Biography
Roger Davis is an actor, producer, and voice-over artist best known for taking over the role of Hannibal Heyes (also known as Joshua Smith) in the TV series Alias Smith and Jones (1971), following the death of his friend Pete Duel, who died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound while intoxicated.
His casting was fitting, as he had previously appeared alongside Duel in the ABC Movie of the Week titled The Young Country (1970), where Duel was cast as the second lead under a Universal Studios contract. Davis had recently spent two years (1968-70) playing multiple characters on the vampire-themed daytime soap opera Dark Shadows (1966). Earlier, he appeared as a soldier in the World War II-themed TV series The Gallant Men (1962) during its 1962-63 season and as a ranch hand in the short-lived 1963 TV Western Redigo, which was canceled mid-season. In 1966, he filmed a pilot for a TV series based on James Jones's WWII novel From Here to Eternity (1953), playing Pvt. Robert E. Lee Pruitt, though the series was not picked up.
Similarly, the pilot for The Young Country was not picked up four years later. However, ABC did greenlight the Alias Smith and Jones pilot as a mid-season replacement in January 1971. The pilot paid homage to the hit film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), starring Duel as a character inspired by Paul Newman's Butch Cassidy. (In the movie, Butch and Sundance use the aliases Smith and Jones.) Universal Studios contract player Ben Murphy was cast as Duel's partner.
The producers utilized Davis's voice-over skills to narrate the opening of each Alias Smith and Jones episode featuring Duel and Murphy. Davis also acted in the episode "Smiler with a Gun" (1971), where he was the only character ever killed by Murphy’s character, Kid Curry, a reformed gunslinger inspired by Robert Redford's Sundance Kid.
Pete Duel died on the morning of Friday, December 31, 1971, before filming for the 1971-72 season was completed. Eighteen episodes had been filmed, with Duel working on episode 19. Filming with Murphy continued that Friday, and Davis was immediately hired to replace Duel, closing a circle that began with both actors being considered for roles in Ride the Wild Surf (1964) and Love on a Rooftop (1966), and continued with their co-starring in The Young Country. Davis appeared in the final five episodes of season two and all twelve episodes of season three, which was canceled mid-season.
Alias Smith and Jones was scheduled in two challenging time slots. During its first two seasons, it aired Thursday nights opposite The Flip Wilson Show (Flip, 1970), the second highest-rated show in America. In the 1972-73 season, ABC moved it to Saturday nights, where it competed with All in the Family (1971), a top-rated, groundbreaking program. From 1971 to 1976, All in the Family held the #1 spot for five consecutive seasons. Meanwhile, The Flip Wilson Show fell out of the Top 10, ranking #12 in 1972-73, which was also Alias Smith and Jones' final season.
Pete Duel publicly attributed ABC's failure to renew Love on a Rooftop (1966), where he had a lead role, to network politics, claiming another producer wanted the time slot. Before his death, he also stated that ABC considered moving Alias Smith and Jones to the Saturday 8:30-9:30 pm slot vacated by The Lawrence Welk Show (1951) but ultimately left it on Thursday. Duel was disappointed by this decision, feeling the other slot would be better for the series. However, he was mistaken, as the move to Saturday after his death contributed to the show's cancellation.
All in the Family debuted on Tuesday nights at 9:30 pm, ranking #34 in its first half-season. After switching to Saturdays at 8:00 pm in the 1971-72 season—the same season ABC had contemplated moving Alias Smith and Jones to Saturday—it rose quickly to the top of the ratings. It proved a more formidable competitor than any character Hannibal Heyes or Kid Curry faced, including Danny Bilson, the gunman Davis portrayed in "Smiler with a Gun" (1971).
Roger Davis was unfairly blamed by some for Alias Smith and Jones' decline, accused of being unable to fill Pete Duel's shoes. However, it is doubtful the show could have survived even with Duel, given the network's decision to pit it against the cultural phenomenon All in the Family. The once-popular TV Western genre was in decline; in January 1973, the same month ABC canceled Alias Smith and Jones, NBC ended Bonanza (1959), a former ratings powerhouse. This left only Gunsmoke (1955) as a continuing Western until it ended in 1975.
Throughout the 1970s, Roger Davis continued guest-starring in TV and occasional low-budget films, though work became scarce in the 1980s. As a voice artist, he has recorded over 6,000 TV and radio commercials. He is also a partner in the movie production company Lonetree Entertainment.
Beyond acting, Davis has found success as a real estate developer, building multi-million-dollar homes in the Hollywood Hills and renovating high-rise buildings, hotels, and mansions. Originally from Louisville, Kentucky, he has been married four times; his first wife was actress Jaclyn Smith of Charlie's Angels (1976) fame.
