Art Smith (actor)
| Art Smith | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Arthur Gordon Smith March 23, 1899 Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Died |
February 24, 1973 (aged 73) Long Island, New York, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1924–1967 |
Arthur Gordon "Art" Smith (March 23, 1899 – February 24, 1973) was an American film, stage and television actor, best known for playing supporting roles in the 1940s.
Born in Chicago, he was a member of the Group Theatre and performed in many of their productions, including Rocket to the Moon, Awake and Sing!, Golden Boy and Waiting for Lefty, all by Clifford Odets; House of Connelly by Paul Green; and Sidney Kingsley's Men in White.[1] The gray-haired actor usually played studious and dignified types in films, such as doctors or butlers.
Smith appeared in many black-and-white noirish films in supporting roles alongside more handsome and popular movie leads, such as John Garfield in Body and Soul (1947) and Humphrey Bogart in In a Lonely Place (1950). He had a key role as a federal agent in 1947's Ride the Pink Horse, starring and directed by Robert Montgomery. Two of these films, In a Lonely Place and Ride a Pink Horse, were based on novels by Dorothy B. Hughes.
Smith was one of the victims of the Hollywood blacklist, which ended most of his film career in 1952. In 1957, he originated the role of Doc in the stage version of West Side Story. Smith only returned occasionally to the film business, for example in an uncredited part in The Hustler. He also worked on television before retiring in 1967. He died, aged 73, in Long Island, New York, from a heart attack.
Broadway roles
- Broken Dishes (1929) as Sam Green
- The House of Connelly (1931) as Jesse Tate
- Success Story (1932) as Marcus Turner
- Night Over Taos as Captain Mumford
- Awake and Sing! (1935) and (1939) as Myron Berger
- Men in White (1933) as Mr. Hudson
- Waiting For Lefty (1935) as henchman
- Johnny Johnson (1936) as Sgt. Jackson, and as Doctor and as Brother Thomas
- Golden Boy (1937) as Tokio
- Rocket to the Moon (1938) as Phillip Cooper, D.D.S
- West Side Story (1957) as Doc
- All the Way Home (1960) as Father Jackson
Partial filmography
- Nancy Drew... Reporter (1939)
- Education for Death (1943) (narrator of animated short)
- Edge of Darkness (1943)
- None Shall Escape (1944)
- Mr. Winkle Goes to War (1944) (uncredited)
- Brute Force (1947)
- Body and Soul (1947)
- Ride the Pink Horse (1947)
- T-Men (1947) (uncredited)
- A Double Life (1947)
- Arch of Triumph (1948)
- Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948)
- Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid (1948)
- Caught (1949)
- Manhandled (1949)
- Red, Hot and Blue (1949)
- Quicksand (1950)
- In a Lonely Place (1950)
- The Next Voice You Hear (1950)
- The Killer That Stalked New York (1950)
- The Sound of Fury (1950)
- The Painted Hills (1951)
- The Hustler (1961) (uncredited)
External links
- Art Smith at the Internet Movie Database
- Art Smith at AllMovie
- Art Smith at the Internet Broadway Database
References
|