Paul Smith (American actor, born 1929)
Paul Smith | |
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North Hollywood, California , U.S. | |
Years active | 1951–1982 |
Arthur Paul Smith (February 5, 1929 – March 3, 2006) was an American comic character actor with a perpetually perplexed or, alternatively, bemused expression, who, during the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s, appeared in scores of television episodes, primarily
Acting career during the 1950s
Born in Pennsylvania's second-largest city, Pittsburgh, Arthur Paul Smith moved to Los Angeles and, by the time of his 22nd birthday in 1951, began a 31-year acting career which lasted until his retirement, at age 53, in 1982. During the 1950s, he was seen in twenty-four theatrical features, from 1951's I Want You to 1959's The FBI Story, with his work in thirteen of those being uncredited and the remainder providing him with mostly small parts which were credited near the bottom of the cast list. One exception, in 1957, was a sixth-billed role in Elvis Presley's first starring vehicle, Loving You. in which he plays Skeeter, a comical member of Elvis' backup band, who converses with his friend Matilda, the band's caged parrot.
Smith was also in 24 television episodes encompassing eighteen series, from 1955's
Fibber McGee and Molly
In the first of his five sitcoms, Smith plays the McGees' next-door neighbor Roy Norris, a family man with a wife (
Acting career during the 1960s
In the course of the 1960s, which became his busiest decade, Smith was, again, continually employed, appearing in ten features: one in 1960,
Aside from the three independents and credited bits in Bikini Beach and My Dog, the Thief, his remaining five appearances, which were in major studio films, went unbilled. Although in comparison to twenty-four titles in the 1950s, his theatrical output dropped to nine, all of his remaining work schedule was consumed by television where his output increased greatly.
Seen in episodes of thirty series, starting in the 1960s, with
Smith's earliest 1960s sitcom was
As with Fibber McGee, the new series could not come even close to the success of the original and, after thirteen episodes, a midseason move from Tuesday to Wednesday night, along a title change designed to emphasize Berg's name, The Gertrude Berg Show, was unable to improve the ratings for the remaining thirteen episodes and abruptly ended its run in April 1962, without showing any repeats. Although the show did receive two Emmy nominations, Outstanding Continued Performance by an Actress in a Series (Lead) for Gertrude Berg and Outstanding Performance in a Supporting Role by an Actress for Mary Wickes, co-star Cedric Hardwicke, in a 1962 TV Guide article which focuses on his work in the series, and references him as "Sir Cedric", is quoted as commenting, "if you're going to work in rubbish, you might as well get paid for it".[1] One of the later episodes in the renamed series, "Goodbye, Mr. Howell", broadcast on February 15, 1962, actually centers around Paul Smith's character, as George Howell encounters unexpected problems and has to consider selling his house.
No Time for Sergeants and Mr. Terrific
Three years following Mrs. G. and, after having spent a couple of 1963 episodes playing Commander Carter in the World War II-set military sitcom
Smith's character, Captain Martin, sometimes called Captain Martinson, was unnamed and barely noticeable in the earlier productions and his primary function in the TV series, as the immediate superior of the sergeant and his recruits, was to react in a series of surprised, uncomprehending, confused or bemused expressions upon hearing Will Stockdale's explanations delivered in his patented
Over a year of guest shots passed before Paul Smith was cast as a regular in another sitcom, his second on CBS and, again, on Monday night. The
Both characters, upon taking their "medication", turn, for a brief period, into caped crime fighters. Mr. Terrific's real identity is Stanley Beamish, a service-station owner who serves, as superhero, the "Bureau of Special Projects". In the show's lengthy cartoon opening credits which explain, in song, the concept, Paul Smith, appearing as a regular cast member in his first color series, receives, for the first time, credit as a member of the cast.[2] Playing Harley Trent, an agent for the Bureau, Smith, whose rounded-face, stretched-mouth caricature overemphasizes his trademark goofy, bemused smile, is shown third, following Strimpell and Dick Gautier as Hal, Beamish's best friend. Mr. Terrific premiered the first of its 17 episodes the same day as Captain Nice, January 17, 1967 and presented its final repeat just over seven months later, on August 28, the same day as Captain Nice's last showing. Universal Television, which produced the series, subsequently edited three of the episodes into a feature film, The Pill Caper, which was put into TV syndication.
