American actor Jeremy Davies was born on October 8, 1969 in Traverse City, Michigan, the son of children’s book author Mel Boring. He made his first screen appearance in 1990, with a bit role in an episode of Singer & Sons. He also had a small role for the television movie Shoot First: A Cop’s Vengeance. He also had guest stints in two episodes of The Wonder Years, an episode of Melrose Place and in the television thriller Guncrazy.
In 1993, Davies appeared in a television ad for Subaru, where he compared the car to punk rock. Casting agents and other Hollywood bigwigs took notice, and he began receiving feature film scripts, hoping he would consider. After roles in the 1994 films Spanking the Monkey and Neil, he starred in the 1996 disaster film Twister, where he played reserved tornado photographer Laurence.
Davies had another breakthrough when he was cast in the 1998 war film Saving Private Ryan. He played the role of Timothy E. Upham, an linguist in Normandy, who is recruited by Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks) after D-Day to assist in the search for a missing paratrooper (Matt Damon). His performance was applauded by critics, as well as most of the film, and he appeared in other productions. These include The Million Dollar Hotel, Investigating Sex, The Laramie Project, Searching for Paradise, Solaris and Dogville. He also appeared in the television movie Helter Skelter, playing notorious cult leader Charles Manson.
Davies has returned to television screens when he joined the cast of the television series Lost. He was given the role of Daniel Faraday, a physicist introduced in the show’s fourth season. He was soon seen in drama Manderlay, working with actors Willem Dafoe and Bryce Dallas Howard. In 2006, Davies was cast in the war drama Rescue Dawn, which starred Christian Bale, Zach Grenier and Marshall Bell.
-Daniel Faraday: I think Eloise's brain short-circuited. The jumps between the present and the future eventually, she eventually, she couldn't tell which was which. She had no anchor.
-Desmond: What do you mean, "anchor"?
-Daniel Faraday: Something familiar in both times. All this, see all this is all variables. It's random; it's chaotic. Every equation needs stability, something known. It's called a "constant." Desmond, you have no constant. When you go to the future nothing there is familiar. So if you want to stop this, then you need to find something there, something that you really, really care about, something that also exists back here in 1996.
-Jack: Are you ever gonna take us off this island?
-Daniel Faraday: No.