Historical Figure
Jim Davis
1945–1981
American actor (1909–1981)
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Biography
Jim Davis was an American actor, best known for his roles in television Westerns. In his later career, he became famous as Jock Ewing in the CBS primetime soap opera Dallas, a role he continued until he was too ill from multiple myeloma to perform. In 1981, his performance on the series earned him a posthumous nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series.
Timeline
The story of Jim Davis, told in moments.
Created his first comic strip, Gnorm Gnat. It ran for five years. An editor told him nobody could relate to a bug. Davis took the advice literally.
Garfield debuted in 41 newspapers. A fat, lazy, lasagna-eating cat. Within four years it ran in over 1,000 papers. Davis designed the character to be marketable from day one.
Garfield entered the Guinness World Records as the most widely syndicated comic strip, appearing in roughly 2,580 newspapers across 111 countries.
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