William Smith (actor)

William Smith
Smith in Invasion of the Bee Girls (1973)
Born	(1933-03-24) March 24, 1933 Columbia, Missouri, U.S.
Other names	Big Bill Smith
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1942-2005
Spouse(s)	Michele Smith (1969; divorced; 1 son) Joanne Cervelli (1989 - present; 1 daughter)
Website	williamsmith.us

William Smith (born March 24, 1933) is an American actor who has appeared in almost three hundred feature films and television productions. One of his better-known roles was Anthony Falconetti in the 1970s television mini-series Rich Man, Poor Man.

Smith is known for films like Any Which Way You Can (1980), Conan The Barbarian (1982), Rumble Fish (1983), and Red Dawn (1984), as well as lead roles in several exploitation films during the 1970s.

Life and career

Born in Columbia, Missouri, Smith began his acting career at the age of eight in 1942; he entered films as a child actor in such films as The Ghost of Frankenstein, The Song of Bernadette and Meet Me in St. Louis.

Smith served in the United States Air Force. He won the 200 pound (91 kg) arm-wrestling championship of the world multiple times and also won the United States Air Force weightlifting championship. Smith is a record holder for reverse-curling his own bodyweight. His trademark arms measured 18½ inches. Smith held a 31-1 record as an amateur boxer.

During the Korean War he was a Russian Intercept Interrogator and flew secret ferret missions over Russia. He had both CIA and NSA clearance and intended to enter a classified position with the U.S. government, but his marriage to a French actress meant the loss of security clearance.

He was a regular on the 1961 ABC television series The Asphalt Jungle, portraying police Sergeant Danny Keller. One of his earliest leading roles was as Joe Riley, a Texas Ranger on the NBC western series Laredo (1965–1967). Smith's character was good-natured with muscles of steel. In 1967, Smith guest starred as Jude Bonner on James Arness's long-lived western Gunsmoke.

Smith was cast as John Richard Parker, brother of Cynthia Ann Parker, both taken hostage in Texas by the Comanche, in the 1969 episode "The Understanding" of the syndicated television series Death Valley Days, which was hosted by Robert Taylor. In the story line, Parker contracts the plague, is left for dead by his fellow Comanche warriors, and is rescued by his future Mexican wife, Yolanda (Emily Banks).

He played the outlaw turned temporary sheriff Hendry Brown in the 1969 episode "The Restless Man". In that story line, Brown takes the job of sheriff to tame a lawless town, begins to court a young woman (again played by Emily Banks), but soon returns to his deadly outlaw ways in search of bigger thrills.

On Gunsmoke, Smith appeared in a 1972 episode, "Hostage!"; his character beats and rapes Amanda Blake's character Miss Kitty Russell and shoots her twice in the back. Smith has been described as the "greatest bad-guy character actor of our time".

Smith joined the cast of the final season of Hawaii Five-O as Detective James "Kimo" Carew, a new officer in the Five-O unit. He had previously appeared with Jack Lord in Lord's prior series Stoney Burke. Smith starred in one episode of Kung Fu, and as The Treybor, a ruthless warlord, in the Buck Rogers in the 25th Century episode "Buck's Duel to the Death". Smith also made guest appearances in the 1974 pilot for The Rockford Files, "Backlash of the Hunter", I Dream of Jeannie, and two appearances - as different characters - in episodes of The A-Team (the first season's "Pros and Cons", and season four's "The A-Team Is Coming, The A-Team Is Coming").

In the 1976 television miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man, he portrayed Anthony Falconetti, nemesis of the Jordache family, and reprised the role in the sequel Rich Man, Poor Man Book II. He made an appearance in the Kolchak: The Night Stalker episode "The Energy Eater", as an Indian medicine man who advises Kolchak. He also appeared in the 1979 miniseries The Rebels as John Waverly, and in an episode of The Dukes of Hazzard as Jason Steele, a bounty hunter hired by Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane to frame the Duke Boys into jail.

In 1985, Smith landed the starring role of Brodie Hollister in the Disney mini-series Wildside, created by writer-producer Tom Greene. In films, he played Clint Eastwood's bare-knuckle nemesis Jack Wilson in Any Which Way You Can, a drag racing legend in Fast Company (1979), the main character's father in Conan the Barbarian, bad guy Matt Diggs in The Frisco Kid, a Russian commander in Red Dawn a vindictive sergeant in Twilight's Last Gleaming, and a bookmaker's enforcer, "Panama Hat" in Richard Brooks final movie, Fever Pitch (1985). Smith appeared as heavy Terry Bartell in Darker than Amber in 1970. He appeared in Hammer and Boss Nigger. He appeared in Francis Ford Coppola's The Outsiders as a store clerk and in Rumble Fish as a police officer, both in 1983. He starred in Grave of the Vampire, Invasion of the Bee Girls, and The Swinging Barmaids. Smith was featured in several biker flicks, including Nam's Angels and C.C. and Company.

Selected filmography

• Atlantis, the Lost Continent (1961)
• Run, Angel, Run! (1969)
• Nam's Angels (1970)
• Angels Die Hard (1970)
• Darker than Amber (1970)
• C.C. and Company (1970)
• Chrome and Hot Leather (1971)
• Grave of the Vampire (1972)
• Hammer (1972)
• Piranha, Piranha (1972) as Caribe
• Sweet Jesus, Preacherman (1973)
• Invasion of the Bee Girls (1973) as Neil Agar
• The Last American Hero (1973)
• The Deadly Trackers (1973) as Schoolboy
• Black Samson (1974)
• Boss Nigger (1975) as Jed Clayton
• The Swinging Barmaids (1975) as Lt. Harry White
• The Ultimate Warrior (1975) as Carrot
• Dr. Minx (1975) as Gus Dolan
• Hollywood Man (1976)
• Scorchy (1976)
• Twilight's Last Gleaming (1977)
• Blackjack (1978)
• Blood and Guts (1978)
• Fast Company (1979)
• The Frisco Kid (1979)
• Seven (1979)
• Any Which Way You Can (1980) as Jack Wilson
• Conan the Barbarian (1982)
• The Outsiders (1983)
• Rumble Fish (1983)
• Red Dawn (1984)
• Wildside (1985)
• The Mean Season (1985)
• Fever Pitch as "Panama Hat" (1985)
• Eye of the Tiger (1986)
• Moon in Scorpio (1987)
• Hell Comes to Frogtown (1987)
• Bulletproof (1988)
• Maniac Cop (1988)
• Platoon Leader (1988)
• Empire of Ash III (1989)
• Slow Burn (1989)
• Instant Karma (1990)
• The Final Sanction (1990)
• The Roller Blade Seven (1991)
• The Legend of the Roller Blade Seven (1992)
• Return of the Roller Blade Seven (1993)
• Maverick (1994)
• Uncle Sam (1996)
• The Shooter (1997)
• Hell to Pay (2005)

External links

• William Smith at IMDb
• Facebook