William B. Davis

Canadian actor

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Born: January 13, 1938
Age in 2026: 88
Zodiac sign: Capricorn
Birth year: 1938

About William B. Davis

William Bruce Davis 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. When they needed a boy, they gave William his first professional acting job.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

The world when William B. Davis was born

William B. Davis was born in 1938. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1938

#1 song"A-Tisket, A-Tasket" – Ella Fitzgerald
Top movieThe Adventures of Robin Hood
Best-selling bookRebecca – Daphne du Maurier

Headlines and milestones

Major sports momentJoe Louis knocks out Max Schmeling in round 1
Top headlineWar of the Worlds broadcast causes nationwide panic
Technology milestoneNuclear fission discovered
Defining fadSuperman debuts in Action Comics #1
Notable inventionInstant coffee (Nescafé)
World population2.30 billion

United States snapshot

U.S. leaderFranklin D. Roosevelt
Sports championNew York Yankees (World Series)
U.S. population129.8M

1938 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in William B. Davis's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure	1938	2026
Gas	$0.20	$3.45/gal
Average home	$5,100	$435,000
Average income	$2,800	$67,500
Minimum wage	$0.25	$7.25/hr (federal)
Movie ticket	$0.25	$11.95
Postage stamp	$0.03	$0.73
Population	129.8M	341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, IMDb. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.