Clifton Davis

Clifton Duncan Davis, born October 4, 1945, in Chicago, Illinois, is an American actor, singer, songwriter, minister, and author whose career has spanned stage, television, film, and religious ministry. The son of Thelma van Putten Langhorn, a nurse, and Toussaint L'Ouverture Davis, a Seventh-day Adventist minister, he was raised in Mastic, New York, and attended Pine Forge Academy, a Black boarding school operated by the Seventh-day Adventist Church. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Theology from Oakwood University and a Master of Divinity from Andrews University. Before establishing himself as a performer, Davis worked as a songwriter, composing "Never Can Say Goodbye," which became a No. 2 hit for The Jackson 5 in 1971.

Davis made his Broadway debut in the mid-1960s as a replacement in the original production of Hello, Dolly!, which starred Pearl Bailey. In 1969, he replaced Cleavon Little in the role of Lee Haines in Jimmy Shine, a production that also featured Dustin Hoffman and Rue McClanahan. The following year he served as standby for Al Freeman, Jr. in Look to the Lillies and subsequently took a featured role in The Engagement Baby. His most celebrated Broadway achievement came when he originated the role of Valentine in Galt MacDermot and John Guare's Two Gentlemen of Verona, a musical adaptation of the Shakespeare comedy. That performance earned him a 1972 Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Musical. Davis departed the Broadway production on November 27, 1972, to launch the touring company in January 1973. He returned to Broadway in 2014 to create the role of the Sultan of Agrabah in the stage adaptation of Disney's Aladdin, a production he had also performed in Toronto. In 2022, Davis joined the Broadway company of Wicked as Dr. Dillamond, a role he had previously played in two separate touring productions of the show. His Broadway career also includes a credit in A Celebration of Richard Rodgers. His Off-Broadway work includes How to Steal an Election (1968), Horseman, Pass By (1969), Lorraine Hansberry's To Be Young, Gifted, and Black (1969), Do It Again! (1971), and Hapgood (1994). In 1978, he played Joey Evans in the West Coast revival production known as Pal Joey '78.

On television, Davis starred as barber Clifton Curtis in the mid-1970s sitcom That's My Mama, alongside Theresa Merritt, Theodore Wilson, and Ted Lange. From 1986 to 1991, he co-starred with Sherman Hemsley and Anna Maria Horsford in the sitcom Amen, playing the Reverend Doctor Ruben Gregory across five seasons. He also co-starred with singer and Broadway performer Melba Moore on a musical variety television program, and appeared as a guest on The Bobby Vinton Show in September 1975, performing "I've Got the Music in Me" and "Never Can Say Goodbye." Davis made multiple appearances as a celebrity panelist on Match Game and appeared across several incarnations of Pyramid from the early 1970s through the early 1990s. He later had a recurring role on Madam Secretary. In October 2024, it was announced that Davis had been cast as Vernon Dupree on the CBS soap opera Beyond the Gates, which premiered in February 2025.

His film credits include the 1977 picture Scott Joplin and the 1999 film Any Given Sunday, in which he played the mayor of Miami. Davis also participated in the celebrity sports competition program Superstars during the 1970s. In 1991, he released a studio recording titled Say Amen on Benson Records. He has hosted the Stellar Gospel Music Awards, Gospel Superfest — which he hosted from 2000 to 2008 in a syndicated broadcast by United Television — and Lifestyle Magazine, as well as serving as emcee of The Most Soulful Sound, an annual gospel choir competition held in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Davis has maintained an extensive ministry career alongside his work in entertainment. From 1987 to 1989, he served as an Associate Pastor of the Loma Linda University Seventh-day Adventist Church in southern California. He co-founded and co-pastored the Welcome Christian Center in Huntington Beach, California, and holds a license to minister at St. Luke Baptist Church in New York. He has sustained an interdenominational ministry for more than thirty years and is a frequent guest and host on the Trinity Broadcasting Network. Since the end of 2005, Davis has served as executive director of Welcome America, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit that organizes the nation's largest Fourth of July celebration. He has also served as vice chancellor for Institutional Advancement at Elizabeth City State University, where he hosts an annual celebrity golf tournament, and has been an active member of Youthville, USA, a children's services organization, for over twenty-five years. Davis contributed a chapter titled "A Mason-Dixon Memory" to Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul, recounting experiences of racism from his upbringing.