Peter Frank Davis (born January 2, 1937), is an American filmmaker,
author, novelist and journalist. His film Hearts and Minds, about
American military action in Vietnam, won the Best Feature Documentary
Academy Award in 1974.Davis was born in Santa Monica, and grew up in
Upland and Pacific Palisades, CA. He has a younger sister, Jane Davis.
His parents were the screenwriters Frank Davis and Tess Slesinger, and
after his mother's death in 1945, Isabelle Fair Wrangell became his
stepmother. Davis attended both public and private schools, graduating
from Chadwick School in Palos Verdes, CA. He went on to Harvard
University, where he graduated magna cum laude in 1957 with a A.B. in
English literature. After college, Davis worked briefly for The New
York Times and served in the U.S. Army (1959-1960). From 1961 to 1964,
he worked on FDR, a 26-part television series for which he interviewed
President Roosevelt's family, friends, enemies, Cabinet members and
political associates.In 1965, Davis moved to CBS News as a writer and
worked on documentaries about student rebellion, homosexuality,
slavery, the Six Day War, racism and hunger in America. His 1971 film
for CBS News, The Selling of the Pentagon, an investigation of U.S.
Defense Department public relations, won the prestigious Peabody.
Davis' Hearts and Minds, a film about American military action in
Vietnam, won the Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary for the
year 1974. His subsequent project, the Middletown series for PBS,
received 10 Emmy nominations and two Emmys. Individual films from the
series won the Blue Ribbon at the American Film Festival and the First
Prize Feature Documentary at the Sundance Festival. JACK, a film he
made with his son, the filmmaker Nick Davis, was nominated for two
Emmys and won one in 1994.Davis has written three nonfiction books:
Hometown (1982), Where Is Nicaragua? (1987), and If You Came This Way
(1995). His first novel Girl of My Dreams, about Hollywood in the
1930s, was released in 2015.
author, novelist and journalist. His film Hearts and Minds, about
American military action in Vietnam, won the Best Feature Documentary
Academy Award in 1974.Davis was born in Santa Monica, and grew up in
Upland and Pacific Palisades, CA. He has a younger sister, Jane Davis.
His parents were the screenwriters Frank Davis and Tess Slesinger, and
after his mother's death in 1945, Isabelle Fair Wrangell became his
stepmother. Davis attended both public and private schools, graduating
from Chadwick School in Palos Verdes, CA. He went on to Harvard
University, where he graduated magna cum laude in 1957 with a A.B. in
English literature. After college, Davis worked briefly for The New
York Times and served in the U.S. Army (1959-1960). From 1961 to 1964,
he worked on FDR, a 26-part television series for which he interviewed
President Roosevelt's family, friends, enemies, Cabinet members and
political associates.In 1965, Davis moved to CBS News as a writer and
worked on documentaries about student rebellion, homosexuality,
slavery, the Six Day War, racism and hunger in America. His 1971 film
for CBS News, The Selling of the Pentagon, an investigation of U.S.
Defense Department public relations, won the prestigious Peabody.
Davis' Hearts and Minds, a film about American military action in
Vietnam, won the Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary for the
year 1974. His subsequent project, the Middletown series for PBS,
received 10 Emmy nominations and two Emmys. Individual films from the
series won the Blue Ribbon at the American Film Festival and the First
Prize Feature Documentary at the Sundance Festival. JACK, a film he
made with his son, the filmmaker Nick Davis, was nominated for two
Emmys and won one in 1994.Davis has written three nonfiction books:
Hometown (1982), Where Is Nicaragua? (1987), and If You Came This Way
(1995). His first novel Girl of My Dreams, about Hollywood in the
1930s, was released in 2015.
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