Biography of Ann B. Davis

Ann B. Davis started doing stand-up in the early 1950s, her act liberally sprinkled with singing and dancing. Her big break came after an unpaid performance at a coffee shop, when a stranger in the audience invited her to audition for The Bob Cummings Show.

She played Schultzy, the perpetually single secretary with a crush on her boss (Cummings). On the show, Schultzy was pals with Mamie Van Doren and wooed by Don Knotts. She was Emmy-nominated in 1956 and '57, and won in '58 and '59.

Davis is best known as Alice, the wisecracking spinster and live-in maid and nanny on The Brady Bunch. She cooked all the family's meals, but rarely ate with them. "Personally," says Davis, "I can't cook."

In the sequels and revivals of The Brady Bunch, Alice eventually married Sam the butcher, but in real life Ann B. Davis never married, and was never romantically linked with anyone, at least publicly. She was reportedly aware of Robert Reed's homosexuality, but never mentioned it until after his death.

Davis also played Alice on episodes of the sitcoms Hi Honey, I'm Home and Day by Day. She reprised her "Schultzy" character in The Brady Bunch Movie with Shelley Long and Gary Cole.

Born again at 47, Davis lived in a religious community for 15 years, and in an eerie imitation of her "Alice" role, she lived with an Episcopalian minister and his wife. During these years, she worked only in Brady reunions and occasional TV commercials, before returning to the stage in the 1990s.

Now retired, Davis is still deeply involved with her church, and does volunteer work for the homeless.