed).
In 1994 Davis co-wrote "Alice's Brady Bunch Cookbook," a collection of Brady-themed recipes and anecdotes, despite her confession that she was clueless in the kitchen.
Davis is the second "Brady Bunch" cast member to die. Robert Reed, who played father Mike Brady, died in 1992 at 59.