The Doris Day Show
Two more years of guest appearances followed, with Paul Smith eventually cast in The Doris Day Show, his final, and longest-running, sitcom, seen, as in the case of his two previous shows, Monday nights on CBS. The actress-singer had just completed what turned out to be her last theatrical feature, 1968's With Six You Get Eggroll, in which she plays the widowed mother of three sons. With the film set for release in August, she started filming episodes for her only network TV series, due to debut in September, playing Doris Martin, the widowed mother of two sons. The first season had her living with the boys on her father's ranch but, starting with the second season in September 1969, the Tuesday night series moved to Monday and also changed the setting, with Doris now commuting to San Francisco, having found work as a secretary at a magazine called Today's World. Among the publication's staff is associate editor Ron Harvey, played by Paul Smith. During the second season, the opening credits showed, at the office, Doris' co-workers "McLean Stevenson as Mr. Nicholson and Rose Marie as Myrna", playing the editor and the wisecracking secretary. By the third season, however, as Doris and her sons moved away from the ranch to live in San Francisco, those credits reflected Paul Smith's increased importance on the series,[3] indicated by the addition of his live image in third place,[4] after Doris Day and Rose Marie, with McLean Stevenson now shown in fourth place.[5]
Having been a regular for two seasons on The Doris Day Show, Paul Smith as well as all other supporting cast members were replaced with a new cast. For the show's last two seasons (1971–73), Doris Day was still named "Doris Martin", but was rebranded as a swinging single with no family, still at the same-named Today's World, but upgraded to associate editor, with a new set of co-workers.
Final decade as a screen actor
After departing Doris Day in 1971, in his last eleven years in front of the cameras, Smith had small roles in a couple of made-for-TV movies and one theatrical feature (1972's
During the 1970s, another actor named
In 1979, his was one of the voices in the South Korean manga Wooju heukgisa, also known as Captain of Cosmos and Space Black Knight. Between 1979 and 1982, he appeared in seven episodes of TV series, starting with the November 27, 1979 episode of The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo. There was a small role in a 1981 made-for-TV film, The Million Dollar Face, two episodes of Alice and The Dukes of Hazzard and, in 1982, one episode each of Little House on the Prairie and Father Murphy, which represented his final on-screen work.
Personal life and death
An April 1970 column by
Smith died in
Other actors named Paul Smith
Paul Smith's credits have been frequently commingled with those of two other American performers — cowboy musician Paul "Clem" Smith who made unbilled appearances in seven western films between 1946 and 1948, and a later actor (1960s to 1990s) whose name appeared on many occasions in credit listings as
The American actor whose career under the name Paul Smith lasted from the 1960 to the 1990s, was born in 1936 and died in 2012. Distinctive for his imposing size and hulking, occasionally bearded persona, he began acting in 1960, but the great majority of his credits are from the 1970s and 1980s, with a few stretching into the 1990s (billed as "Paul Smith" in his final credit, 1999's D.R.E.A.M. Team). Although on at least one occasion (in 1963) he was billed as P. L. Smith and on at least three occasions (in 1979) as Paul Lawrence Smith, his most frequent billing has been alternatively Paul L. Smith or, simply, Paul Smith (billed as "Paul Smith" in what may be his best known role, that of the brutal Turkish prison guard, Hamidou, in the 1978 cult film Midnight Express).
Some of the film and television credits from the late 1960s and the first half of the 1970s, in which he was billed as "Paul Smith", overlap those of the subject of this article, for whom the website
Working in Italy, during the mid-1970s, Paul L. Smith co-starred in a series of five action films which traded on his resemblance to big, burly, bearded Bud Spencer who, at the time, starred and co-starred in a continuing series of European action films, but when the American distributor of one such film with Smith decided to market it through the replacement of Smith's name with "Bob Spencer", Smith sued in 1980, successfully arguing that "the only thing an actor has is his name and if that's taken away, he has nothing".[9]
References
- ^ a b McNeil, Alex (1996). Total Television. Penguin Books USA Inc. New York
- YouTube
- ^
- YouTube
- ^ Screen capture of Paul Smith from the opening credits of The Doris Day Show, with caption "Paul Smith as Ron Harvey"
- ^ Arnold, Mark (23 December 2022). Stars of Walt Disney Productions. Mark Arnold. Retrieved 7 April 2023.
- ISBN 9780786495832. Retrieved 7 April 2023.
- ^ "Paul Smith". Notre Cinéma. Retrieved 7 April 2023.
- ^ Case of Paul SMITH v. Edward L. MONTORO and Film Ventures International at OpenJurist
External links
- Paul Smith at IMDb
- Paul Smith at the TCM Movie Database
- Paul Smith at the American Film Institute Catalog
- Paul Smith at AllMovie