American actor, singer and trumpeter, also billed as Johnny Davis and Johnnie “Scat” Davis. He is well-known for singing the Johnny Mercer song “Hooray for Hollywood” in the 1937 film Hollywood Hotel. His lively rendition became popular and became closely associated with the film industry.
Born into a family of musicians, Davis developed an interest in music during his childhood. He learned to play the trumpet and by the age of 13 was performing with his grandfather’s band. After graduating from high school he worked as a musician for several orchestras, including theater orchestras in nearby Terre Haute, Indiana such as Paul Johnson’s orchestra and the Leo Baxter Orchestra. Art Davis, his younger brother, also worked for Leo Baxter. By 1933 he was living in New York City. He formed his own trio and recorded several songs with them. From the mid-1930s he worked with Fred Waring as a musician and vocalist, and his success during this time led him to Hollywood.
He appeared in fifteen films including Campus Cinderella (1938), Cowboy from Brooklyn (1938), Brother Rat (1938), Mr Chump (1938), A Child Is Born (1939) and Sarong Girl (1943).
Davis continued to work in the music industry throughout the 1940s and 1950s, and spent several years in Detroit, Michigan where he was a popular television performer. He eventually settled in Texas, where he died on 28 October 1983, aged 73, in Pecos from a heart attack during a hunting trip.
Link to Wikipedia biography