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1-50 of 122
- Actress
- Director
- Producer
Alexis Vandom was born on 26 April 1996 in Aurora, Illinois, USA. She is an actress and director, known for Lackadaisy, Killer Kiss (2024) and Project Parasomnia.- Amanda Christine Wallace was born in Aurora, Colorado, USA. She is known for Seekers (2013), Sex/Absurd (2011) and Sides (2010).
- Actress
- Producer
Andrea Evans was born on 18 June 1957 in Aurora, Illinois, USA. She was an actress and producer, known for One Life to Live (1968), Passions (1999) and DeVanity (2011). She was married to Stephen Rodriguez and Wayne Massey. She died on 9 July 2023 in Pasadena, California, USA.- Anne Blaisdell was born on 11 March 1921 in Aurora, Illinois, USA. She was a writer, known for Die! Die! My Darling! (1965). She died on 5 April 1988 in San Luis Obispo, California, USA.
- Actress
- Producer
- Writer
Anne Celeste Heche was an American actress, director, and screenwriter. She came to recognition portraying Vicky Hudson and Marley Love in the soap opera Another World (1964), which won her a Daytime Emmy Award and two Soap Opera Digest Awards. She came to mainstream prominence in the late 1990s with roles in the crime drama film Donnie Brasco (1997), the disaster film Volcano (1997), the slasher film I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997), the action comedy film Six Days Seven Nights (1998), and the drama-thriller film Return to Paradise (1998).- Arturo Alejandro Castro, a young Latino male originally from West Aurora, IL (Chicagoland area) where he participated in theatre throughout most of his school life allowing him the opportunity to strive for a chance to utilize his artistic abilities. His parents influenced him to move to Mexico City where he attended several acting programs at the Actors Studio of Patricia Reyes Espindola. Arturo developed his craft with a great influence from the Stanislavski method and perfected his native language of Spanish. After two years of living on his own in Mexico City, he decided to move to Los Angeles, CA in 2008 and begin his acting career. After several years of gaining experience in the acting industry, Arturo returned home to develop his education in fitness and holistic nutrition where he has dedicated his his lifestyle to fit more athletic roles and fitness modeling. Arturo returned to Los Angeles, CA in early 2018 to continue his career in acting, commercial and print.
- Actress
Ashley Salazar was born on 7 June 1984 in Aurora, Illinois, USA. She is an actress, known for Farm (2010) and The Tomb (2009).- Writer
- Producer
- Director
Bert V. Royal was born on 14 October 1977 in Aurora, Colorado, USA. He is a writer and producer, known for Easy A (2010), Big Hero 6 (2014) and Cruel Summer (2021).- Editor
- Editorial Department
- Producer
Betsy Wyeth was born on 26 September 1921 in East Aurora, New York, USA. She was an editor and producer, known for In the Bedroom (2001), Andrew Wyeth: Self Portrait - Snow Hill (1995) and The Metaphor (1980). She was married to Andrew Wyeth. She died on 21 April 2020 in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, USA.- Bill Ritter was born on 6 September 1956 in Aurora, Colorado, USA.
- Bob Kipper was born on 8 July 1964 in Aurora, Illinois, USA.
- Brad Childress was born on 27 June 1956 in Aurora, Illinois, USA.
- Brad Tyler was born on 3 March 1969 in Aurora, Indiana, USA. He is an actor, known for Major League II (1994) and A Player to Be Named Later (2005).
- Casting Department
- Casting Director
- Actress
Brandi S. Hawkins was born on 2 October 1975 in Aurora, Illinois, USA. She is a casting director and actress, known for Inception (2010), In Time (2011) and Surrogates (2009).- Producer
- Writer
- Executive
Brandon Lankar was born on 19 May 1991 in Aurora, Ontario, Canada. He is a producer and writer, known for The Drew Barrymore Show (2020), The Social (2013) and Canada A.M. (1972).- Brandon Quinn plays "Ronnie Sullivan" on the hit Netflix series SWEET MAGNOLIAS and can be seen opposite Kevin Hart in the Roku series DIE HART.A native of Aurora, Colorado, Brandon found his passion for acting in high school theater after a serious car accident in his junior year that kept him from playing sports. He recently wrapped production on the LightWorkers media feature film ON A WING AND A PRAYER with Dennis Quaid and Heather Graham and the STX feature film GREENLAND starring Gerard Butler. Previously, Brandon led the John Singleton series REBEL on BET and recurred on the ABC comedy KEVIN (PROBABLY) SAVES THE WORLD, as well as the Freeform series THE FOSTERS. Brandon got his start as the lead of Fox Family's long-running cult classic series BIG WOLF ON CAMPUS shortly after moving to Los Angeles. Additional television credits include AGAINST THE WALL, GRIMM, ENTOURAGE, CHARMED, THE O.C., and THE VAMPIRE DIARIES. In 2015, Brandon spent two years studying at an acting conservatory, The Miesner Center, working to deepen his understanding of the craft. Brandon is married to his wife of 20 years, Rachel, with whom he has three kids.
- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Brendan "Big Brown" Schaub is a former MMA fighter, with a storied fight career. He competed in the show The Ultimate Fighter (2005), getting a place in the finale fight and securing a contract with the UFC. While in the UFC, he won 6 fights and defeated one of his personal heroes, the Croatian veteran and legend Mirko Cro Cop. Brendan decided to retire from fighting after a podcast with Joe Rogan, who was concerned for his well-being, as well as being dissatisfied with the direction the UFC was taking its sponsorship with Reebok. Brendan, who was already running a very successful podcast, quit fighting to focus on podcasting, acting, and stand-up comedy full-time.
Schaub hosts The Fighter and the Kid (2015) podcast with co-host comedian/actor Bryan Callen and is a recurring guest on The Joe Rogan Experience (2009) (one of the most successful podcasts in the world). He has two sons with his wife actress Joanna Zanella: Tiger Pax Schaub and Boston J. Schaub.- Director
- Writer
- Editor
Brett Hatten was born on 17 December 1982 in Aurora, Illinois, USA. Brett is a director and writer, known for The Monster's Mind (2006) and The Amnesia Party (2008).- Brooke Anne Smith is an American actress known for her lead series regular role on two seasons of Tyler Perry's "Too Close To Home" where she played a drug addicted sexual assault survivor. She is also known for her recurring role on MTV's hit show "Awkward." She landed a lead series regular role in Oscar winner Renee Zellweger's six million dollar pilot "Cinnamon Girl" which was directed by critically acclaimed Gavin O'Connor. Smith made her motion picture debut as a lead in Walt Disney's "Max Keeble's Big Move" and since then, has gone on to several television shows and feature films to date.
- Producer
- Director
- Writer
Bryan F. Davis was born on 23 August 1975 in Aurora, Illinois, USA. He is a producer and director, known for Fallaway, Job (2013) and The Hunt (2017).- Additional Crew
- Location Management
- Art Department
Bryan F. Davis was born on 23 August 1975 in Aurora, Illinois, USA. He is known for Moment of Truth (2017), Falling (2008) and Adam & Steve (2005).- Writer
- Actor
- Director
Bryan Renaud was born to Shawn and Brenda Renaud. After graduation from North Central College with a degree in Theatre and English, he moved to Chicago where he founded Random Acts, a multimedia production company behind immersive live events, audio and video content. As of 2022, the company has reached over 1 million people in 75 countries.- Charles Barnes was born on 20 September 1924 in Aurora, Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for The Intruder (1962) and Saturday's Hero (1951). He died on 9 July 2005 in Austin, Texas, USA.
- Started off with several rolls in Indy movies all filmed in Colorado. Along with movies, He is also a Professional Indy wrestler whose gone by the names, Anarqüst, Phynyx and Patrick Nichols. Also see tv tapings on YouTube at Nrw pro wrestling
- Irish-American gangster Charles Dion O'Bannion, nicknamed "Deanie", was, unlike many of his fellow contemporary gangsters, born and raised in the US. From the small Illinois town of Marca, his family moved to Chicago after his mother's death in 1901, settling in an Irish neighborhood on the city's North Side.
O'Bannion's childhood friends included future gangsters Hymie Weiss, George Moran--aka "Bugs Moran"--and Vincent Drucci (aka "The Schemer"), all members of an Irish strongarm robbery crew called The Market Street Gang. The gang came into its own during the infamous Chicago newspaper wars, in which the city's competing newspapers hired gangs of thugs to beat up business owners who didn't sell their paper or newspaper boys who sold the competition's paper. O'Bannion graduated from beating up newspaper boys to safecracking--for which he was eventually arrested--and drugging patrons' drinks in the dives he worked at, after which he and his gang would rob them when they passed out.
