by Herbie J Pilato
You could always depend on Alice to keep The Brady Bunch house in order, and you could always depend on Ann B. Davis to hit her mark with her genius comedic spark.
It was a technique that endeared the character of Alice to millions for decades, and which will continue to do so for future generations.
Ann’s natural talent in the role was the kind that was born, not developed. She had it from the second she came into this world, and took it back with her when she left.
Comic timing is not something that comes easily for actors, but it came easily to Ann because she was never without it.
The writer’s words are sometimes lost if they are not guided by the right performer – and Ann was always the right performer, in anything she did.
Likeability is another important part of performing, and Ann’s likability factor was huge.
That’s also something you can’t attain. She either have it, or you don’t. And Ann had it.
The internet is now filled with articles that chronicle her significant resume from the stage, film and television, beyond, before and after The Brady Bunch.
But our hearts a little emptier from losing her to Heaven; and for certain, it is there where she now abides.
Her path there was cleared by not only the joy she brought to countless viewers by way of playing Alice alone, but her performances off-stage – and on the varied sets of real life.
In her later years, she lived a quiet life in an Episcopal group home far from Hollywood. She learned to appreciate the simpler treasures of life, which was an aspect of her personality that merely added to the spark of light she brought to each role, especially Alice.
To conquer an audience with both a wise-cracking and heart-warming talent is quite a feat. But like only a few others (Rose Marie as Sally Rogers on The Dick Van Dyke Show, comes to mind), Ann B. Davis accomplished just that.
Ann as Alice not only managed to keep clean the Brady home but, through the magic of television, she also somehow supervised millions in the real-life home-audience, made of up of all ages; children, teens, grown-ups, adults, seniors from yesterday and today, all now both missing and cherishing the “special delivery” of a wonderful actress and an even finer human being.
Gratefully, her memory lives on in reruns, while her dear soul hits a home-run – out of the park, and yet still into our hearts.
