JOHN DAVIDSON
December 25th, 1886 -- January 16th, 1968

Above: A publicity photo of John Davidson as Tal Chotali in ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN MARVEL (Republic, 1941).

There were certain serial heavies who did not fit into the brains heavy or action heavy category. These were the specialist villains, the unsavory oddballs who served as toady, councilor, and (usually) enthusiastically faithful right hand to their sinister masters, without actually doing any active work. John Piccorri and Stanley Price specialized in this type of role, and so did the deep-voiced John Davidson. Davidson, with his bald head and wise smile, could look benevolent if he wanted to, but in almost every one of his serial roles that smile proved to be one of evil cunning rather than kindly wisdom. Coupled with his great voice, that cunning smile made Davidson ideally suited for playing slyly evil subordinates who seemed almost equal to their bosses, but he could just as easily portray the kind of pop-eyed, humorless fanatic that more astute bad guys could easily control. On two occasions, he even managed to land head villain roles, not to mention some actual good guy parts; it was this effortless versatility made Davidson another one of the great serial Character Actors.

John Davidson was born in New York on Christmas Day of 1886. As with Forrest Taylor, there is no info to what career he followed prior to entering movies. His first film was THE RUSE, a William S. Hart feature, in 1914. He played an evil, unscrupulous broker in this movie, and the part pretty well typed him for the rest of the silent era. He played cads and scoundrels of all sorts throughout the teens and twenties; it was also during this period that he developed his talent for playing characters from almost any country on the map--Arabs, Italians, Frenchmen, Spaniards, Germans, Russians and even Chinese. His first serial, made shortly after the advent of sound, capitalized on this talent: Universal's PERILS OF PAULINE in 1933. A remake of the famous Pearl White silent cliffhanger of the same name, PAULINE cast Davidson as the evil Dr. Bashan, an Oriental scientist who was out to steal the formula of a deadly gas from Pauline's (Evelyn Knapp) father, Professor Hargreaves (James Durkin). Bashan wound up dying from the gas's effects himself in the final chapter, when hero Robert Allen attacked his lab and unleashed the deadly stuff.

Above: John Davidson, made up for the role of Dr. Bashan in PERILS OF PAULINE (Universal, 1933).

Though John's cliffhanger debut had been as a head villain, his next serial cast him as a henchman: crooked race car driver Tom Chase in BURN 'EM UP BARNES (Mascot, 1934). Davidson’s part in this serial was small but important; he was bumped off by fellow henchman Francis McDonald after threatening to blackmail his boss (Jason Robards Sr.), and his death was then framed onto hero Jack Mulhall, who spent several chapters trying to clear himself of the charge. John’s next serial featured him as a brains heavy again, sitting back and letting others (including Al Ferguson and Stanley Blystone) do his dirty work in TAILSPIN TOMMY (Universal, 1934). Davidson's character, Tiger Taggart, was an unscrupulous businessman, and his goal was to take over the Three Points Airline. Veteran pilot Milt Howe (Grant Withers), young pilot Tommy Tompkins (Maurice Murphy), and mechanic Skeeter (Noah Beery Jr.) defended Three Points from Tiger's henchmen, and Davidson's second and final brains heavy was thwarted completely and killed in a car crash while trying to escape from the police.

CALL OF THE SAVAGE (Universal, 1935), gave John a key part, but only in the last three chapters. He was Prince Samu, the wrongful ruler of the lost jungle city of Mu, and when the serial's principals (jungle boy Noah Beery Jr., rightful ruler Dorothy Short, banished Mu patriot Harry Woods, and evil scientist Walter Miller) reached the city in Chapter Ten, Davidson's sneakiness added another element to the plot, as he tried to get rid of Beery, Short and Woods before they could rally the people of Mu against his usurpation. John was again a bad guy in JUNGLE MENACE (Columbia, 1937), Columbia's first serial--a fake doctor hired by the bad guys to finish off the wounded Reginald Denny before he could expose them. His first Republic cliffhanger, FIGHTING DEVIL DOGS in 1938, gave him another small role, but it was a memorably vivid one. As Lin Wing, Consul for Lingchuria, Davidson collaborated with the fiendish Lightning in his scheme to conquer the world, but then got cold feet. Davidson called hero Lee Powell on the phone and tipped him off to the Lightning's aims, but before he could reveal the villain's identity, the Lightning himself stepped from the shadows and killed Davidson with one zap from his electrical pistol.