O'Bannion was still a small-time hood when Prohibition came into effect in 1920, and it was then he found his calling. He began by smuggling beer, whiskey and gin from Canada to the US, and was extremely successful at it. He built his own outfit, known as The North Side Gang, and made huge amounts of money supplying the wealthy Chicago area called the Gold Coast, along the lakefront, with illegal liquor. He still kept his hand in the strongarm business, however, and his mob became infamous for hijacking the trucks of rival bootleggers, beating up or killing the drivers and taking their loads. When he married in 1921, he indulged his passion for flowers--and got himself a legitimate front for his rackets--by buying a flower shop, which eventually became the main supplier of floral arrangements for the funerals of many of the gangsters killed in the city's internecine mob wars.
Italian gangster Johnny Torrio had called a meeting of Chicago's bootleggers in 1920 to divide up the city and put a stop to the bloody battles among the various gangs. O'Bannion attended the meeting and was awarded the North Side territory, including the very profitable Gold Coast section, in exchange for supplying the Torrio gang with muscle in its effort to ensure that their candidate won the election for mayor of nearby Cicero, thus ensuring a haven from which they could run their organizations without fear of prosecution.
The "agreement" only lasted for a few years before O'Bannion started chafing under Torrio's control. In addition, the city of Cicero had become a virtual gold mine for Torrio since he assumed control of it, and O'Bannion wanted in. Torrio mollified him by giving him a strip of the city in which to establish his speakeasies. O'Bannion used that to persuade other Chicago speakeasy owners to move their operations to his Cicero fiefdom, to which Torrio took strong offense, but O'Bannion refused Torrio's order to stop bringing in new speakeasies. In the meantime, a family of brutally violent Italian bootleggers called the Gemma Brothers began moving into O'Bannion's Chicago territory, and his complaints to Torrio about them went unheeded. Infuriated, O'Bannion began hijacking the Gemma gang's trucks. The Gemmas decided to kill O'Bannion and wipe out his mob, but were stopped by the other Italian gangs, who did not want a full-fledged gang war bringing heat on them. The last straw, though, was when Torrio discovered that O'Bannion had double-crossed him on a liquor deal that had cost him more than $500,000. He finally gave the Gemmas the go-ahead to kill O'Bannion.
On November 10, 1924, on the pretense of buying flowers for a fellow mobster's funeral, gangster Frankie Yale and two compatriots visited O'Bannion's flower shop. As O'Bannion extended his hand to greet Yale, the mobster suddenly grabbed his arm with both hands and the two gunmen pulled out pistols and emptied them into O'Bannion. He died instantly. - Producer
- Actor
Charles Does was born on 24 May 1984 in Aurora, Illinois, USA. He is a producer and actor, known for Texas Frightmare Massacre (2010), Pay to Die and Earth Graffiti (2016).- Camera and Electrical Department
- Actor
- Cinematographer
Charles Schiell was born on 6 March 1982 in Aurora, Colorado, USA. He is an actor and cinematographer, known for Blackout (2012), Midnight Oil (2017) and The Lodge (2008).- Cheryl Sweeten was born on 13 May 1944 in Aurora, Colorado, USA. She is an actress, known for Pajama Party (1964).
- One of the most recognizable voices in Los Angeles, Francis Dayle Hearn, better known as "Chick" was the play-by-play voice of the Los Angeles Lakers for from 1960 to 2002. Known for his witty comments during the game and lightning-quick reactions to the play on the court, Hearn was as well-known a personality as some of the past Laker greats including Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, Wilt Chamberlain, Magic Johnson, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Originally from Illinois, Hearn came to Los Angeles in 1956 and did radio and TV work in a variety of sports before getting his gig with the Lakers. He was also the long-time host of "Bowling for Dollars." Hearn has also done the play-by-play for other sports including the 1992 Summer Olympics.
- Chris Gilmer works with Lucasfilm Info Systems managing the server infrastructure for the Atris asset management system for Star Wars. Previously he has worked with the Department of Defense and NASA/JPL. Other industries include music, robotics, logistics, genetics, and advertising. He is a lifelong Star Wars fan and spends his free time woodworking.
