[1][2][3] He started out making films in the 1940s and 1950s and expanded into television work in the following decades.

[3] He played the role of Dr. Caldwell in three episodes in the second and third seasons of the NBC-TV sitcom series Sanford and Son, and as Dr. Ozaba in the 1968 episode "The Empath" in the original Star Trek series.

[1][2][3] He was active off-screen as well, serving several terms on the western advisory board of Actors' Equity Association.

[2] As one of the officers of Beverly Hills-Hollywood Branch of the NAACP he helped present the first Image Awards in 1967.

[3] Davis died in the home of his brother Charles on July 18, 1993, of emphysema at the age of 76.