Mac Davis

As a songwriter, singer-actor Mac Davis penned some of Elvis Presley's last hit singles, including "In the Ghetto" and "Daddy Don't Cry," before enjoying his own success as a singer in the 1970s and 1980s with such country-pop crossovers as "Baby, Don't Get Hooked on Me," "Hooked on Music" and "I Never Made Love (Till I Made Love with You)." On record and stage, he cultivated a persona of a good-natured rascal, not unlike fellow country star Jerry Reed, which he parlayed into a secondary career as an actor in features like "North Dallas Forty" (1979). Davis's tenure on the charts fizzled in the late 1980s, though he continued to act and reap the benefits of his songwriting, most notably from a massively popular 2002 remix of "A Little Less Conversation," a song he co-wrote for Presley in 1968. Davis's easy-going charm and talent for memorable, affecting songs made him one of the most likable country-pop figures of the 1970s and beyond.