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.

[2][3] In 1955 he enrolled at the University of Toronto to study philosophy, but actively pursued an acting career, as did his friend Donald Sutherland.

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.

[5] His last position in the UK was as an assistant director at the National Theatre of Great Britain[6] under Laurence Olivier where he worked with Albert Finney, Maggie Smith, Derek Jacobi, and Ronald Pickup among others.

[8] Returning to Toronto in the late seventies, Davis spent several years as a radio drama director and on the faculty of Humber College.

He 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 has also had a wide range of roles in other series, including Stargate SG-1 and Smallville, and has participated in a host of television movies and other projects.

In 2011, he directed two plays for The United Players of Vancouver: Waste by Harley Granville Barker, and Hay Fever by Noël Coward.

[19] He is a passionate advocate for action in response to climate change, believing it a critical issue of our time and speaking on the subject often.

In another interview with Justin Trottier of the Centre 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.