William B. Davis facts for kids

Quick facts for kids William B. Davis
Davis in 2011
Born	William Bruce Davis (1938-01-13) January 13, 1938 (age 88) Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1949–present
Spouse(s)	Emmanuelle Herpin ​ (m. 2011)​
Children	2

William Bruce Davis (born January 13, 1938) is a Canadian actor. He is most famous for playing the mysterious Cigarette Smoking Man on the TV show The X-Files. Besides acting in many TV shows and movies, he also started his own acting school. In his free time, he loves water skiing. He also gives talks about skepticism and believes we need to act on climate change. In 2011, he wrote a book about his life called Where There's Smoke ... The Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man.

William Davis's Early Life and Education

William Davis was born in Toronto, Canada. His dad was a lawyer and his mom was a psychologist. He started acting when he was just a kid in 1949. He performed in radio shows and summer plays. His cousins, Murray and Donald Davis, had a theater group and gave William his first acting job. He acted on Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) radio until his voice changed.

In 1955, he went to the University of Toronto to study philosophy. But he also kept acting, just like his friend Donald Sutherland. He finished university in 1959 with a degree in philosophy. While at university, he became more interested in directing plays. He and his friend Karl Jaffary ran the Straw Hat Players theater group for four years.

William Davis's Acting and Directing Career

In 1960, William Davis moved to England to study acting at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. For the next five years, he worked in the UK. He directed plays in different theaters and taught at acting schools. He was even the artistic director of the Dundee Repertory Theatre. His last job in the UK was helping to direct at the National Theatre of Great Britain with famous actors like Laurence Olivier and Maggie Smith.

Returning to Canada and Teaching

In 1965, he came back to Canada. He worked at the National Theatre School of Canada. At only 28 years old, he became the artistic director for the English acting part of the school. He also directed plays for other big Canadian theaters. In 1971, he joined the new drama department at Bishop's University. There, he started a summer theater festival called Festival Lennoxville, which ran for ten years.

In the late 1970s, Davis returned to Toronto. He directed radio dramas and taught at Humber College. After almost 20 years, he started acting again. He got many roles in plays and movies. Then, he moved to Vancouver to become the artistic director of the Vancouver Playhouse Acting School. He wrote in his book, "And so, in the fall of 1985, we hitched our second hand boat to our second hand car and drove across the country."

The X-Files and Beyond

Even though his time at the Vancouver Playhouse was short, he stayed in Vancouver. He opened his own acting school, the William Davis Centre for Actors Study. Many future stars, like New Zealand actress Lucy Lawless, trained there. He started getting more and more acting jobs. This led to his most famous role as the Cigarette Smoking Man (also called "Cancer Man") on the popular TV show The X-Files. He was on the show for nine years.

William Davis has also appeared in many other TV shows, such as Stargate SG-1 and Smallville. He has been in many TV movies and other projects. Sometimes, he goes to fan events to meet fans and sign autographs.

In recent years, Davis has gone back to directing plays and movies. He wrote and directed three short films. He also helped write and direct episodes of a TV show for CBC Television called 49th & Main. He has directed several plays for The United Players of Vancouver.

More recently, he acted in 10 episodes of the Canadian show Continuum. He also played his famous X-Files character again in the show's tenth season.

William Davis's Personal Life

Even though he played a smoking character, William Davis quit smoking in the 1970s. When The X-Files became popular, he used his fame to help the Canadian Cancer Society. He supported their programs to stop people from smoking.

In 2014, he sold his investments in companies that use fossil fuels. He gave the money to the David Suzuki Foundation. He did this to invest ethically and to help fight climate change. He strongly believes that climate change is a very important issue. He often speaks about it and even drives a Tesla car himself.

He used to be a national champion water skier. For a while, he held records in older age groups. In 2008, he said he held the record for tricks in his age group. He joked that a "young whippersnapper of 65" took his slalom record.

In 2011, William Davis married Emmanuelle Herpin. He has two daughters, Melinda and Rebecca, from an earlier marriage. He also has two grandchildren.

William Davis and Skepticism

William Davis at a "Skepticism and the Media" talk in 2011.

While on The X-Files, fans often asked William Davis about his beliefs in ghosts, aliens, and strange things. Davis says that Barry Beyerstein and the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI) helped him learn about the skeptic community. He became more involved in skepticism. He started giving talks as a skeptic at universities and at skeptic events like CSICon.

When asked if he believed in the paranormal in 2010, Davis said, "It's up to you to prove something extraordinary... I did a lot of research and saw where a lot of the arguments were wanting." This means he found that claims about the paranormal often didn't have strong evidence.

Some people wondered if he felt bad being a skeptic while acting in a show that some, like Richard Dawkins, thought encouraged uncritical thinking. Davis said he first felt a little worried. But then he realized that the show is fiction, not a documentary. He also found that X-Files fans didn't believe in the paranormal more than other people. This made him feel better.

Davis once led a discussion with a man who believed in alien abductions. Many people thought Davis would support the man, but he was "way on the other side." Davis said the man was smart but wrong. He explained that people are very good at defending ideas they came up with without good reasons.

In 2002, Davis narrated a show called The Critical Eye for the Discovery Science Channel. This show looked at fake science and paranormal ideas.

William Davis's Film Roles

William Davis's Television Film Roles

William Davis's Television Series Roles

See also

In Spanish: William B. Davis para niños