Gail Davis

Gail Davis (October 5, 1925 – March 15, 1997) was an American actress, best known for her starring role as Annie Oakley in the 1950s television Western series Annie Oakley.

Early years

The daughter of a small town physician, she was born as Betty Jeanne Grayson in a Little Rock, Arkansas hospital, but was raised in McGehee until her family moved to Little Rock.

She had been singing and dancing since childhood. After graduating from Little Rock High School, she studied at the Harcum Junior College for Girls in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, before completing her education at the University of Texas at Austin. She had a younger sister, Shirley Ann Grayson (August 26, 1937 – February 23, 1971).

Film

She and her husband, Bob Davis, moved to Hollywood to pursue a film career. She told an interviewer how she acquired her professional acting name. "I went under contract to MGM around 1946. They told me 'we can't have a Betty Davis, because of Bette Davis, and we can't have a Betty Grayson because of Kathryn Grayson'.... Then a guy in the casting department said 'how about Gail Davis?' So that's where it came from."

In 1947 she made her motion picture debut in a comedy film short. She then appeared in minor roles in another four films (the first being The Romance of Rosy Ridge) until landing a supporting role under star Roy Rogers in a 1948 Western film, The Far Frontier. Between 1948-53, Davis appeared in 32 feature films, all but three of which were in the Western genre, including twenty films with or for the production company of the singing cowboy star, Gene Autry.

Television

In 1950, she began to guest star in television Westerns, notably in The Cisco Kid, in which she appeared six times in two roles, including that of a niece whose uncle is trying to stop her pending marriage to a gangster. She guest starred in two 1950 episodes entitled "Buried Treasure" and "Spanish Gold" of The Lone Ranger and twice each on The Range Rider and The Adventures of Kit Carson. She appeared more than a dozen times on The Gene Autry Show.

Davis was the answer to a long-held dream of Autry's -- providing Western programming with a star to whom girls could relate. He said: "Little boys have had their idols ... from the beginning of the picture business.... Why not give the girls a Western star of their own?" Davis became that star, but on television rather than in movies, as Autry originally envisioned.

Between 1954 and 1956, Davis starred in the syndicated Annie Oakley series, later rebroadcast on ABC. An adroit horseback rider, Davis also toured North America in Gene Autry's traveling rodeo. She went on to manage other celebrities. In 1961, she made a guest appearance on The Andy Griffith Show Season 2, Episode 8 The Perfect Female as Thelma Lou's cousin.

She believed her success as Annie Oakley undermined other opportunities she might have had for other roles in the future. In 1982, she told a reporter, "I tried to find other acting work, but I was so identified as Annie Oakley that directors would say, 'Gail, I'd like to hire you, but you re going to have to wait a few years, dye your hair and cut off your pigtails.' Directors just couldn't envision me in a sexy part or playing a heavy. I was always going to be Annie Oakley. So, as they say, I retired."

Recording

While Annie Oakley was popular on television, Davis made some recordings for RCA Victor. Some were targeted toward children, while others were aimed at adults. However, Bob Leszczak wrote in his book, From Small Screen to Vinyl: A Guide to Television Stars Who Made Records, 1950-2000, "Even with two different musical avenues, none of the records caught on with the public."

Later years

Davis and her third husband, Carl Edward Guerriero, retired to the San Fernando Valley. During her retirement Davis made guest appearances at western memorabilia shows and film festivals. Her last public appearance was in 1994, when she received the Golden Boot Award from the Motion Picture and Television Fund.

While at the University of Texas at Austin in 1945, she met and married her first husband, Bob Davis, with whom she had a daughter, Terrie. Their marriage ended in divorce in 1952. On June 25, 1959, she married Richard Pierce, a recording executive, in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Davis, then a widow, died of cancer in Los Angeles at age 71. She is interred there in Forest Lawn - Hollywood Hills Cemetery.

For her contribution to the television industry, Gail Davis has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6385 Hollywood Blvd. In 2004, she was posthumously inducted into the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in Fort Worth. Davis' exhibit at the Cowgirl Hall of Fame recalls her impact of young girls through the Annie Oakley series:

"Back then I knew the show was having a positive impact, especially on little girls. It wasn't until years later that I realized just how much. Little girls had turned into influential women, thanking my portrayal of Annie for showing them the way."

Davis was presented a Golden Boot Award in 1994 for her contributions to western cinema.

• Law of the Golden West (1949)
• Yukon Manhunt (1951)