Photo: Yves Tennevin / CC BY-SA 3.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
William B. Davis is proof to me that a supporting role, played with the right restraint, can outlast a hundred leads. As the Cigarette Smoking Man on The X-Files, he made silence and a slow exhale more menacing than any monologue, anchoring the show's paranoia with sheer stillness. What I respect is the lifer's mindset behind it: a University of Toronto man who founded his own acting school and later wrote a memoir wryly titled after that infamous character. That self-awareness tells me he understood exactly the kind of icon he'd become. To me, he's the quiet face of an entire era of conspiracy television.
Overview
William Bruce Davis (born January 14, 1938) is a Canadian actor, best known for his role as the Cigarette Smoking Man on The X-Files. Besides appearing in many TV programs and movies, he founded his own acting school, the William Davis Centre for Actors Study. In 2011 he published his memoir, Where There's Smoke ... The Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man.
Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- William B. Davis
- Name (Japanese)
- ウィリアム・B・デイヴィス
- Reading
- うぃりあむ・B・でいゔぃす
- Born
- January 13, 1938 (age 88)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Capricorn / Tiger
- Origin
- Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- actor / screenwriter / film actor / television actor / television producer
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Private
- University
- University of Toronto
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
Actor — see all → · Screenwriter — see all → · More people from Canada →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.