Dorothy Davies

One of the earliest “truly professional” actors on the Vancouver stage, Dorothy Davies’ list of awards is longer than some performers’ resumes. Dorothy Davies was born July 26, 1920, Salt Lake City UT. Dorothy’s family moved to Victoria from the United States when she was 2 years old. At 18, she received a Licentiateship in Speech Arts and Drama from Trinity College of Music, London. Ten years later, she was named a Fellow of that College. In her teens, she became secretary to the Superintendent of Schools in British Columbia, where she was instrumental in the founding of the BC Drama Association (now Theatre BC). 

Receiving acclaim in numerous roles on Vancouver Island, Dorothy moved to Vancouver in 1947 to pursue her professional career. One of her earliest coups was to win the role of “Mary Carson” on The Carson Family, the CBC drama serial, and she joined Totem Theatre, one of Vancouver’s first professional theatre troupes. 

Her name will always be connected with an incident that put Vancouver on the entertainment “map”. Everyman Players – which had “evolved” from Totem – had been booking Hollywood stars to headline productions, with local actors in the supporting cast. Stars included Uta Hagen, Victor Jory, Craig Stevens (later TV’s “Peter Gunn”) and Lon Chaney Jr. In 1953, Everyman decided to take a gamble and produce the hit Broadway play, Tobacco Road, with an all-local cast. Dorothy was asked to direct the show, despite a threat of arrest for “offending public morality.” The production opened to a packed house, which included members of the Vancouver Police Department, who eventually went onstage to arrest some members of the cast, plus Dorothy.

In Magistrate’s Court, Dorothy played a starring role, alternately describing the play and deriding the police and the City Solicitor, but they were all convicted. The conviction was overturned on appeal, then the BC Court of Appeal reinstated the conviction, and Everyman Players folded shortly after. 

In 1958 she directed The Chocolate Soldier for Queen Elizabeth and HRH the Duke of Edinburgh. When the Playhouse Theatre Company opened in the early 1960s, she became a regular cast member, and she wrote and appeared in countless radio and TV productions. Ill health forced her to the wings for a few years in the 1970s, but appearances in The Beachcombers and at the Playhouse and the Arts Club put her back on stage. Her last stage appearance was in The Gin Game in 1986. In 1988 Dorothy and her husband moved to Victoria, where she produced and performed a CD of nonsense poems called “The Other Day …”. She died on March 27th, 2002, in Victoria.