70s Actress Ann B. Davis Once Confided "I'm Not Good With Kids" And Never Married

Apr 16, 2022 by apost team

Ann Bradford Davis played the spunky housekeeper Alice on the popular 70's TV show "The Brady Bunch." She was beloved by viewers who watched the show and felt like they were brought up by their own families as well as Alice. It is lucky for us that she veered toward acting because we wouldn't have Alice in our lives. She was the hilarious housekeeper that kept the house in order but also gave sound advice to the show's six kids and two parents.

Davis was born in Schenectady, New York, in 1926, along with her twin sister Harriet. Davis initially wanted to be a doctor and had her sights set on medical school. However, once she got to college, a production of the show "Oklahoma!" in which her brother Evans was a dancer sparked her interest in majoring in Theatre at the University of Michigan, according to IMDb.

Davis was an accomplished actress even before she graced the screen on "The Brady Bunch." Her first role and star-making turn were in "The Bob Cummings Show," where she played a womanizing photographer's secretary, Charmaine Shultz (aka Shultzie). She received four Emmy Awards nominations and won two, and gained a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. 

Davis would remain single most of her working career with many years in Hollywood. Seeing as Davis was so beloved by fans and colleagues, many fans could not understand why Davis would remain single. Unfortunately, being a single woman in Hollywood would eventually go on to spark rumors that would linger to this day. 

In 2004 Davis told the Archive of American Television, "Well, in 1969, I'd been doing nightclub work, which I was very unhappy in. But I was doing it because I had to eat," she said. "The act consisted, Davis added, of "a few songs, some jokes that a friend of mine wrote. That's what I was doing at the time."

The actress said "The Brady Bunch" team plucked her from obscurity fast. "He flew me down from Seattle, I met him, spoke to him. The next day, arrangements were made and Sherwood Schwartz bought out my last 2 weeks at the nightclub. So that's how I got started on "The Brady Bunch," said Davis. 

Acting on "The Brady Bunch" for five seasons, it was a shock to hear that Davis wasn't the biggest fan of children. She opened up and said, "I'm not good with kids. They discovered that pretty soon, if they had any questions, they'd go to Florence. Or Lloyd, actually, they were very close to Lloyd." 

That attitude never carried over to her on-screen presence, as Alice still remains one of the show's most beloved characters. Kimberly Potts, the author of "The Way We All Became The Brady Bunch: How the Canceled Sitcom Became the Beloved Pop Culture Icon We Are Still Talking About Today," shared, "She was that funny. When she was on screen, you almost couldn't look elsewhere. The camera loved her. Every time she opened her mouth, she was funny. She was like actress Mary Wickes, who could say a straight line, and audiences howled. Ann was the same way. She knew how to say things funny and then if you gave her a funny thing to say, she was even funnier and she won Emmy Awards back to back for this show."

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Despite large success on the screen, people still wondered what Davis's home life was like. Even colleagues of the actresses would speak of her behind her back. 

A producer of "The Brady Bunch," Lloyd Schwartz, said, "She was never married and everybody suspected that she was gay. She and I actually talked about it and she said, 'No, I have lots of issues, but that's not one of them.' She told me she once had a relationship, I think with a married guy or something, and it ended badly. I don't know that she ever had anything else after that. But that's almost apocryphal."

Davis continued to be single for the duration of her acting career and life. Although people may wonder why she never decided to settle down, the actress never showed unhappiness about that. She looked back on her successful acting career with fondness. 

​​"They wrote me such gorgeous things to do – they wanted an intermediary between kids and adults and kids," Davis told Entertainment Tonight. "They gave me funny things to do and I did them funny."

Ann B. Davis sadly passed away after a fall in her home in San Antonio, Texas, at the age of 88 in 2014, reports ABC. She was fondly remembered by her colleagues in the entertainment industry, including William Shatner, Florence Henderson, and John Stamos, who all sent their condolences.

Why do you think Ann B. Davis remained single most of her life? If you're a fan of "The Brady Bunch" or classic actresses— pass this article along to another fan!