[2] Davis was born in Louisville, Kentucky, on April 5, 1939, and graduated from Columbia College in 1961, where he was classmates with Dark Shadows co-star Don Briscoe and director Brian De Palma.

[5] In 1964, Davis appeared in one episode of The Twilight Zone, "Spur of the Moment", co-starring Diana Hyland, and had a supporting role in the 1964 film Ride the Wild Surf.

[3] From 1968 to 1970, Davis garnered attention playing multiple characters on the daytime Gothic soap opera Dark Shadows.

He played Peter Bradford, Jeff Clark, Ned Stuart, Dirk Wilkins, and Charles Delaware Tate.

[5] Davis continued to act in guest-starring roles on TV series throughout the 1970s as well as the occasional film appearance in movies such as Killer Bees (1974), Flash and the Firecat (1975), Nashville Girl (1976), Ruby (1977), and Aspen (1977), and he has been a voiceover actor for thousands of TV and radio commercials.

He also renovated the famous Seelbach Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky, and built a luxury condominium building there, known as 1400 Willow.