- Additional Crew
- Cinematographer
- Producer
Christina Anderson was born on 10 July 1987 in Aurora, Illinois, USA. She is a cinematographer and producer, known for Batman Begins (2005), Public Enemies (2009) and A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010).- Actress
- Script and Continuity Department
Christina Beck was born on 23 December 1981 in Aurora, Colorado, USA. She is an actress, known for The Bride Wore Blood (2006), Remembering November (2002) and Lost/Found (2003).- Christine Crawley was born on 24 July 1969 in Aurora, Illinois, USA. She is an actress, known for Bachelors Grove (2014). She was previously married to Michael Crawley.
- Christine Horne was born on 14 December 1981 in Aurora, Ontario, Canada. She is an actress, known for The Captive (2014), The Stone Angel (2007) and Ashgrove (2022).
- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Chuck Sagle was born in 1929 in Aurora, Illinois, USA. He was a composer, known for Tin Men (1987), Divorce Las Vegas Style (1970) and The Beach Girls and the Monster (1965). He died on 13 April 2015 in Nashville, Tennessee, USA.- Writer
- Soundtrack
Clifford Goldsmith was born on 29 March 1899 in Aurora, New York, USA. He was a writer, known for The Man Who Knew Too Little (1997), What a Life (1939) and Father Was a Fullback (1949). He died on 11 July 1971 in Tucson, Arizona, USA.- Writer
- Actor
Probably one of the greatest adventure novelists of our time. When his novel "Raise the Titanic" was bought for $840,000 by Viking Publishing in 1976, it put him on the map after 11 years of hard work. Before his success with RTT, he previously had written "Pacific Vortex", which wasn't published until after his successes, "The Mediterranean Caper" and "Iceberg". Originally in advertising, first as an award-winning copy writer, and then as creative director for two of the nation's largest agencies. He started his writing career when his wife, Barbara, got a night job for the local police station as a clerk. At night after putting his kids to bed, he had hardly anything to do and no one to talk to. So out of solitude he decided to write a book. After a few nights of thinking of an idea on what to write about he thought it would be fun to produce a little paperback series. The thought of a best-seller never crossed his mind. Thanks to his marketing experience, he began researching and analyzing all the series heroes, beginning with Edgar Allan Poe's Inspector Dumas. Next came Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes and all the other fiction detectives and spies. Like the likes of Bulldog Drummond, Sam Spade, Phillip Marlowe, Mike Hammer, Matt Helm, James Bond. Whatever he could find, he studied them all. With his experience in creative advertising under his belt, he started to wonder what he could conceive that was totally different. He didn't want to compete with already-famous authors. He was determined not to write about a detective, secret agent or undercover investigator or deal in murder mysteries. He then decided his hero's adventure would be based on and under water. And thus, the basic concept for Dirk Pitt the marine engineer with the National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA) was born. He found it interesting that almost no authors were writing pure, old-fashioned adventure. It seemed to him, a lost genre. After taking a refresher course in English, he launched his first book that introduced Pitt and most all of his characters who appeared in the upcoming novels to follow afterwards. The first book was named "Pacific Vortex". Dr. Cussler, leaned heavily on Alistair McLean on his first two books and was quite flattered when critics told him they were quite similar. But by his third book, he began to drift into his own style with a myriad of sub-plots. And because of that, "Iceberg", to this day, has and always will be a sentimental favorite of his because it never ended where it began. After completing "Pacific Vortex", he was about to launch a second book when he was offered a position at a large advertising agency. It would have been a wonderful opportunity with a well-paid salary, but his wife challenged him. She knew that if he wanted to write sea stories, why didn't he take a job as a clerk at the local dive shop who at the time was hiring. He wasted little time and in 1968 he started working for the Aquatic Center Dive ship in Newport Beach as a behind-the-counter-salesman. Never being a certified diver, it took him just a few weeks. Once he was certified, Dr. Cussler started bringing in his typewriter in the morning and wrote at a card table behind the counter when business was slow which was usually in the afternoons. A little over a year later, Dr. Cussler finished his second novel, "Mediterranean Caper". That's when he decided to leave the shop and return to advertising. With constant rejection letters on his first novel, Pacific Vortex, Dr. Cussler had decided that it would be a smart decision to find himself a literary agent. With a little cunning and ingenuity, he soon met Peter Lampack, who was with the William Morris Agency in Manhattan. With Peter liking his second novel, "Mediterranean Caper", Dr. Cussler now had a contract. With the contract promptly signed and mailed, he started working on his third novel, "Iceberg". Now that he had an agent and