William B. Davidson

Acting

William B. Davidson

Born — Died

1888-06-15 — 1947-09-28

Place of birth

Dobbs Ferry, New York, USA

Known for

Acting

Credits

61 titles

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia William B. Davidson (June 16, 1888 – September 28, 1947) was an American film actor. Davidson attended Columbia University where he played football. He became a popular football star. This fame eventually led to his foray into motion pictures after he had spent some time as a lawyer. He started in films in 1914 with Vitagraph and supported well known stage and film actresses such as Ethel Barrymore, Mabel Taliaferro, Charlotte Walker, Olga Petrova, Viola Dana, June Caprice, Edna Goodrich, and Mae West. He appeared in 318 films between 1915 and 1949. He was born in Dobbs Ferry, New York, and died in Santa Monica, California. His first Hollywood film wa…

Known for

Film credits

1940s · 25 titles

My Darling Clementine poster
7.5

Three brothers stop off for a night in the town of Tombstone. The next morning they find one of their brothers dead and their cattle stolen. They decide to take revenge on the culprits.

My Darling Clementine

1946

In This Our Life poster
6.9

An unhappy, self-centered woman runs off with her sister's husband, wreaking havoc and ruining the lives of those around her.

In This Our Life

1942

Gentleman Jim poster
7.2

As bare-knuckled boxing enters the modern era, brash extrovert Jim Corbett uses new rules and dazzlingly innovative footwork to rise to the top of the boxing world.

Gentleman Jim

1942

Seven Sinners poster
6.0

Banished from various U.S. protectorates in the Pacific, a saloon entertainer uses her femme-fatale charms to woo politicians, navy personnel, gangsters, riff-raff, judges and a ship's doctor in order to achieve her aims.

Seven Sinners

1940

They Were Expendable poster
6.5

After a demonstration of new PT boats, Navy brass are still unconvinced of their viability in combat, leaving Lt. "Rusty" Ryan frustrated. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, however, Ryan and his buddy Lt. Brickley are told they can finally take their squadron into battle. The PT boats quickly prove their worth, successfully shooting down Japanese planes, relaying messages between islands, and picking off a multitude of enemy ships.

They Were Expendable

1945

In Society poster
5.8

Two bumbling plumbers are hired by a socialite to fix a leak. A case of mistaken identity gets the pair an invitation to a fancy party and an entree into high society. As expected, things don't go too smoothly.

In Society

1944

My Love Came Back poster
4.9

Amelia is a gifted violinist who is in danger of quitting the Brissac Academy of Music. Julius arranges to have a scholarship given to her through his employee Tony so that Julius can escort Amelia to every musical event in the city. The trouble begins when he cannot meet her one night and Tony goes in his place. Tony believes that Julius and Amelia are a couple and then son Paul thinks that Tony and Amelia are a couple as he is sending her the money. The worst part is that Amelia might leave classical music for swing music with classmates Dusty, Joy and the band.

My Love Came Back

1940

Man-Made Monster poster
6.1

Mad scientist turns a man into an electrically-controlled monster to do his bidding.

Man-Made Monster

1941

Sun Valley Serenade poster
7.1

When Phil Corey's band arrives at the Idaho ski resort its pianist Ted Scott is smitten with a Norwegian refugee he has sponsored, Karen Benson. When soloist Vivian Dawn quits, Karen stages an ice show as a substitute.

Sun Valley Serenade

1941

Dick Tracy's Dilemma poster
5.6

Dick Tracy investigates the theft of a fortune of fur coats, a possible insurance swindle and several murders, all linked to a huge thug who wears a hook in place of his right hand.

Dick Tracy's Dilemma

1947

Hold That Ghost poster
6.8

Two bumbling service station attendants are left as the sole beneficiaries in a gangster's will. Their trip to claim their fortune is sidetracked when they are stranded in a haunted house along with several other strangers.

Hold That Ghost

1941

The Great Man's Lady poster
6.3

In Hoyt City, a statue of founder Ethan Hoyt is dedicated, and 100 year old Hannah Sempler Hoyt (who lives in the last residence among skyscrapers) is at last persuaded to tell her story to a 'girl biographer'. Flashback: in 1848, teenage Hannah meets and flirts with pioneer Ethan; on a sudden impulse, they elope. We follow their struggle to found a city in the wilderness, hampered by the Gold Rush, star-crossed love, peril, and heartbreak. The star "ages" 80 years.

