Thirteen years after he was killed on 9/11, firefighter Scott Davidson’s sense of humor lives on in his son Pete, who will make his debut as a featured player on “Saturday Night Live.”
“Scott was always clowning around,” recalled Jaime Hatton Cregin, Davidson’s former schoolmate at Staten Island’s St. Joseph by-the-Sea High School. “Telling jokes, making people laugh.”
“At school, he used to tell me that I liked him — and then told me to carry his books,” she recalled.
At Ladder 118 in Brooklyn Heights, Scott, who was born in Brooklyn but grew up on Staten Island, immediately earned the nickname “Salty Dog.”
“It’s an expression you give the old-timers because he had a day on the job and he acted like he had 20 years on the job,” said retired firefighter John Sorrentino, who described Scott’s sense of humor as “brutally honest.”
“He had this ability to insult you but make you feel good about it.”
And he knew exactly which buttons to press.
“We had a deputy chief, no-nonsense, real hard-nose. Comes to the firehouse one day for a drill and right in the middle of it, Scottie walks up to him, puts his arm around him and he says, ‘Chief, I don’t know why nobody likes you — you seem OK to me.’ The chief kind of looked stunned. He never came by for a drill again.”
Scott also had a penchant for physical humor.
“He once walked around the Tottenville Inn, taking all his clothes off until he was naked — except for a potted palm tree,” Cregin said.
He was a cut-up, but he took parenthood seriously. Scott — all 6 feet 4 of him — doted on his son and daughter, Casey; an old family photo shows the gentle giant placing his fire coat on 5-year-old Pete’s shoulders.
Pete was just 7 years old when his father, 33, along with five brethren, raced across the Brooklyn Bridge to the burning Twin Towers.
The six made it to the Marriott World Trade Center Hotel, where they were seen running up the stairs to help terrified guests. It was their final act of heroism — the hotel was destroyed when the towers collapsed.
“Can’t believe it’s been 13 years. Feels like it was just yesterday. Words can’t express how much I miss you,” Pete tweeted this month.
At 20, Pete is the youngest “SNL” featured player, having gotten his start in stand-up at 16 and going on to appear on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and “Brooklyn Nine-Nine.”
He was 17 when he was discovered by comedian/filmmaker Nick Cannon, who co-hosted a radio show with Pete, and gave him his film debut in “School Dance” this year.
“He never once used the fact that his father was a fireman who died on 9/11 to help him get through any doors. Peter earned everything he got and he deserves his shot on ‘SNL,’” Sorrentino said. “And he’s funny.”