Meet Dave
Actor, comedian, writer, producer, and director — and, for five decades, one of the funniest people in the room.
David William Thomas, C.M., was born May 20, 1949, in St. Catharines, Ontario. His mother was a Scottish-born church organist and composer; his father, a Welsh-born medical ethicist, headed the Philosophy Department at McMaster University. His younger brother Ian is a Canadian singer-songwriter.
Dave's first stage appearance was in the Toronto production of Godspell — alongside Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Martin Short, and Paul Shaffer. He worked briefly as a copywriter for McCann Erickson, writing Coca-Cola commercials in Toronto and New York, before leaving advertising to join the Toronto cast of Second City. The Emmy-winning SCTV grew out of that stage show, launching a forty-year career in film and television.
In 2009 he received an honorary doctorate from McMaster University. In 2020 he was appointed to the Order of Canada — the country's highest civilian honor — and life-size statues of Dave and Rick Moranis as Bob and Doug McKenzie were installed at the Rogers ICE District in Edmonton.
- Order of Canada
- Appointed 2020
- Honorary Doctorate
- McMaster University, 2009
- Emmy Award
- SCTV
- Bronze Statues
- Rogers Place, Edmonton
My short career in advertising
I first worked at McCann Erickson in Toronto as a copywriter on the Coca-Cola account. After the success of a little contest commercial I wrote for Coca-Cola starring Tim Conway, the door to New York opened, and I moved to McCann's Lexington Avenue office under creative director Bill Backer.
Bill asked me to write a jingle, so I wrote the lyrics “It Oughta Sell A Million.” The song took off — but as a junior copywriter, I watched my boss take the credit. There wasn't much arguing with that back then. Not long after, I left advertising for Second City, and everything changed.
