Bill C. Davis

William Clarke Davis (August 24, 1951 – February 26, 2021) was an American playwright and actor. He was best known for his 1980 play Mass Appeal. Other noted works of his include Dancing in the End Zone, Wrestlers, Spine, Avow, Coming2Terms, All Hallowed, Jeremiah Rules, Expatriate, and Austin's Bridge. His family was of Italian, Irish and Eastern European descent. as well as the Molière Award. It was adapted as a film of the same name three years later and featured Jack Lemmon and Željko Ivanek. He was also playwright-in-residence at the MTC and Brooklyn College, as well as Playwright Mentor at Carnegie Mellon University. He was the writer, director, and producer of two independent films, Household Accounts and Avow, that he also acted in. They were released in 2018, three years before his death; the latter film was an adaptation of his play.

Davis was the recipient of several awards, including the Los Angeles Times Critic's Choice Award, a National Board of Review citation, and the Drama-Logue Award. He was conferred the Marist College President's Award in 1981, for his "distinguished achievement in American theatre and the arts". He was later inducted into his alma mater's Theatre Hall of Fame in 2016.

Personal life Davis was gay and remained a lifelong bachelor. He joined the Green Party and made a brief run for Congress in 2005 for Connecticut. He was a regular contributor to Common Dreams. He called for a ban on Coca-Cola and Pepsi, and spoke out against fast food restaurants, sugar, and processed foods in November 2020.

Davis died on February 26, 2021, at a care center in Torrington, Connecticut. He was 69, and had been diagnosed with COVID-19 and pancreatic cancer one month prior to his death.