Marvin H. Davis (August 31, 1925 – September 25, 2004) was an American industrialist. He made his fortunes as the chair of Davis Petroleum and at one time owned 20th Century Fox, the Pebble Beach Corporation, the Beverly Hills Hotel, and the Aspen Skiing Company. Early life and education Marvin Davis was raised in a Jewish family, the son of Jack Davis and Jean Spitzer. He had one younger sister Joan (born 1929). His father came to the United States from London as a teenager in 1917 and later joined the British Navy after reportedly applying for a college scholarship but being denied it because he was Jewish. Jack Davis became a successful fashion buyer for New York department stores. He went on to found Jay Day Dress Co., a well-priced line of women's dresses that achieved great success, selling 200,000 dresses per-month to stores across the nation. In 1939 he partnered with Ray Ryan, who owned the Ryan Oil Company, and they started the Davis Oil Company. Marvin graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering from New York University in 1947. Petroleum business He joined his father in the oil exploration business and was later nicknamed "Mr. Wildcatter." The Davis Oil Company drilled for oil and gas in the West beginning in the 1940s and was incorporated in 1986 as Davis Petroleum, headquartered in Denver, Colorado. In 1960s-1980s, it became a leading independent oil and gas producer in the United States, focusing on drilling in Wyoming, where the company owned a 150-mile pipeline. Marvin Davis's son Gregg Davis took over as president of Davis Petroleum and Davis Offshore in 1997. Davis senior's partner Ray Ryan was a pioneer of the oil deal known as the "third for a quarter," where investors in a wildcat oil well would each buy one-quarter of the well's production for a third of the cost of drilling the well, leaving all costs paid and Davis and Ryan owners of one-quarter of the well. Marvin Davis developed the oil business, and also became a major real estate developer in Denver, acquiring a shopping center and office complex. Davis offered to purchase the Oakland Athletics from Charlie Finley for $12 million on December 12, 1977, with the intention of moving the franchise to Denver. The Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum Authority filed a lawsuit to block the sale because Finley had ten years remaining on a