Early life and education

Davis was born in Toronto, Canada, to a lawyer father and psychologist mother. He began his acting career as a child in 1949, in radio drama and summer stock theatre. His cousins Murray and Donald Davis ran the Straw Hat Players in Ontario in the late 1940s and early 1950s, and rehearsed in the basement of Davis' house. When they needed a boy they gave William his first professional acting job. He went on from there to have a career as a boy actor on Canadian Broadcasting Corporation radio before his voice broke. In 1955 he enrolled in the University of Toronto to study philosophy, but actively pursued a career as an actor alongside future actor Donald Sutherland. In 1959, he graduated from the University of Toronto with a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy. While at university he switched his attention from acting to directing and with his partner, Karl Jaffary, took over and ran the Straw Hat Players for four years.

Career

In 1960 Davis went to England to train at LAMDA (The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art). He worked in the UK for the next five years directing in repertory theatres and acting schools. He was artistic director of the Dundee Repertory Theatre. His last position in the UK was as an assistant director at The National Theatre of Great Britain under Laurence Olivier where he worked with Albert Finney, Maggie Smith, Derek Jacobi, and Ronald Pickup among others. He returned to Canada in 1965 to work at The National Theatre School of Canada and soon, at the age of 28, was appointed artistic director of the English Acting Section. During this period he was also active as a freelance director at major Canadian theatres. In 1971 he joined the newly formed Drama Department at Bishop's University in Lennoxvile, Quebec. While there he became the founding artistic director of Festival Lennoxville, a professional summer theatre that ran for the next decade.

Returning to Toronto in the late seventies Davis spent several years as a radio drama director and on the faculty of Humber College. In demand as an acting teacher during this period, he resumed acting after an absence of nearly twenty years. Davis earned a number of roles on stage and film before accepting the position of artistic director of the Vancouver Playhouse Acting School, which required relocating with his wife and family. Davis writes in his memoir, "And so, in the fall of 1985, we hitched our second hand boat to our second hand car and drove across the country".

While his time at the Vancouver Playhouse was short-lived, he remained in Vancouver where he founded his own acting school, The William Davis Centre for Actors Study, a training ground for several future stars including Lucy Lawless. Acting roles became more frequent leading to his iconic role, The Smoking Man (also referred to as "The Cancer Man"), on The X-Files where he made frequent appearances for the next nine years. In addition to The X-Files, Davis has played a wide range of roles, on series from Stargate SG-1 to Smallville and a host of television movies and other projects. From time to time he attends fan conventions, signing autographs and copies of his memoir.

In recent years Davis has returned to directing for theatre and film. He wrote and directed three short films and co-wrote and directed several episodes of a television series for CBC Television, 49th & Main. In 2011 he directed two plays for The United Players of Vancouver, Waste by Harley Granville Barker and Hay Fever by Noël Coward. Most recently he directed The Habit of Art (2013) by Alan Bennett, Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Jersey Lily (2015) by Katie Forgette and Robert Bolt’s A Man for All Seasons at the Jericho Arts Centre in Vancouver, British Columbia.

During that period, he also aired in 10 episodes of the Canadian hit show Continuum as Older Alec Sadler on Showcase. Most recently, Davis his reprised his iconic X-Files role in the six-episode Season 10. Fox aired the six-episode event from January 24 - February 22, 2016, and enjoyed great ratings, making each four-and-a-half-hour session in the make-up chair worth it for the “iconic” villain.

Personal life

Despite being known for his smoking character, Davis quit smoking in the 1970s; when The X-Files started up, he was given a choice between herbal cigarettes and tobacco cigarettes. At first, he chose to use tobacco cigarettes, but switched to herbal because he was afraid of becoming addicted to them again. Davis used his notoriety on the show to assist The Canadian Cancer Society in its programs to combat smoking. In 2014, Davis donated his investments that support fossil fuels to the David Suzuki Foundation in an effort to both ethically invest, and help fund work to fight climate change. Davis is a passionate advocate for action in response to climate change, believes it is a critical issue of our time and speaks on the subject often. Taking action on a personal level, Davis drives a Tesla powered by hydroelectricity.

He is also a former national champion water skier and for a time held various records in older age divisions. In a conversation with Brendan Beiser, Davis states he holds the record for tricks in his age category, adding "I did hold the slalom record until this past year until some young whippersnapper of 65 from Ontario took the record away from me".

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

Skepticism

While on The X-Files, Davis was constantly challenged by The X-Files fans about his non-belief in the paranormal and aliens. Davis credits Barry Beyerstein and Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI) for introducing him to the skeptic community. Davis became increasingly involved in the skeptical movement and began to give lectures as a skeptical spokesman at universities across North America and at skeptic conventions, including CSI's CSICON in New Orleans.

