Steve Davis

Steve Davis (born 22 August 1957) is an English retired professional snooker player who is currently a commentator, DJ, electronic musician, and author. He is best known for dominating professional snooker during the 1980s, when he reached eight World Snooker Championship finals in nine years, won six world titles, and held the world number one ranking for seven consecutive seasons. He was runner-up to Dennis Taylor in one of snooker's most famous matches, the 1985 World Championship final, whose dramatic black-ball conclusion attracted 18.5 million viewers, still the largest British television audience for any broadcast after midnight and any broadcast on BBC Two.

In addition to his six world titles, Davis won the UK Championship six times and the Masters three times for a total of 15 Triple Crown titles, placing him behind only Ronnie O'Sullivan (21) and Stephen Hendry (18). During the 1987–88 season, he became the first player to win all three Triple Crown events in a single season, a feat only two other players—Hendry and Mark Williams—have matched. He still holds the record for most professional titles overall, with 84 individual wins, or 98 including team and pro-am competition (see tables below). His career total of 28 ranking titles places him fourth behind O'Sullivan (39), Hendry (36), and John Higgins (31). The first player to make an officially recognised maximum break in professional competition—at the 1982 Classic—Davis was also the first to earn £1 million in career prize money.

Davis was named the BBC's Sports Personality of the Year in 1988 and remains the only snooker player to win the award. He won his last major title at the 1997 Masters, aged 39, but continued to compete at a high level and was still a top-16 ranked player at age 50. He made his last Crucible appearance in 2010, aged 52, when he defeated the defending world champion John Higgins to become the oldest world quarter-finalist since 1983. As of 2023, Davis's 30 Crucible appearances are second only to O'Sullivan's 31. He retired at the end of the 2015–16 season, after 38 seasons on the professional tour, but remains active as a commentator and analyst for BBC's snooker coverage.

Outside snooker, Davis competed in nine-ball pool tournaments, most notably representing Europe in the Mosconi Cup eleven consecutive times between 1994 and 2004. A keen chess and poker player, he served as president of the British Chess Federation between 1996 and 2001 and competed in televised poker tournaments. A fan of progressive rock, he has an ongoing career as a radio broadcaster, club DJ, and musician; with Kavus Torabi and Michael J. York, he co-founded the electronic music band the Utopia Strong. He has authored or co-authored books on snooker, chess, cooking, and music, as well as three autobiographies. In 2013, he featured as a contestant on I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!. He was made an MBE in the 1988 Birthday Honours and an OBE in the 2000 New Year Honours.