Guy Davis
Biography
Guy Davis is a New York City-born blues musician and actor. He taught himself guitar and took up the five-string banjo at a Vermont camp run by Pete Seeger's brother. His early screen work included a lead role in Beat Street (1984), and he played Dr. Josh Hall on One Life to Live between 1985 and 1986. His Broadway musical debut came with Mulebone in 1991. In 1993 he portrayed Robert Johnson off-Broadway in Robert Johnson: Trick the Devil, earning rave reviews and the Blues Foundation's Keeping the Blues Alive Award. He wrote and performed In Bed with the Blues: The Adventures of Fishy Waters, a one-man show whose 1994 Off-Broadway debut was praised by The New York Times and by the Village Voice. He released the live album Stomp Down Rider in 1995, has earned Grammy Award and Blues Music Award nominations, and in 2022 wrote and performed a solo piece, Sugarbelly and Other Tales My Father Told Me.
74years old
Turns 75 on May 12in 183 days
- Born New York City
- Star sign: TaurusThe sign runs April 20 to May 20
- Also credited as Guy Victor Davis
Movie Career
- Films
- 3
- Career span
- 17 years1984 to 2001
Every film, newest first
- 2001FinalIMDb rating 5.8
- 1990Def by TemptationIMDb rating 5.3
- 1984Beat StreetIMDb rating 6.5
Genres
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Early training
Davis taught himself guitar, since he never had the patience for formal lessons, and he learned by watching and listening to other musicians. On a train from Boston to New York one night, a guitar player with nine fingers showed him finger picking.
Behind the award
Davis won the Blues Foundation's Keeping the Blues Alive Award in 1993 for his off-Broadway portrayal of bluesman Robert Johnson, and Robert Cray presented it at the W.C. Handy Awards.
Behind the camera
Davis wrote and starred in the one-man show In Bed with the Blues: The Adventures of Fishy Waters, which opened off-Broadway in 1994 and drew praise from The New York Times and the Village Voice.
Big break
Jethro Tull's founder and lead singer, Ian Anderson, enjoyed Davis's album and asked him to be the opening act for the band's summer 2003 shows.
A first
Davis's 2004 album Legacy landed on NPR's Best CDs of the Year list, and its lead track Uncle Tom's Dead made the Best Songs list, with Brian Wilson the only other artist on both.
Guy Davis movies on Netflix
Worked with
Guy Davis shares two films with Kadeem Hardison, and one with each of the others. Pick a number on the chart or a name in the list to see the films they share.
Films together
Kadeem Hardison's page
Samuel L. Jackson's page
Jim Gaffigan's page
Denis Leary's page
Hope Davis's page
Bill Nunn's page
All films by Stan Lathan
All films by James Bond III
All films by Campbell Scott
Online
Official profiles and reference pages.