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Robert Ralsey Davenport (April 30, 1950, Brookline, Massachusetts -- July 1, 2010, Venice, California) was an American attorney, author, entertainment executive, and screenwriter.1 He is best known as the author of The Encyclopedia of War Movies (2004)2 and as a U.S. Army Reserve officer who served as technical advisor on the film Pearl Harbor (2001).3 In the Ghostbusters universe, Davenport wrote the Slimer! And the Real Ghostbusters episode "Movie Madness" (1989).4
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Davenport was born on April 30, 1950, in Brookline, Massachusetts, the son of Harry Augustus and Jean Ann (Yeager) Davenport.1 He claimed ancestral ties to the Reverend John Davenport, the Puritan minister who co-founded New Haven, Connecticut, in 1638 and played a founding role in Yale College, as well as a familial connection to actor and filmmaker Clint Eastwood.1
He earned a Bachelor of Arts from Middlebury College in 1972, a Juris Doctor from St. John's University School of Law in 1979, a Master of Business Administration from Harvard University in 1984, and a Master of Fine Arts in Screenwriting from UCLA in 1999.1 He was admitted to the New York Bar in 1980 and the California Bar in 1988.1
Davenport began his legal career in federal government service, working as an attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington from 1979 to 1981, followed by a position in the Office of the General Counsel of the Department of the Navy from 1981 to 1982.1
He subsequently moved into the entertainment industry, holding creative executive positions at Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation, CBS, and Viacom Productions.1 He served as Director of Business Affairs at New World Television before becoming Executive Vice President of Soaring Eagle Productions.1 From 1992 he served as President of The Historic Trust in Los Angeles.1
Alongside his legal and entertainment work, Davenport authored a number of reference books with a focus on celebrity genealogy and popular culture, including Roots of the Rich and Famous, Celebrity Birthday Book, Hereditary Society Blue Book, Celebrity Almanac (Random House Children's Books, 1995), and Pets' Names of the Rich and Famous.1 His most substantial reference work was The Encyclopedia of War Movies: The Authoritative Guide to Movies About Wars of the Twentieth Century (Facts on File, 2004), a 432-page survey of more than 800 films covering armed conflicts of the twentieth century.2
Davenport held the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve. In that capacity he served as technical advisor on Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay's World War II epic Pearl Harbor (2001), credited alongside the film's other military consultants.3
He twice ran for an open seat on the Los Angeles Superior Court, in 2006 and 2008, as an independent candidate.5
Davenport wrote the episode "Movie Madness" for the animated series Slimer! And the Real Ghostbusters, which first aired on January 7, 1989 (production number 166021A, Season 1, episode 18 by air date).4 The episode was directed by Art Vitello and featured Frank Welker as the lead voice, with recurring cast Danny Mann, Charlie Adler, and Jeff Altman.
In "Movie Madness," Slimer sneaks into a showing of the fictional monster film Haunted Spaceship in 3D at the Bijou Theatre. Professor Dweeb, who shares Slimer's enthusiasm for the film, pursues the green ghost inside the cinema. The chase leads Slimer, Dweeb, and Dweeb's companion Elizabeth to leap into the movie itself, where they encounter the deadly Squid Monster. The episode pokes gentle fun at film-going conventions, and includes a background gag in which a theater patron wears a shirt bearing the logo of DIC Entertainment, the production company behind the series.
Recording sessions for the episode took place on July 20 and July 27, 1988; Jeff Altman recorded his lines separately on July 27.
Davenport died on July 1, 2010, when his single-engine Cessna 152 aircraft crashed near the eighth hole of Penmar Golf Course in Venice, California, shortly after departing Santa Monica Airport.6 He was practicing pattern work, a training exercise involving repeated takeoffs and touch-and-go landings.6 He was 60 years old and the sole occupant of the aircraft, and was pronounced dead at the scene from multiple traumatic injuries.6 The crash caused approximately $150,000 in damage to the aircraft.6 The NTSB attributed the probable cause to the pilot's failure to select a fuel tank containing fuel and his failure to maintain adequate airspeed while maneuvering for a forced landing, resulting in an inadvertent aerodynamic stall.7
Some content on this page was researched using the Ghostbusters Wiki on Fandom.
World Biographical Encyclopedia (Prabook), "Robert Ralsey Davenport," accessed 2026-06-13, https://prabook.com/web/robert_ralsey.davenport/3596279 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10
Publishers Weekly, "The Encyclopedia of War Movies: The Authoritative Guide to Movies about Wars of the 20th-Century" review (December 1, 2003), https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-8160-4479-5. Checkmark Books / Facts on File, ISBN 978-0-8160-4479-5. ↩ ↩2
IMDb, "Robert Davenport" (nm0006682), accessed 2026-06-13, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0006682/ ↩ ↩2
IMDb, "Slimer! And the Real Ghostbusters: Movie Madness" (tt0929166), accessed 2026-06-13, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0929166/ ↩ ↩2
Metropolitan News-Enterprise, "Ex-Judicial Candidate Davenport Killed in Plane Crash" (July 6, 2010), http://www.metnews.com/articles/2010/dave070610.htm ↩
Canyon News, "Pilot Dies In Crash" (July 2010), https://www.canyon-news.com/pilot-dies-in-crash/26366 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4
NTSB, Aviation Investigation Final Report WPR10FA325, Venice, California (July 1, 2010), https://data.ntsb.gov/carol-repgen/api/Aviation/ReportMain/GenerateNewestReport/76523/pdf. Probable cause: the pilot's failure to select a fuel tank containing fuel, and his failure to maintain adequate airspeed while maneuvering for a forced landing, resulting in an inadvertent stall. ↩