The Great Man's Lady

1941

The Male Animal poster
4.5

The trustees of Midwestern University have forced three teachers out of their jobs for being suspected communists. Trustee Ed Keller has also threatened mild mannered English Professor Tommy Turner, because he plans to read a controversial piece of prose in class. Tommy is upset that his wife Ellen also suggested he not read the passage. Meanwhile, Ellen's old boyfriend, the football player Joe Ferguson, comes to visit for the homecoming weekend. He takes Ellen out dancing after the football rally, causing Tommy to worry that he will lose her to Joe.

The Male Animal

1942

Greenwich Village poster
6.7

In 1922, a would-be classical composer gets involved with people putting on a musical revue.

Greenwich Village

1944

Remember the Day poster
7.3

Elderly schoolteacher Nora Trinell, waiting to meet presidential nominee Dewey Roberts, recalls him as her student back in 1916 and his relation to Dan Hopkins, the man she married and lost.

Remember the Day

1941

Keep 'Em Flying poster
6.2

When a barnstorming stunt pilot decides to join the air corps, his two goofball assistants decide to go with him. Since the two are Abbott & Costello, the air corps doesn't know what it's in for.

Keep 'Em Flying

1941

Shine on Harvest Moon poster
6.8

Biographical movie about the early 20th century broadway stars Nora Bayes and Jack Norworth.

Shine on Harvest Moon

1944

Lady with Red Hair poster
6.9

An actress hopes to regain her lost son by making it to the top.

Lady with Red Hair

1940

Granny Get Your Gun poster
5.7

An elderly woman turns sheriff to clear her granddaughter of murder charges.

Granny Get Your Gun

1940

The Man Who Walked Alone poster
5.9

A war hero returns home following a medical discharge and ends up entangled with a young woman speeding away from her wedding day in her fiance's car. Seeing the soldier, she gives him a ride and explains her predicament. Things get sticky when the cops capture them and accuse the soldier of desertion.

The Man Who Walked Alone

1945

Highway West poster
6.6

A young woman marries a man who turns out to be a bank robber.

Highway West

1941

Week-End in Havana poster
7.0

A ship company employee, Jay Williams, is sent to Florida where one of the company cruise ships is stuck on a reef off of the coast. He obtains waivers from all of the passengers with the exception of Nan Spencer, a department store salesgirl who wants her vacation now, not later. Jay is instructed to take Nan to Havana, set her up in the best hotel, and keep her entertained. She visits a nightclub where the star attraction is Rosita Rivas and meets Rosita's worthless manager, Monte Blanca, who makes a play for her. Trouble also comes in the form of Jay's fiancée, Terry McCracken, when a romance develops between Nan and Jay.

Week-End in Havana

1941

In the Navy poster
6.4

Popular crooner Russ Raymond abandons his career at its peak and joins the Navy using an alias, Tommy Halstead. However, Dorothy Roberts, a reporter, discovers his identity and follows him in the hopes of photographing him and revealing his identity to the world. Aboard the Alabama, Tommy meets up with Smoky and Pomeroy, who help hide him from Dorothy, who hatches numerous schemes in an attempt to photograph Tommy/Russ being a sailor.

In the Navy

1941

Make Your Own Bed poster
6.0

Walter and Vivian live in the country and have a difficult time keeping servants. Walter then hires a private detective who has been fired for arresting the District Attorney. They only way that Walter can get Jerry to work for him is to tell Jerry that his life is in danger; the neighbor is trying to take his wife; and that Nazi spies are everywhere. Jerry needs a cook for his 'cover' so he gets his fiancée Susan to work with him. To keep Jerry working, Walter sends the threatening letters to himself and hires actors to play the spies but when a real group of spies disguised as a troupe of radio actors appears on the scene, events quickly spiral out of control.

Make Your Own Bed

1944

Dillinger poster
5.9

The life of American public enemy number one who was shot by the police in 1934.

Dillinger

1945

1930s · 32 titles

Scarface poster
7.4

In 1920s Chicago, Italian immigrant and notorious thug, Antonio 'Tony' Camonte, aka Scarface, shoots his way to the top of the mobs while trying to protect his sister from the criminal life.

Scarface

1932

Marked Woman poster
6.6

In the underworld of Manhattan, a woman dares to stand up to one of the city's most powerful gangsters.

Marked Woman

1937

Hell's Angels poster
6.6

As the Great War breaks out in Europe, English brothers Roy and Monte enlist in the Royal Flying Corps to fight for king and country, while their Oxford College friend Karl is ordered back to Germany. As a love triangle develops involving Monte, Roy, and Roy's girlfriend, Helen, the brothers' disparate personalities, and Monte's cowardice in the face of war soon threaten to compromise a top-secret bombing mission over German territory.