KING OF THE ROYAL MOUNTED (Republic, 1940) featured John as "Dr. Shelton", the apparent head of a sanitarium. However, as anyone familiar with John would expect, the sanitarium was a fake, a front that enabled Davidson to appropriate large quantities of Compund X without suspicion. The compound was a cure for infantile paralysis but also an important ingredient in making magnetic mines, so Davidson was purchasing the Compound X for his paralytic "patients" and then shipping it to Nazi spy boss Robert Strange. Hero Allan Lane investigated the sanitarium, tricked the "crippled" patients into exposing themselves, and put them and the Doctor under arrest.

Above: Robert Kellard (center) frisks John Davidson (far left) while Allan Lane looks on in this lobby card crop from KING OF THE ROYAL MOUNTED (Republic, 1940).

Davidson was rewarded for his standout bits as Lin Wing and Shelton with one of his biggest and best-remembered parts--Tal Chotali in ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN MARVEL (Republic, 1941). His character was the Arab guide to the Malcolm expedition, and warned the scientists not to desecrate the Tomb of the Scorpion in the best MUMMY tradition, but was of course unheeded. The expedition discovered the Ancient Golden Scorpion, a device capable of turning stones into gold and dissolving solid matter, so long as all six of its lenses were placed in alignment. The expedition divided the lenses among themselves, feeling that the power of the Golden Scorpion was too much for any one man to possess. However, one member of the expedition donned robe and mask, and, calling himself the Scorpion, set out to get each one of his colleagues' lenses in order to rule the world. Billy Batson (Frank Coghlan Jr.) the boy newscaster who accompanied the expedition, had taken Tal Chotali's advice and refused to enter the tomb, and was rewarded when the ancient mystic Shazam (Nigel DeBrulier) gave him the power to become Captain Marvel (Tom Tyler). Captain Marvel battled the Scorpion every inch of the way, but was unsuccessful in learning the villain's identity till the end, when he proved to be (SPOILERS AHEAD) Professor Luther Bentley (Harry Worth). Up till then, the enigmatic Tal Chotali had been a prime suspect, but he proved to be blameless, and indeed was the only expedition member to survive the serial, except for Billy and his friends Betty and Whitey (Lousie Currie and William Benedict). A combination of red herring and wise sage, Davidson's Tal Chotali was a memorable Character indeed. One of his best scenes came towards the end, when he was trying to dissuade the Arab tribes from attacking the expedition. The Scorpion's mouthpiece, Rahman Bar (Reed Hadley) insisted that "it is known to our people" that the eruption of the volcano Scorpio is a heaven-sent sign for the tribes to attack. Davidson, who realized what had caused the eruption, commented grimly "It is also known that a volcano erupts when one diverts water into it."

Above, from left to right: George Pembroke, William Benedict, Robert Strange, John Davidson, and Harry Worth in THE ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN MARVEL (Republic, 1941).

Davidson followed up Tal Chotali with another memorable character, but an evil one this time. As Lucifer in DICK TRACY VS. CRIME INC. (Republic, 1941) Davidson lived up to his name, aiding the sinister Ghost in his plan of revenge against the Council of Eight and Dick Tracy (Ralph Byrd). It was Lucifer who designed the serial's most notable gimmick, the ingenious machine that enable the Ghost to make himself invisible. Davidson served as chief inventor of the Ghost's devices and co-planner of the Ghost's schemes, being treated almost as an equal by the mysterious mastermind. It was fitting that the invisibility device brought about Lucifer's doom in the final chapter: The Ghost, still invisible but being pursued by Tracy, attempted to climb across high-tension wires, just as a guard switched the current on. The Ghost was literally fried, and the electricity shorted out the invisibility device's control box, which was being operated by Lucifer in a car not far away. The control box exploded, sending Lucifer, a henchman, and their car plummeting from a bridge; the car then burst into flames, killing both villains instantly.

Above: John Davidson (right) with the mysterious Ghost in DICK TRACY VS. CRIME INC. (Republic, 1941).

