Profile of Steve Davis on Famous Like Me

Alternate use: Steve Davis (trombonist); Steve Davis (footballer)

Steve Davis
Personal Information
Nicknames	The Nugget
Date of birth	August 22, 1957
Nationality	English
Career
Professional	1978–current
2005/6 World Ranking	15
Best World Ranking	1 (7 years)
World Championship Best	Winner (6 times)
Highest Break	147 (1982)
Ranking Tournament Wins
World Championship	1981, 1983, 1984, 1987–1989
Jameson International	1983, 1984
Fidelity Unit Trusts International	1987, 1988
BCE International	1989
UK Championship	1984–1987
Lada Classic	1984
Rothmans Grand Prix	1985, 1988, 1989
British Open	1986, 1993
Mercantile Credit Classic	1987, 1988, 1992
Asian Open	1992
European Open	1993
Regal Welsh Open	1994, 1995
Other Tournament Wins
Benson & Hedges Masters	1982, 1988, 1997
Irish Masters	1983, 1984, 1987, 1988, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1994
Pot Black	1982, 1983, 1991
World Trickshot	1994, 1995, 1997

Steve Davis (born August 22, 1957) is an English professional snooker player and one of the top two or three players ever.

Having turned professional in 1978, Davis won the World Snooker Championship 6 times during the 1980s (1981, 1983, 1984, 1987, 1988 and 1989), a record at the time. Despite not repeating his earlier successes following the rise of Stephen Hendry in the early 1990s, Davis has remained one of the world's leading and popular players well into the 2000s. Perhaps his most famous match however was the 1985 final versus Dennis Taylor. In a nail-biting match that saw a record post-midnight audience on British television and a record audience for BBC2 of 18 million people, Taylor finally defeated Davis 18 frames to 17, winning the final frame on the final ball. Davis completed the most crushing World Championship victory in the modern era when he defeated John Parrott 18-3 in 1989. As of 2004, he has won 73 titles, 28 of them in ranking events.

Davis became known for his coolness and impeccable conduct in high-pressure situations, earning himself the nickname The Nugget. His featureless expressions and monotone interviewing style earned him a reputation as boring. As a result, the satirical television series Spitting Image gave him the ironic nickname, Steve 'Interesting' Davis. Davis himself has long played upon this image, particularly as a pundit and commentator for the BBC's snooker coverage and as a guest on television quizzes, with an appealing line in deadpan humour. He is co-author (with Geoff Atkinson) of the humorous book How To Be Really Interesting (1988).

In 1988, Davis was named the BBC Sports Personality of the Year. The same year he was made an MBE. He was awarded on OBE in 2001.

Davis has taken up his non-snooker interests in the public arena too. In 1983, he hosted The Steve Davis Sports Quiz for Channel 4 and later networked a soul show for commercial radio stations, titled Steve Davis' Interesting Soul. Since 1996 he has presented a similar show on his local radio station, Phoenix FM. He is also a keen chess player and was for a while the President of the British Chess Federation.

Recently, Davis has begun to play pool professionally and is responsible for the institution of the Mosconi Cup, a multi-day competition between teams from the USA and Europe, inspired by and roughly based on the format of the Ryder Cup. He has also become a proficient poker player, with successful appearances at televised tournaments.

Steve Davis is no relation to snooker players Joe Davis and Fred Davis.

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