Tim Davis (born Duane Timston Davis;[4] March 9, 1924 – October 30, 1982[5]) was an American child actor, known for his voice work in the 1942 Disney animated feature film, Bambi as young Thumper and adult Flower, and his performance in the 1940 film of Thornton Wilder's Our Town, in which he plays the older of the two newsboy siblings—the other portrayed by his younger brother Dix Davis.
A native of Los Angeles, California,[5] Davis was the older of two sons born to Fredrick Duane Davis and Marion Naomi Stimson.[4][6] According to an article published in 1942 by the Harrisburg Telegraph, the brothers' transformation from newsboys to thespians occurred in 1934 when a party of passersby led by songwriter Gus Kahn encountered the pair hawking papers in front of The Brown Derby on Wilshire Boulevard. Advised to report the next morning to United Artists, the brothers did so, and shortly thereafter made their uncredited screen debut in the 1934 Eddie Cantor musical comedy Kid Millions.[7]
A rare opportunity to transcend the mostly uncredited and generally insubstantial film work that followed that debut came Davis's way in 1939 with the West Coast premiere of Thornton Wilder's Our Town. In a production boasting "infallibly accurate [...] characterizations" from a cast "too numerous to mention,"[8] several reviewers nonetheless made a point of citing Davis's work,[9][8] as seen in this excerpt from The Hollywood Reporter:
The presentation on a bare stage is by now an old story, but the spell woven over the audience by Frank Craven as narrator, and the delineations by James Spottswood, Tim Davis, Martha Scott, Thomas Coley, Tom Fadden, Anne Shoemaker, Helen Carew and all the others of the large cast made it possible to build without losing the audience.[10]
On December 14, 1942, roughly 4 months after the release of Bambi (and a year after U.S.'s entry into World War II), the trade publication Broadcasting reported that Davis had resigned from NBC Hollywood and joined the United States Navy.[11] Davis later married Barbara Louise Ressel on September 27, 1953.[12] Davis died at age 58 in San Luis Obispo on October 30, 1982.[5]
Performed with consummate artistry by each individual cast member, the offering rated—and got—plenty of applause from the firstnighters. The presentation on a bare stage is by now an old story, but the spell woven over the audience by Frank Craven as narrator, and the delineations by James Spottswood, Tim Davis, Martha Scott, Thomas Coley, Tom Fadden, Anne Shoemaker, Helen Carew and all the others of the large cast made it possible to build without losing the audience.
TIM DAVIS has resigned from the recording department of NBC Hollywood, to join the Navy.
Hollywood—Director David Howard recently found himself in the role of a modern Solomon when he had to choose between two youngsters for an important role in the George O'Brien RKO outdoor drama, 'The Marshall of Mesa City.' Tim Davis and Sammy McKim, 14-year-old moppets, fitted the role so perfectly it was difficult for Howard to decide. Young McKim, sensing the director's dilemma, suggested they flip a coin. Davis won.
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