Wednesday, April 11, 2001 | 8:47 a.m.
For his 70th birthday, Bob Davis received from his sister-in-law, actress Tippi Hedren, two gifts: an expensive gold chain and something of perhaps greater value.
Hedren turned to her sister, Bob's wife, Patricia Davis, and said: "I have something you don't have -- a brother."
So strong was their sibling-like relationship that when Davis died of an apparent aneurysm Sunday at age 75, the family insisted that Davis Funeral Home list Hedren, of Acton, Calif., as a sister, not a sister-in-law, in the death notice.
Services for Robert Vernon "Bubba" Davis, who long operated Bob Davis and Associates, a manufacturing representative firm, and appeared as a bit actor in television shows and commercials, were scheduled for today at Davis Paradise Valley Funeral Home, 6200 S. Eastern Ave.
Graveside services will be 11:30 a.m. Friday at the Southern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery, 1900 Buchanan Blvd., Boulder City.
"My husband always had a warm smile for everyone. He had such a magnetic personality," Patricia Davis said Tuesday. "He should have been cloned."
For the past 24 years -- 15 of them in Las Vegas -- Davis was a middle man, providing manufacturers' products such as cutters and blades, shirts and calendars to Costco and other clients. Patty Davis said she and one of their sons now will run the business.
Davis also appeared in several locally shot television shows and commercials. In one show he played a ringside fight doctor. Davis recently was an extra in the Jackie Chan movie "Rush Hour 2," shot in Las Vegas.
Although he did not come close to achieving the acting fame of his sister-in-law, who starred in Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds," Davis worked frequently enough to earn a Screen Actors Guild card.
Davis was born July 10, 1925, in Cleveland, N.Y., the second of three sons of upstate New York farmers Floyd and Jenny Davis.
During his senior year of high school, Davis, then 17, lied about his age to join the Navy and served in World War II in the Pacific.
After the war Davis obtained his general equivalency degree, took college courses and worked for the Bureau of Land Management in Alaska for 25 years. He later moved to Portland, Ore.
In 1977 he met Patty, and the two married three months later in Las Vegas. Days before their wedding Patty informed Bob that her sister was a Hollywood star and was to stand up for them at their wedding.
But Hedren fell off an elephant while shooting a film, was hospitalized and missed the wedding. Days later the newlyweds visited Hedren in the hospital, and Davis treated her like any other person. It was the start of a lasting friendship.
Hedren, the mother of actress Melanie Griffith, was among the mourners at today's services.
Davis was an avid sports fan who attended Durango High School basketball games, as well as UNLV football. Davis attended the UNLV football team's spring practice the morning of the day he died.
In addition to Patty and Tippi and his brother, Richard Davis of Rome, N.Y., Davis is survived by four sons, Frank Davis of Yakima, Wash., David Hanzlik and Steve Hanzlik, both of Portland, Ore., and Tipper Hanzlik of Vancouver, Wash.; four daughters, Kim Barber of Anchorage, Alaska, Tina Toy and Heidi Hanzlik, both of Portland, and Beni Hanzlik of Stanley, Idaho; another brother, Teddy Davis, of Rome, N.Y.; 13 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
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