Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, he was an ordained Christian minister and first achieved prominence as a sensational orator and lecturer, becoming known as the "poet-preacher" and the "Talmage of the West", before leaving the pulpit for an acting career.

[7][8][b] His father, William Wallace Davis, was a noted agriculturalist,[16][17] and his brother Gideon became an advertising executive and editor of the Oakland Herald.

[7][14] In less than two years membership in his congregation tripled and audiences swelled to see the minister dubbed by the New York Tribune: "actor-preacher, a word-painter, a patron of the waltz... and the most popular preacher in the city.

"[7] He enacted scenes from Richard III in sermon to an audience of fifteen hundred people, and on another occasion sought to illustrate the innocence of dancing by giving representations of the waltz.

[25] A writer for the San Francisco Town Talk recalled: "as a clergyman Edwards Davis was skilled in the arts of advertising.

[33] Davis visited Durrant in prison on January 6, the night before his execution, ostensibly to offer spiritual council, but was later suspected of being sent by the San Francisco Examiner to obtain an interview.

In April 1900 Kingore filed for divorce while Davis was on tour,[42][45][e] and by December of that year he was stage manager for a Chicago production of The Devil and a Swede.

[8][48] He spent the next few years with various companies, including Belasco and Mayer's The Dairy Farm, which premiered at San Francisco's Alcazar Theatre in August 1903.

[8][53] Davis and his company brought The Unmasking onto the vaudeville circuit in 1905, touring the Orpheum Chain before making a New York City premiere in August 1906 at Keith's Union Square Theatre.

"[55] Other original works by Davis included All Rivers Meet at Sea, The Kingdom of Destiny,[56] and a dramatization of the Oscar Wilde novel The Picture of Dorian Gray,[8] which is among the book's earliest adaptations.

"[5] By 1918 his film appearances included A Circus Romance, Who's Guilty, The Daughter of MacGregor, Transgression, The Victim, Bab's Matinee Idol, Dodging a Million, and De Luxe Annie.

[67][68] Davis' film roles in the 1920s included The New York Idea (1920), The Plaything of Broadway (1921), Hook and Ladder (1924), and The Woman on the Jury (1924).

[68][6] The second half of the decade saw Davis in A Hero on Horseback (1927), A Reno Divorce (1927), The Life of Riley (1928), Happiness Ahead (1928), The Sporting Age (1928), A Song of Kentucky (1929),[69] and Madam Satan (1930).