When asked about his belief in the paranormal at the London Film and Comic Con in 2010, Davis replied, "The onus is on you to prove the extraordinary ...I did a lot of research and saw where a lot of the arguments were wanting."

Interviewed by Jacob Fortin on guilt about being a skeptic on a show that Richard Dawkins campaigned against, Davis replied that at first he had some trepidation until realizing that Dawkins "had no evidence whatsoever and presented none" that the show encouraged people to think uncritically. "The show is fiction... it isn't a documentary." In another interview with Justin Trottier of Center for Inquiry Canada Davis answered similarly, adding that from his own informal polls of audiences of X-Files fans it seemed there was no greater belief in the paranormal than the normal population and he comforted himself with this thought.

Asked about a debate Davis moderated with alien abduction believer John E. Mack, Davis said that many people expected him to support Mack, but they discovered that he was "way on the other side". Davis recounted that he had some great discussions with Mack; "He was brilliant... he was wrong, but he was very good... One of the problems with human intelligence is that we are so good at defending ideas that we arrived at irrationally."

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1983	The Dead Zone	Ambulance Driver
1985	The Cuckoo Bird	Ted	Television movie
1985	Head Office	University Dean
1987	Deadly Deception	Lawyer	Television movie
1987	Sworn to Silence	Peter Massio	Television movie
1987	The Little Match Girl	Dr. Sam Easton	Television movie
1989	Beyond the Stars	Hal Simon
1989	Matinee	Heath Harris	Television movie
1989	Look Who's Talking	Drug Doctor
1990	Anything to Survive	Dr. Reynolds	Television movie
1990	It	Mr. Gedreau	Television movie
1991	Omen IV: The Awakening	Lawyer	Television movie
1991	The Hitman	Dr. Atkins
1992	Diagnosis Murder	Marvin Parkins	Television movie
1994	Heart of a Child	Vern	Television movie
1994	Beyond Suspicion	Capt. Dick Roth	Television movie
1994	Don't Talk to Strangers	Huddleston	Television movie
1995	Dangerous Intentions	Group Leader
1995	Not Our Son	Police Chief	Television movie
1995	Circumstances Unknown	Gene Reuschel	Television movie
1995	Courting Justice	Dr. Alexander	Television movie
1996	Unforgettable	Dr. Smoot
1996	The Limbic Region	Teacher	Television movie
1998	The X-Files: Fight the Future	The Smoking Man
1998	The Last Tzaddik	Mr. Drazien	Short film
1998	Voyage of Terror	Dr. Norman Ellisy	Television movie
1999	Murder Most Likely	Detective Inspector	Televisio movie
2000	Perpetrators of the Crime	Henderson
2000	Killing Moon	Ed	Television movie
2000	Becoming Dick	Dr. Hardwin	Television movie
2001	The Proposal	Angent Frank Gruning
2001	Out of Line	Russell
2001	Mindstorm	Parish
2001	Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back	The Smoking Man	Uncredited
2001	Andhrax	Tye Crow
2002	Polished	Phillip	Short film
2002	Aftermath	Deputy Director Edwards
2002	Damaged Care	Dr. Sam Verbush	Television movie
2002	Body & Soul	Dr. Edward A. Esseff
2002	Saint Sinner	Father Michael	Television movie
2002	100 Days in the Jungle	N/A	Television movie
2003	Broken Saints	Benjamin Palmer
2003	Arbor Vitae	Old Soul	Short film
2003	Word of Honor	Lewis Kaplan	Television movie
2004	Snakehead Terror	Doc Jenkins
2004	The Cradle Will Fall	Dist. Atty. Alex Myerson	Television movie
2004	Lyon King	Finance Minister	Short film
2004	Packing Up	Jenkins	Short film
2005	The Cost of Living	Mark Mortinson	Short film
2005	The Last Round	Mitchell
2005	Max Rules	Rick Brinkley
2005	Dark Pines	Shannon Fraser	Television movie
2006	The Janitors	Harvey	Short film
2006	Dark Storm	General Killion	Television movie
2006	Her Fatal Flaw	Richard O'Brien	Television movie
2006	Sisters	Dr. Bryant
2006	The Secret of Hidden Lane	Judge Landers	Television movie
2007	The Messengers	Colby Price
2007	Judicial Indiscretion	Senator Garland Wolf	Television movie
2007	Numb	Peter Milbank
2008	The Femme Fatale	Sam	Video short film
2008	A Pickle	Mack	Short film
2008	Passengers	Jack
2008	Reverse	Chris	Short film
2009	Possession	Dr. Creane
2009	Something Evil Comes	Mr. Dutton	Television movie
2009	The Shortcut	Benjamin Hartley
2009	The Thaw	Ted
2009	Damage	Veltz
2009	Web of Desire	Dr. Charles Friedman	Television movie
2010	Blob	The Boss	Short film
2010	Medium Raw: Night of the Wolf	Dr. Robert Parker	Television movie
2010	Flowers for Norma	Older Gentleman #2	Short film
2010	Amazon Falls	Calvin
2011	Goose on the Loose	Alphonse David
2011	Behemoth	William Walsh	Television movie
2011	Rise of the Damned	Doctor
2012	The Tall Man	Sheriff Chestnut
2012	The Package	Dr. Willhelm
2013	Stonados	Ben	Television movie
2013	Singularity Principle	Lawrence Cason
2014	Focus	Mr. Grant
2016	Residue	Lamont
2016	Abduct	Zane

