Born | Chesterfield, Derbyshire, England | 14 August 1913
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Died | 16 April 1998 Denbighshire, Wales | (aged 84)
Sport country | England |
Professional | 1929–1993 |
Highest ranking | 4 (1976–77) |
Best ranking finish | Semi-final (x2) |
Tournament wins | |
World Champion |
Fred Davis OBE (14 August 1913 – 16 April 1998) was an English professional player of snooker and English billiards. He was an eight-time World Snooker Championship winner from 1948 to 1956, and a two-time winner of the World Billiards Championship. He was the brother of 15-time world snooker champion Joe Davis; the pair were the only two players to win both snooker and English billiards world championships, and Fred is second on the list of those holding most world snooker championship titles, behind Joe.
Davis' professional career started in 1929 at the age of 15 as a billiards player. He competed in his first world snooker championship in 1937 and reached the final three years later, losing to Joe by 36–37. From 1947, Davis played in five straight finals against Scottish player Walter Donaldson, winning three. When the event merged into the World Professional Match-play Championship in 1952, Davis won five more championships, defeating Donaldson three times and then John Pulman twice.
Davis won the World Billiards championship twice in 1980, defeating Rex Williams in the May event, and later Mark Wildman in the November event. With the beginning of the snooker world rankings in 1976, Davis was ranked fourth in the world, and remained on the professional tour until 1993 when, aged 80, he retired due to arthritis in his left knee. He died in 1998 after a fall in his home in Denbighshire, Wales.