Ann B. Davis, the Emmy-winning actress most famous for her role as Alice Nelson on The Brady Bunch, died after hitting her head in a fall on Sunday. She was 88.
Before landing her iconic role as the Brady’s housekeeper (and the center square during the show’s famous opening credits), Davis won two Emmy awards (on four nominations) as Charmaine “Schultzy” Schultz, the secretary on the ’50s sitcom The Bob Cummings Show. She earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960 — nine years before she would take the role as Alice.
In a 2004 interview with the Archive of American Television, Davis explained how she created the Alice character:
“I made up a background story. I did have a twin sister, so I used that as a basis. … I cared very much about this family. It was my family. It was as close to my family as Alice would ever get. I would have died for any single one of them at any point,” she said. “You know, they wrote me such gorgeous things to do, as the intermediary between the kids and the adults, and between the boys and the girls. And they gave me funny things to do.”
May we all live long enough to find that kind of career bliss. And to find our own Sam the Butcher.
(H/T CNN)