Hell's Angels

1930

Invisible Stripes poster
6.2

A gangster is unable to go straight after returning home from prison.

Invisible Stripes

1939

The Most Dangerous Game poster
6.9

When legendary hunter Bob Rainsford is shipwrecked on the perilous reefs surrounding a mysterious island, he finds himself the guest of the reclusive and eccentric Count Zaroff. While he is very gracious at first, Zaroff eventually forces Rainsford and two other shipwreck survivors, brother and sister Eve and Martin Towbridge, to participate in a sadistic game of cat and mouse in which they are the prey and he is the hunter.

The Most Dangerous Game

1932

I'm No Angel poster
6.4

Bold performer Tira works as dancing beauty and lion tamer at a fair. Out of an urgent financial need, she agrees to a risky new number: she'll put her head into the lion's mouth! With this attraction, the circus makes it to New York and Tira can pursue her dearest occupation — flirting with rich men and accepting expensive presents.

I'm No Angel

1933

Each Dawn I Die poster
6.9

A corrupt D.A. with governatorial ambitions is annoyed by an investigative reporter's criticism of his criminal activities and decides to frame the reporter for manslaughter in order to silence him.

Each Dawn I Die

1939

Devil Dogs of the Air poster
6.8

Two Marine pilots vie for romance and glory.

Devil Dogs of the Air

1935

Lady Killer poster
6.9

An ex-gang member tries to resist his old cohorts' criminal influence after he suddenly becomes a Hollywood movie star.

Lady Killer

1933

You and Me poster
6.6

Mr. Morris, the owner of a large metropolitan department store, gives jobs to paroled ex-convicts in an effort to help them reform and go straight. Among his 'employed-prison-graduates' are Helen Roberts and Joe Dennis, working as sales clerks. Joe is in love with Helen and asks her to marry him, but she is forbidden to marry as she is still on parole, but she says yes and they are married. In spite of their poverty-level life, their marriage is a happy one until Joe discovers she has lied about her past, in order to marry him. Disillusioned, he leaves, goes back to his old gang and plans to rob the department store.

You and Me

1938

Easy Living poster
7.2

J.B. Ball, a rich financier, gets fed up with his free-spending family. He takes his wife's just-bought (very expensive) sable coat and throws it out the window, it lands on poor hard-working girl Mary Smith. But it isn't so easy to just give away something so valuable, as he soon learns.

Easy Living

1937

Imitation of Life poster
7.0

A struggling widow and her daughter take in a black housekeeper and her fair-skinned daughter. The two women start a successful business but face familial, identity, and racial issues along the way.

Imitation of Life

1934

Mystery of the Wax Museum poster
6.5

A wax sculptor opens a new museum years after he is severely injured during a fire that destroyed his original collection. The disappearance of both people and corpses coincides with this grand reopening and leads a reporter to start investigating.

Mystery of the Wax Museum

1933

Hello, Everybody! poster
7.0

The setting is a farm. Kate Smith and Sally Blane play sisters; assorted relatives live with the sisters, but everyone at home, and in the whole town, depends on Kate to hold everything together. The power company wants to build a dam which will require flooding many of the farms; Kate is holding out; if Kate sells, everyone else will sell; if Kate refuses, the rest of the town will refuse as well. Randolph Scott meets Kate's beautiful sister, Sally Blane, at a dance. Randolph Scott, as it turns out, is an agent for the power company. Kate thinks he's just using Sally; Sally believes that he truly likes her. Randolph comes to the farm and appears to woo Kate. Kate remains unconvinced about selling out, but falls for Randolph.

Hello, Everybody!

1933

It Happened in Hollywood poster
6.3

A silent Western star has trouble adjusting to the coming of sound.

It Happened in Hollywood

1937

Dust Be My Destiny poster
6.5

Embittered after serving time for a burglary he did not commit, Joe Bell is soon back in jail, on a prison farm. His love for the foreman's daughter leads to a fight between them, leading to the older man's death due to a weak heart. Joe and Mabel go on the run as he thinks no-one would believe a nobody like him.

Dust Be My Destiny

1939

The Hurricane poster
6.7

A Polynesian sailor is separated from his wife when he's unjustly imprisoned for defending himself against a colonial bully. Members of the community petition the governor for clemency but all pretense of law and order are soon shattered by an incoming tropical storm.

