Dix Davis

Peter Dixon Davis (born Dixon Davis; September 12, 1926 – January 6, 2024) was an American child actor in radio and film, perhaps best known as Randolph, the title character's wise-cracking kid brother on the popular 1940s teen sitcom, A Date With Judy. Davis later served as an intelligence analyst with the United States Information Service and, for more than three decades, with the Central Intelligence Agency's Office of Current Intelligence (OCI).

Early life and career
Dixon Davis was born in Los Angeles, California on September 12, 1926. He was the younger of two sons born to Fredrick Duane Davis and Marion Naomi Stimson. According to an article published in 1942 by the Harrisburg Telegraph, Davis's "overnight" transition "from newsboy's assistant to actor" occurred in the summer of 1934 in front of The Brown Derby on Wilshire Boulevard, where, while hawking newspapers and magazines, Davis and his brother caught the fancy of a party of passersby headed by songwriter Gus Kahn. After purchasing some of their wares, Kahn and company instructed the boys to report to United Artists the next day for parts in Eddie Cantor's upcoming film, and thus Davis came to make his uncredited screen debut in the 1934 musical comedy Kid Millions.

The brief film career that resulted likewise consisted primarily of inconsequential bit parts, mostly uncredited. That said, on the rare occasion that he was given anything to play, Davis's work did not go unnoticed. Case in point, the 1940 drama, The Old Swimmin' Hole. Concluding its review of the film, The Hollywood Reporter notes, "Si Jenks is fine in support and there is still another good bit by another child, Dix Davis," while the British periodical Monthly Film Bulletin observes:

"Jackie Moran is not so convincing as the adolescent Chris, but Charles Brown plays the big-hearted country doctor to perfection, and a special word must be said for Dix Davis, a small boy in the hero worshipping stage who wants to join the Lions."

In May 1939, Davis made his radio debut opposite Lionel Barrymore on The Rudy Vallee Show. The trio would be reunited at least twice in the next few years, for the 1941 and '42 editions of Barrymore's annual Christmas day rendition of Dickens' A Christmas Carol, with Davis as Tiny Tim and Vallee, Bob Cratchit, to Barrymore's Scrooge.

In April 1944, Davis co-starred with New York Yankees centerfielder Joe DiMaggio as the latter made his acting debut on the radio anthology series, Skippy Hollywood Theatre. Later that year, Davis was teamed with Basil Rathbone on Columbia Masterworks' recording of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, as Jim Hawkins to Rathbone's Long John Silver.

Later career
As early as 1943, Davis let it be known that his long-range goals did not include acting, nor anything else remotely show-business-related.

"Dix is dark-haired, brown-eyed, has regular features which are thickly speckled with freckles, and is '14 going on 15.' Most of the time he seems a bit too preoccupied to pay much attention to girls; possibly because his thoughts are concerned with the far-away places of the globe. His ambition, it appears, is to be a trained geographer-explorer, and his hobby is map making."

In 1946 and '47, an approximately one-year-long hitch with the United States Army saw Davis reach the rank of Sergeant, but also delayed by one year his graduation from the University of Southern California. In 1948, the then-21-year-old USC senior initially hinted at, then definitively announced his intention to pursue a diplomatic career. In November of that year, however, a recent addition to A Date With Judy's cast helped Davis—albeit only temporarily—make a somewhat less radical career detour:

"Dix Davis, who plays Randolph, Judy's brother, And Dick Crenna, Oogie Pringle, the teen-ager's boy friend, have now entered a new profession—song writing. They've just written a tune, 'Tomorrow,' which they hope to publish soon. Davis did the lyrics, Crenna the music."

Following a six-month, 15,000-mile road trip through Europe in 1949, Davis was employed by the State Department, serving as Assistant Press Officer in Pakistan. He later earned an advanced degree in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley, prior to commencing his 33-year career with the CIA's Office of Current Intelligence, delivering periodic briefings to every U.S. President from Eisenhower through Reagan.

Personal life and death
Davis met his future wife June Dunn in Washington, D.C., during his second career with the CIA's Office of Current Intelligence. He died on January 6, 2024, at the age of 97. He was predeceased by his wife and his brother, and survived by his late wife's two sons, their spouses, and several grandchildren.

Partial filmography

 * Kid Millions (1934) - Little Boy in Ice Cream Number (uncredited)
 * Our Gang Follies of 1936 (1935) - Audience member lifted in air when fat boy sits down
 * The Pigskin Palooka (1937) - #33 on Opposing Team
 * Our Gang Follies of 1938 (1937) - Boy sitting at the table closest to the gang's, right next to Spanky, in Clubhouse Spanky scene (uncredited)
 * The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938) - Schoolboy (uncredited)
 * Test Pilot (1938) - Kid (uncredited)
 * Cocoanut Grove (1938) - Boy Who Fights Half-Pint (uncredited)
 * The Singing Cowgirl (1938) - Billy Harkins
 * The Little Ranger (1938) - Gang Member Who Ties Alfalfa (uncredited)
 * Breaking the Ice (1938) - uncredited
 * Aladdin's Lantern (1938) - Boy Sitting Behind Deacon (uncredited)
 * Feathered Pests (1939) - Kid
 * The Doctor Takes a Wife (1940) - Boy (uncredited)
 * Our Town (1940) - Si Crowell
 * I Love You Again (1940) - Cpl. Belenson (uncredited)
 * The Old Swimmin' Hole (1940) - Jimmy
 * Meet the Chump (1940) - Newsboy (uncredited)
 * Bad Men of Missouri (1941) - Young Bob (uncredited)
 * The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins (1943) - Messenger (voice)