with renewed inspiration, Dr. Cussler left the advertising agency, and decided to write full time. Fed up with Southern California and wanting to change his family's lifestyle, he sold his boat, house and car. He bought a new family sedan and a tent trailer. After a wonderful summer, he and his family relocated to Estes Park, Colorado. Once settled in, he started to work on his third novel, Iceberg. After a year he finished Iceberg and with his agent having no success finding an editor to take "Mediterranean Caper" and now, "Iceberg" and with his savings about depleted, Dr. Cussler went back to advertising. Once he got himself a job with a very small agency and started to prove to them his value, Dr. Cussler moved his family to the suburb of Arvada just outside of Denver. It wouldn't be long before he was given the pink slip again. Taking a once broken down and small firm and making it into multi-million company, Dr. Cussler vowed to never work in the advertising agency again. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Because that's when he started to work on "Raise The Titanic!" in one corner of his unfinished basement. By then his agent, Peter Lampack, had found a small publisher to take Mediterranean Caper. Printing fifty-thousand copies and selling thirty-two thousand, Pyramid Publishing paid him five thousand dollars and sold the novel for seventy-five cents a piece. Less then a year later, Dr. Cussler sold his novel, Iceberg to Dodd Mead Publishing for five-thousand dollars. The novel sold thirty-two thousand copies with an initial intent of only printing five thousand. Once he finished Raise The Titanic, Dr. Cussler sent it off to his agent. Once approved, it was relayed to Dodd Mead. It was rejected within ten days. His agent decided to sent the renounced manuscript to Putnam but they wanted a massive rewrite which Dr. Cussler refused to do. And what Dr. Cussler would later say, "Out of the blue, Viking Press bought it, asked for very few changes and paid me seventy-five hundred dollars." And that's when "strange forces" went to work. A London editor from Macmillan Publishing was visiting a friend at Viking and heard about the Dr. Cussler manuscript. Since the Titanic was a British ship, he asked for a copy of the manuscript to read on his plane back to England. He ended up wanting to buy it. But his agent had already sold "Iceberg" to Sphere Publishing, a small publishing house in London, for four hundred dollars. Since Sphere had the first option, they put in a bid for the manuscript that was promptly topped by Macmillan. Once the dust settled from the bidding war, Sphere owned the book, paying twenty-two thousand dollars, a high price for England in those days. Getting the feeling that things were suddenly falling into place, Dr. Cussler called his agent and got his rights back for Mediterranean Caper. At the same time, Dodd Mead Publishing notified his agent that Playboy Publications had offered four thousand dollars for the paperback right to Iceberg. Still with that "gut" feeling, Dr. Cussler told his agent that he would buy back Mediterranean Caper from Dodd Mead Publishing for five thousand dollars. The deal was done two weeks later. With the buzz and interest about Raise The Titanic over in Britain, it didn't take long for American paperback publishers to take notice. It soon went to auction with Viking Press winning the rights for $840,000. Once the auction was over and finding out that "Raise The Titanic" was the third Dirk Pitt novel, Viking Press bought them both for forty thousand dollar a piece. "Raise The Titanic" was Cussler's first novel to have several plots going on at the same time and to have them all converge at the end. Since then, Dr. Cussler has sold over 100 million copies of his Dirk Pitt Adventures. He continues to write Dirk Pitt adventures while living a life that nearly parallels that of his action hero. Like Pitt, Dr. Cussler enjoys discovering and collecting things of historical significance. With NUMA (National Underwater & Marine Agency, a non profit group begun by Cussler) he has had an amazing record of finding over 60 shipwrecks, one of which was the long-lost Confederate submarine Hunley. And recently discovered the rescue ship Carpathia who picked up the Titanic survivors. Dr. Cussler also has a renowned and extensive classic car collection, which features over 80 examples of custom coachwork. Along with being Chairman of NUMA, he is also a fellow of the Explorers Club (which honored him with the Lowell Thomas Award for outstanding underwater exploration), the Royal Geographical Society and the American Society of Oceanographers. Married to Barbara Knight for 40 years, with three children and two grandchildren, he divides his time between the mountains of Colorado and the deserts of Arizona. He is represented by the Bartholomeaux Agency.- Producer
- Director
- Writer
Colin Korbelas was born on 18 September 1979 in Aurora, Illinois, USA. He is a producer and director, known for dOur (2015), Room Service (2010) and Iblees (2002).- Andrew Danté Valor was born on November 9, 1995 in Aurora, Colorado, to Joe, a real estate developer, and Eva, a project manager. His mother, who is from Neubrücke, Germany, is of German and Italian descent. His father, who is from Denver, Colorado, is of Native American and Spanish descent.
