William Smith
Acting
Born 1933-03-24
Died 2021-07-05
Columbia, Missouri, USA
227 credits
Read 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".
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Filmography
— top 60 of 227
Acting
47 credits
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
Perry Mason
Columbo
Hunter
Murder, She Wrote
The A-Team
Knight Rider
Ironside
Batman
Hawaii Five-O
Mission: Impossible
Wagon Train
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour
The Virginian
Fantasy Island
The Six Million Dollar Man
Simon & Simon
Airwolf
T. J. Hooker
Nash Bridges
I Dream of Jeannie
The Twilight Zone
Daniel Boone
Due South
Walker, Texas Ranger
Combat!
Gunsmoke
Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction
Trapper John, M.D.
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
Kraft Suspense Theatre
Justice League
Matt Houston
The Streets of San Francisco
Police Story
Kolchak: The Night Stalker
Conan the Barbarian
The Mod Squad
Stoney Burke
The Outsiders
The Guns of Will Sonnett
Laredo
CHiPs
Rich Man, Poor Man
Rich Man, Poor Man - Book II
Red Dawn
Rumble Fish
Other credits
13 credits
Lassie
The Fall Guy
Highway to Heaven
Police Woman
Scarecrow and Mrs. King
Benson
Vega$
Hardcastle and McCormick
Alias Smith and Jones
Felony Squad
Julia
B. J. and the Bear
Mr. Lucky
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