Clifton Davis Loves To Help

Clifton Davis has had a career that spans over forty years. He is a minister and songwriter as well as an actor. He performed as a student at Pine Forge Academy in Pennsylvania (from which he graduated in 1963) as a singer and as an orator, and those performances accustomed him to appearing in front of an audience. He and a classmate composed the class song.

At the age of twenty-one, while working as a video engineer at ABC Television, Davis saw his first-ever Broadway show--"Apple Tree," which starred Alan Alda. Davis was astounded by its humor and realism and says that is when he knew he wanted to be a performer. Within a few months he had quit his full-time job and auditioned for and won a part in the Broadway production of "Hello Dolly." He won a Tony nomination for his role in the Broadway show "Two Gentlemen of Verona." Renee Valente saw his performance in that show, and two years later cast Davis as the star of the show "That's My Mama," launching his television career.

Clifton Davis's songwriting was encouraged by Gloria Jones and Judd Walden. His song "Never Can Say Goodbye" proved to be a major hit for the Jackson Five. Davis co-starred with singer and Broadway performer Melba Moore on her musical variety television show. Later he made a guest appearance on the third episode of the first season of The Bobby Vinton Show in September 1975, singing "I've Got the Music in Me" and "Never Can Say Goodbye". In the late 1970s, his career slowed, and he dabbled in drugs before experiencing a spiritual rebirth. In 1981, he left Hollywood for approximately five years while he acquired a bachelor's degree in theology and a master's degree in divinity and became a licensed minister. Not long after completing his second degree, he won the part of the minister in the sitcom "Amen."

Clifton is heavily involved in charitable and service activities, for 25 years playing a leading role in Youthville, USA, a children's services organization. He is Executive Director for Welcome America, a non-profit organization in Philadelphia that oversees the fourth largest Fourth of July event in the country.

He hosts and serves as emcee for The Most Soulful Sound, an annual gospel choir competition in Raleigh, North Carolina. He is also host for an annual celebrity golf tournament at Elizabeth City State University in North Carolina. Davis is a co-host on the Christian Lifestyle Magazine television program and a guest host on Trinity Broadcast Network.

Clifton Davis has released 2 albums. The first one in 1990 is a Gospel album titled 'Say Amen' and the second one is more Jazz influenced titled 'Never Can Say Goodbye' from 2020. 

Since 1991, Clifton Davis has guest-starred on several sitcoms, hosted many award shows, appeared in several films, and hosted a show on TBN. In 2011, Davis returned to his theater roots, appearing in "What My Husband Doesn't Know", the Broadway Tour of "Wicked" and appeared on Broadway as Sultan in Disney's "Aladdin". He is also a motivational speaker who enjoys helping others and bringing hope and prosperity into their lives.

Alan Mercer:  Clifton, everyone knows all about your illustrious career and what a broad rage of work you have done, so I want to ask you what it was like as a beginner to work with legends like Cab Calloway and Pearl Baily in 'Hello Dolly' on Broadway?

Clifton Davis:  It was so exciting that it has paid dividends for years. Whenever I remember those days, I remember how fresh and new they were. How every night when I heard the orchestra strike up, how excited I got and how enlivened I was. Clifton Davis and Broadway musicals were a match made in heaven. It all felt wonderful to me. I had such high regard for both Cab Calloway and Pearl Baily. Seeing her night after night on that stage perform was a wonderful, life-changing experience.

AM:  I heard Pearl Baily could be difficult.

CD:  Pearl was not the easiest person with any understudy. She liked the regular actors to be there every night, no matter what. So, when anyone of them left or was sick and the understudy went on, she gave them a hard time. I was an understudy, and it took nine months for me to get on stage. The guy never got sick. Finally, he did get sick and finally I went on and I was scared to death. I had seen her nightly, but I heard the stories and I had to dance with her. I had to do lines with her and there I was all night on stage doing my thing as Cornelius Hackl. When the show was over and we were walking off stage into the wing the wings, she stopped me and she said, “You know what? You’re alright.”

AM:  Wow, you must have been elated.

CD:  It lifted me to the sky. Many years later, after I left the show and I had done the TV series, ‘That’s My Mama’ and I had done some television movies, I was walking down the street in front of the Watergate Hotel in Washington DC, and who comes walking up but Pearl Baily and she said, ‘Clifton Davis, I knew when you were on stage with me all those years ago that you were going to be a star.” That felt so wonderful. It was a very kind thing for her to say.

AM:  You are such a natural Broadway performer. How many shows have you done?

CD:   Nine shows, not counting off Broadway and regional theater.

AM:  Is it still a passion for you?

CD:  I just finished working on ‘Wicked’ for ten months. It was a passion to do it. I had a wonderful time. I’m a little weary of the six day a week and eight shows a week schedule, but I still love the work.

AM:  There are easier ways to make a living.

CD:  Yes, there is and its hard work. I don’t know if I’ll do another one, but we’ll see.

AM:  I know you decided to start studying theology at some point.

CD:  That was after ‘Hello Dolly’ and ‘That’s My Mama’ and several other television movies. I realized I was on a pathway that was unhealthy. I needed fulfillment spiritually, so I embraced the spiritual belief system, and I left Hollywood to go and pursue a degree in theology. I wanted to understand who God was and what he meant to me. I found out that he means everything to me and that he is my all in all. I learned that from study and from practice. I learned that from reading and praying. I learned that from listening because faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. So, after five or six years of study, I got a call to screentest for a show called ‘Amen’. I had just finished the seminary and they wanted me to play the role of minister. So, as far as I’m concerned it was a divine call.

AM:  That is divine timing.

CD:  Absolutely, and I gave God praise for all of that. It’s meant the world to me and I’ll never forget those five wonderful years with Sherman Hemsley and particularly with Anna Marie Horsford. I still love her. She is a friend of both my wife and mine and we talk very often.

AM:  I read you were a licensed pilot, an avid golfer, and a certified scuba diver.

CD:  Yes, that’s true. I love to dive even though I haven’t been diving in the last twelve years, or maybe even longer. I am a licensed pilot. I owned a twin-engine plane, but I sold it back in 1992 and I haven’t flown since, but I did it. I still love to play golf now twice a week.

AM:  That’s the one that lasted.

CD:  That one stuck with me.

AM:  I love both your albums. I can listen to the Gospel one from 1990, ‘Say Amen’ every day and I love your latest ‘Never Can Say Goodbye’ and I hope you will record another one very soon.

CD:  We have started talking about it. I did an interview with Christian McBride, one of the greatest bass players in the world, who has his own orchestra, and he said, “If you did another album, you know who is going to play bass.” I was on the phone last week with my friend, Kevin Toney, who is a keyboardist and arranger, and we are working out what the next album is going to be, so it’s in the works.

AM:  You have always been involved in charities. How much time does that take from you these days?

CD:  Not as much time as it could and should. I should be doing more. I’d like to be doing more. I have some charities that are on my heart that I want to give to, and I want to work with, but there are several I have worked with. One is called the Trey Whitfield Foundation that supports a school in Brooklyn, and they help children K through grade eight to succeed, to get into prep school and to prepare for college that early, even in elementary school with a target of preparing for college. They have nearly 100 percent of their eighth-grade graduates finish high school and go on to college. I’m proud to be a part of the Trey Whitfield Foundation family. I’ve worked with so many other charities. I developed a golf tournament for Elizabeth City University in North Carolina, and I worked there as a Vice Chancellor of Development from 1994 to 1996. That tournament went on for ten years. I did very well raising funds for scholarships for underprivileged students. I just love helping a little bit here and there. It’s gratifying.