Tall, dignified veteran character player of the American stage and screen with a career spanning nearly half a century. With his wife and frequent collaborator, actor Ruby Dee, Davis was a staple of black theater. Both are longstanding political activists who were highly visible during the height of the civil rights movement and continue to speak out at rallies for progressive and humanitarian causes. Davis delivered the moving eulogy at the funeral of slain civil rights leader Malcolm X (which he repeated for the extended coda to Spike Lee's 1992 biopic). As a playwright, screenwriter,