Danté's teen years and early twenties were spent battling racism, delinquency, and anger management; after seeking help, he had success landing lead roles in community theatre around Colorado.
He attended the University of Denver for an undergraduate degree in finance before continuing his education for two graduate degrees: a master's in marketing and a master's in public relations. Throughout his education, he took classes at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts (DCPA) and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA). - Actor
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Editorial Department
David Lewis was born on 21 May 1987 in Aurora, Colorado, USA. He is an actor and assistant director, known for Classic (2019), Jog (2012) and The Nutritional Value of Dreams (2010).- Actor
- Director
- Writer
David May was born on 13 June 1983 in Aurora, Colorado, USA. He is an actor and director, known for Itsy Bitsy (2006), Fetch (2004) and Bon Appetit (2005).- David Theno was born in 1950 in Aurora, Illinois, USA. He was married to Jill. He died on 19 June 2017 in Lanai, Hawaii, USA.
- Dennis Hastert was born on 2 January 1942 in Aurora, Illinois, USA. He has been married to Jean Kahl since 21 April 1973. They have two children.
- Don Beebe was born on 18 December 1964 in Aurora, Illinois, USA.
- Actor
- Stunts
- Soundtrack
Don S. Davis was born on 4 August 1942 in Aurora, Missouri, USA. He was an actor, known for A League of Their Own (1992), The Fan (1996) and Twin Peaks (1990). He was married to Ruby Fleming-Davis and Sondra Sue Davis. He died on 29 June 2008 in Gibsons, British Columbia, Canada.- Art Department
- Set Decorator
- Art Director
Don Swanagan was born on 12 December 1930 in Aurora, Illinois, USA. He was a set decorator and art director, known for The Warriors (1979), For Love of Ivy (1968) and The DuPont Show of the Week (1961). He was married to Virginia. He died on 7 April 2011 in Holmdel, New Jersey, USA.- After his graduation from University of Indiana, Mr. Hill became a newsman. As one of the New York Sun's star reporters he covered centers of interest around the world. He became a director of newsreels and wrote syndicated newspaper columns. He was fond of riding, golf and his bull terrier. His flair for human interest won him a wide following.
- Stunts
- Actor
- Executive
At once brooding and intense, at other times mischievous and comical, Garcia gained popularity in regional theatre productions across the eastern seaboard for his broadly-drawn and extremely varied performances. In darker roles, his chiseled features and rough-hewn weariness complement his innate sensibilities, as can be seen in his portrayals of gangsters or lost youths. In comical roles, his timing is sharp, and his ability to shock and play with his audience is a trait that some of our most outrageous comedians aspire toward. With a vast dramatic and comedic range and a similarly boundless enthusiasm, Garcia has a bright future in his new arena, the silver screen.- Ella Salis was born on 30 March 2004 in Aurora, Illinois, USA. She is an actress, known for Vanished (2014), Chicago Med (2015) and Betrayal (2013).
- Writer
- Actor
American writer, commentator and journalist Elmer Davis was born in Aurora, IN, in 1890. He was a Rhodes Scholar to Queen's College in Oxford, England, graduating with an M.A. in 1911. He taught high school in Franklin, IN, for a year. In 1913 he joined the staff of "Adventure" magazine, then got a job with the "New York Times". He left the Times in 1924 to become a freelance writer. In 1939 he was asked by officials at CBS Radio to temporarily take over for radio commentator H.V. Kaltenborn on his broadcast analyzing the war in Europe. His calmness, steadiness, knowledge of the subject and humorous and pithy commentary was a refreshing change for listeners who had tired of the bombastic, excitable, sometimes boorish and usually unctuous behavior of many of the radio commentators of the day, and Davis soon was drawing millions of listeners to the show, making him among the most popular broadcasters on radio.
On June 13, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt named Davis to head the newly formed Office of War Information (OWI), which was the government's "clearinghouse" regarding all information, official statements and propaganda about the war.