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1984	SCTV Channel	Man on the phone	Episode: "Half Wits Save the World Parade"
1986	The Beachcombers	Dave Douglas	Episode: "Trial Balloon"
1987	Danger Bay	Norris	Episode: "High Five"
1987	Airwolf	F.I.R.M. official	4 episodes
1987	21 Jump Street	Mr. Wiedlin	Episode: "Mean Streets and Pastel Houses"
1988	Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future	Arvin	Episode: "Judgement"
1988	Danger Bay	Jack Kane	Episode: "Racing Against Time"
1988	21 Jump Street	Mr. Wickenton	Episode: "Champagne High"
1988	Wiseguy	Curant	Episode: "The Merchant of Death"
1989	Wiseguy	Inspector #2	Episode: "People Do It All the Time"
1991	21 Jump Street	Judge Harrison	Episode: "Crossfire"
1991	MacGyver	Judge	Episode: "Trail of Tears"
1991	The Commish	Don Chesley	2 episodes
1992	Street Justice	Badgely	Episode: "Homecoming"
1992	Nightmare Cafe	Doctor	Episode: "Sanctuary for a Child"
1993	North of 60	Inspector Nelson	Episode: "Out of the Blue"
1993-2002	The X-Files	The Smoking Man	37 episodes
1995	Sliders	Prof. Myman	Episode: "Eggheads"
1995	The Outer Limits	Ed	Episode: "The Conversion"
1996	Poltergeist: The Legacy	Dr. Bill Nigel	Episode: "Do Not Go Gently"
1996	The Outer Limits	John Wymer	Episode: "Out of Body"
1999	Mentors	Sir Arthur Conan Doyle	Episode: "The Truth Is in Here"
2000	The Fearing Mind	Michell Cofax	Episode: "Gentlemen Caller"
2001	First Wave	Sagon	Episode: "Checkmate"
2001	The Outer Limits	Dr. Biemler	Episode: "Worlds Within"
2001	Mythquest	Head Priest	Episode: "The Oracle"
2001	Andromeda	Professor Logitch	Episode: "Pitiless as the Sun"
2003	Smallville	Mayor William 'Billy' Tate	2 episodes
2004	Kingdom Hospital	Dean Swinton	Episode: "The Young and the Headless"
2004	Murdoch Mysteries	Alderman Godfrey Shepcote	Episode: "Expect the Dying"
2005	Tilt	Father Mike	Episode: "Nobody Ever Listens"
2005	Robson Arms	Dr. Carlisle Wainwright	10 episodes
2005-2006	Stargate SG-1	Ori Prior Damaris	2 episodes
2006	Supernatural	College Professor	Episode: "Scarecrow"
2006	Canadian Comedy Shorts	Finance Minister	Episode: "Episode #10.9"
2007	Masters of Science Fiction	The President	Episode: "The Awakening"
2008	Fear Itself	Father Chris	Episode: "In Sickness and in Health"
2009	Caprica	Minister Chambers	Episode: "Pilot"
2010	Human Target	Whitey Doyle	Episode: "Run"
2012-2014	Continuum	Older Alec Sadler	8 episodes
2013-14	R.L. Stine's The Haunting Hour	Plumberg Grandfather	Episode: "Bad Egg" Episode: "Grandpa's Glasses"
2013-14	Signed, Sealed, Delivered		Episode: "Truth Be Told"
2015	Signed, Sealed, Delivered		Episode: "The Impossible Dream"
2016	The X-Files	The Smoking Man	3 episodes

[ Source: Wikipedia ]