The Hurricane

1937

Tail Spin poster
6.3

Trixie is a female pilot looking to win a big race to advance her career. During one race, however, her plane becomes damaged, and she needs help to repair it. She meets a Navy pilot named "Tex" Price and tries to gain his aid. Tex soon meets another pilot, Gerry, a novice who seeks to win an important upcoming race. Tex, concerned for Gerry's safety, tries to convince her not to race. But Gerry, now a rival of Trixie's, is determined to fly.

Tail Spin

1939

Dangerous poster
6.6

Don Bellows finds former stage star Joyce Heath a penniless drunk and takes her to his Connecticut home for rehabilitation. He asks his fiancée Gail to free him and offers to sponsor Joyce in a play.

Dangerous

1935

Fog Over Frisco poster
6.4

Valkyr Bradford takes the assistance of a society reporter and a journalist to investigate the disappearance of her half-sister Arlene, a wealthy socialite involved in criminal activities.

Fog Over Frisco

1934

Housewife poster
7.2

Nan Reynolds encourages her copywriter husband Bill to open his own advertising agency and helps him land his first client. Bill's former girlfriend Patricia Berkeley writes a very successful commercial for the client and heats up their old romance. Wife and girlfriend struggle over Bill.

Housewife

1934

Guilty or Not Guilty poster
7.0

Ruth Payne, innocent to begin with, is trying to extradite herself from the clutches of a gang-mob who obtained her release from prison on a falsified confession because they thought she knew something they didn't want known.

Guilty or Not Guilty

1932

Special Agent poster
6.2

A federal tax agent goes undercover as a reporter and, working with a mobster's pretty bookkeeper, infiltrates a crime ring to catch the racketeer. When she agrees to testify, an informant exposes them and she's kidnapped.

Special Agent

1935

Love on a Bet poster
7.0

An aspiring theater producer convinces his wealthy uncle to finance a play on the condition that he lives the play’s far-fetched plot: making a cross-country trip with no money.

Love on a Bet

1936

Hollywood Hotel poster
5.8

After losing a coveted role in an upcoming film to another actress, screen queen Mona Marshall (Lola Lane) protests by refusing to appear at her current movie's premiere. Her agent discovers struggling actress Virginia Stanton (Rosemary Lane) -- an exact match for Mona -- and sends her to the premiere instead, with young musician Ronnie Bowers (Dick Powell). After various mishaps, including a case of mistaken identity, Ronnie and Virginia struggle to find success in Hollywood.

Hollywood Hotel

1938

Satan Met a Lady poster
5.8

In the second screen version of The Maltese Falcon, a detective is caught between a lying seductress and a lady jewel thief.

Satan Met a Lady

1936

The Dragon Murder Case poster
5.9

Wonderful idea to give a party with people who dislike each other. Late at night, everyone decides to go into the pool, except Stamm, who is drunk. Montague dives in as does Greeff and Leland, but only Greeff and Leland come out. Montague is no where to be found so Leland suspects foul play and calls the cops. Luckily, Philo is with the D.A. and comes along, but they do not find Montague. When they drain the pool the next day, they find nothing except what looks like dragon prints. Philo has his suspicions and tries to piece the clues together to find out what has happened.

The Dragon Murder Case

1934

Dishonored poster
7.0

The Austrian Secret Service sends its most seductive agent to spy on the Russians.

Dishonored

1931

They Made Me a Criminal poster
6.3

A boxer flees, believing he has committed a murder while he was drunk.

They Made Me a Criminal

1939

Woman Wanted poster
6.8

Just after a jury finds Ann Grey guilty of murder, the car carrying her to prison crashes into another car. Ann escapes and ends up in lawyer Tony Baxter's car. Tony realizes Ann is innocent, so he vows to help her prove it, risking his neck in the process. Tony and Ann are pursued by the police and by Smiley Gordon, a mob boss who engineered Ann's escape thinking that she can lead him to a $250,000 stash.

Woman Wanted

1935

Bordertown poster
5.9

An ambitious Mexican-American gets mixed up with the neurotic wife of his casino boss.

Bordertown

1935

Friends of Mr. Sweeney poster
6.8

Asaph (Charles Ruggles) is a meek, mild-mannered homebody who occasionally shows some backbone to his prudish, overbearing boss, only to be beaten down again. With the encouragement of his secretary Beulah (Ann Dvorak), his old college team-mate Wynn (Eugene Pallette) and some liquor, Asaph regains some of his wild-man soul. Watch out world!

Friends of Mr. Sweeney

1934

Series credits