Roger H. Davis

Roger H. Davis was born in Chicago and moved to Los Angeles when he was two years old. He was educated at Burbank High where he was his class President. Following high school, he served as a Captain with the U.S. Army in the Philippines and New Guinea for 2 ½ years during World War II, after which he returned to UCLA where he received his undergraduate degree under the GI Bill. He then obtained his LLB degree at Boalt Hall at UC Berkeley in 1951. He joined Loeb & Loeb as an attorney, and became a partner in 1956, leaving that firm in 1961 to join the William Morris Agency. While at Loeb & Loeb, he was the legal advisor to the entertainment industry lobby at the California State Legislature. He was a member of the William Morris Agency for 32 years, and served as the Chairman of the Executive Committee of its Board of Directors, as well as the Agency's Executive Vice President and Assistant Secretary with overall responsibility for the Motion Picture Department, the Literary Department, Business Affairs Department and all of the Agency's foreign offices. His clients included Natalie Wood, Barbra Streisand, Kirk Douglas, Michael Douglas, Elvis Presley, Clint Eastwood, Norman Lear, Warren Beatty, Omar Sharif, Fred Zinnemann, Stanley Kramer, David Wolper, Ernest Lehman, and Steve McQueen. Mr. Davis also served as the Chairman of the Motion Picture and Television Fund Corporation, First Vice President of the Association of Talent Agents, as an arbitrator on the panel of Arbitrators of the Directors Guild, and was a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and the State Bar of California. He was active in Big Brothers of America and participated in its annual "Show Biz Bash" for many years. He also served as a member of the Board of Governors of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Following his retirement from the William Morris Agency, he continued as an entertainment industry Arbitrator and expert witness, and as Chairman of the Board of MPTF Corp., the parent corporation of the Motion Picture and Television Fund and Country Hospital which serviced the health and human services needs of the entertainment industry. Surrounded by his family, Mr. Davis died at 92, finally succumbing to cancer after a 10-year fight against the disease. He is survived by his loving wife of 33 years, Laura, his two children Roger Davis, Jr. and Shelley Davis Browning, as well as his seven grandchildren and his two great-grandchildren. :" In lieu of flowers the family ask that donations be made to the Motion Picture & Television Fund in Rogers' name.