About William B. Davis
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. == Early life and education == Davis was born in Toronto to a lawyer father and psychologist mother. In 1949, he began his acting career as a child, 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 University College in the University of Toronto to study philosophy, but actively pursued an acting career, as did his friend Donald Sutherland.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.