William Bruce Davis (born January 13, 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 his personal life, he is an avid water-skier, lectures on skepticism at events such as the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry's CSICon, and advocates for action on climate change. In 2011 he published his memoir, Where There's Smoke ... The Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man.
Davis was born in Toronto 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's house. When they needed a boy they gave William his first professional acting job. He subsequently became a boy actor on Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) radio before his voice broke. In 1955 he enrolled at the University of Toronto to study philosophy, but actively pursued an acting career, as did his friend Donald Sutherland. In 1959, he graduated from the University of Toronto with a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy. While at university he switched his attention from acting to directing and with his partner, Karl Jaffary, ran the Straw Hat Players for four years.
In 1960, Davis went to England to train at 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.

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