davison made his broadway debut in "tiger at the gates" in 1968. he also appeared as john merrick in "the elephant man", and starred in "the glass menagerie" with jessica tandy. davison was one of a quartet of newcomers, including barbara hershey, richard thomas, and catherine burns when he made his film debut in "last summer" in 1969. in 1970, he played opposite kim darby in the film about peaceful student protest and its violent outcome "the strawberry statement". a year later he portrayed the title role in the 1971 version of "willard", the first of two, as of the year 2015, to have been based on the novel "ratman's notebooks". he also appeared in "ulzana's raid", "peege", "mame", "mother, jugs & speed", "short eyes", "the lathe of heaven" and "six degrees of separation". in 1978, he appeared as dean torrence with richard hatch in the made-for-tv biopic "deadman's curve" (the story of 1960s pop duo jan & dean). the same year, he played the title role in the tv movie adaptation "summer of my german soldier".