Gail Davis

Gail Davis (October 5, 1925 – March 15, 1997) was an American actress, best known for her starring role as Annie Oakley in the 1950s television Western series Annie Oakley.

Life and career

Early years

The daughter of a small town physician, she was born as Betty Jeanne Grayson in a Little Rock, Arkansas hospital, but was raised in McGehee until her family moved to Little Rock.

She had been singing and dancing since childhood. After graduating from Little Rock High School, she studied at the Harcum Junior College for Girls in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, before completing her education at the University of Texas at Austin. She had a younger sister, Shirley Ann Grayson (August 26, 1937–February 23, 1971).

Film

She and her husband, Bob Davis, moved to Hollywood to pursue a film career. She told an interviewer how she acquired her professional acting name. "I went under contract to MGM around 1946. They told me 'we can't have a Betty Davis, because of Bette Davis, and we can't have a Betty Grayson because of Kathryn Grayson'.... Then a guy in the casting department said 'how about Gail Davis?' So that's where it came from."