Davidson donned turbans for his next two roles, as he had done for his Tal Chotali role. As Lhoba, second-in-command of the Touareg tribe in PERILS OF NYOKA (Republic, 1942), Davidson loyally obeyed the commands of his chief (Robert Strange). But when Strange proved to be heroine Kay Aldridge’s amnesiac father, and attempted to remove the Lost Tablets of Hippocrates from the Touareg caves, Davidson turned on Strange and declared himself chief, and nearly managed to kill Strange and Aldridge in a giant wind tunnel before hero Clayton Moore saved the day. Davidson got to display some fine pop-eyed fanaticism in NYOKA, doing reverence to the phony Sun Goddess (villainess Lorna Gray) or accusing Strange of “sacrilege” in the same booming, intense voice. John’s other turbaned role was a bit in SECRET SERVICE IN DARKEST AFRICA (Republic, 1943), but it was a memorable bit. Hero Rod Cameron managed to get ahold of a scroll that had been forged by Nazi spies, who purposed putting it in a sacred Moslem tomb and using its fake message to rally the Arabic peoples in the cause of the Axis. Cameron permitted Davidson to examine the scroll before an assembly of shieks, and asked if the sheiks still believed the scroll was genuine. To which Davidson responded, “How could it be? If it was, it would still be in the tomb, not on its way to the tomb from Berlin?” with humorous scorn.

Above: John Davidson (center, holding the bow) prepares to launch a primitive grenade at the good guys in PERILS OF NYOKA (Republic, 1942). His Touareg followers have the same idea.

Above: John Davidson (seated) offers a withering evaluation of a fake Nazi scroll to the pleased Rod Cameron (center) and not-so-pleased Lionel Royce (Royce is a Nazi posing as a Sultan) in SECRET SERVICE IN DARKEST AFRICA (Republic, 1943).

John's next-to-last cliffhanger role was reminiscent of his Lucifer in DICK TRACY VS. CRIME INC., but it was not as meaty as that part had been. As Gruber, Lionel Atwill's aide in CAPTAIN AMERICA (Republic, 1943), his principal duty was to express approval of Atwill's continuing elimination of a South American expedition that Atwill felt had wronged him. John didn't "get out" as much as he had in DICK TRACY; instead, all the active work was handled by George J. Lewis, and, on occasion, Atwill himself. In fact, Davidson never left Atwill's museum headquarters and died there in the last chapter, when he was plugged by the avenging Captain America (Dick Purcell). Still, the part showed Davidson's talent and presence; whenever he had the chance, he showed that he was just as good at being creepy as the great Lionel Atwill himself.

Above: Lionel Atwill (wearing hat) and John Davidson are about to fill that glass case with a gas that will shrivel Lorna Gray into a mummy. Will CAPTAIN AMERICA (Republic, 1943) show up in time?

Davidson's final serial role was little more than a cameo, but it was one of the oddest of all his many oddball parts. THE PURPLE MONSTER STRIKES (Republic, 1945), featured Roy Barcroft as the title villain, the vanguard of a Martian invasion. Davidson was no less than the Emperor of Mars, and the Monster periodically communicated with him (three times, in all) via Distance Eliminator, a combination TV/phone. Davidson, wearing an ornate helmet and other imperial regalia, looked truly impressive when he showed up on the Eliminator screen, and issued his orders to his earthbound agent with all his customary gusto and panache. He also seemed to have a tendency to pull rank on the Monster: "That should prove no problem for you, the second highest on Mars." No matter how small the role, John gave it all he had.

Above: The Emperor of Mars (John Davidson, left) confers with his second-in-command, the Purple Monster (Roy Barcroft) in this lobby card from THE PURPLE MONSTER STRIKES (Republic, 1945). This scene never actually appears in the serial.

Davidson made only about nineteen more films after PURPLE MONSTER, retiring in 1956. His final acting role was as a venerable priest, complete with a long white beard, in the classic swashbuckler PRINCE VALIANT, in 1954, but he also appeared as an extra in AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS before he hung it up for good. He enjoyed a long retirement till he passed away in 1968, at his home in Los Angeles.

John Davidson invariably attracted attention in his parts, and could be counted on to make each one special--one of the principal requirements of any good character actor. Once heard, that rich baritone voice could never be forgotten. Neither could that enigmatic, superior smile. Frequently, those traits were not only memorable, but also downright confusing, for serial heroes and serial audiences alike. You were never sure which side John Davidson was going to be on in his serials, but you could always be sure that he would be excellent, no matter what the part.