Cast

William Smith

Acting

Cast

William Smith

Known for

Acting

Born

1933-03-24

From

Columbia, Missouri, USA

Died

2021-07-05

Also known as William E. Smith, Bill Smith, Big Bill Smith

Biography

William Smith was an American film and television actor who appeared in more than 300 feature films and television productions, best known for playing Anthony Falconetti on the TV mini series "Rich Man, Poor Man". He held a BA from Syracuse and an MA in Russian Studies from UCLA. 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. 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. 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 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".

William Smith

William Smith

Biography

Conan the Barbarian

The Outsiders

Mail Order Bride

Maverick

Red Dawn

Gilda

Any Which Way You Can

American Me

Evil Altar

Rumble Fish

Twilight's Last Gleaming

The Rockford Files: Backlash of the Hunter

Meet Me in St. Louis

Irresistible

Vice

Scorchy

Rapturious

The Roller Blade Seven

The Man Hunter

Inner Rage

The Last American Hero

Maniac Cop

Memorial Valley Massacre

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

The Deadly Trackers

Policewomen

Taken Alive

The Boneyard Collection

The Gazebo

The Ghost of Frankenstein

Going My Way

Boss Nigger

Never So Few

Blood of His Own

The Mean Season

Hell Comes to Frogtown

Seven

Invasion of the Bee Girls

C.C. and Company

The Ultimate Warrior

Empire of Ash III

I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now

The Erotic Rites of Countess Dracula

Eye of the Tiger

The Over the Hill Gang

Zombiegeddon

Platoon Leader

Ask Any Girl

Win, Place or Steal

The Frisco Kid

The Shooter

36 Hours

Hell to Pay

The Boy with Green Hair

The Boy with Green Hair

Voices from the Graves

The Thing with Two Heads

Uncle Sam

Atlantis: The Lost Continent

Fast Company

Fever Pitch

The Vampire Hunters Club

Chrome and Hot Leather

Three Guns for Texas

The Losers

Conan Unchained: The Making of 'Conan'

Broken Vessels

A Taste of Hell

The Jerk, Too

Grave of the Vampire

Backtrack!

The Phantom Empire

B.O.R.N.

Crowhaven Farm

Debbie Does Damnation

Death Among Friends

Black Samson