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William Smith
Known for: ActingWilliam 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".
Filmography 64
Hawaii Five-O
Conan the Barbarian
Laredo
as Joe Riley
The Outsiders
Maniac Cop
Rumble Fish
Red Dawn
American Me
Zero One
as Jimmy Delaney
Never So Few
Any Which Way You Can
The Mean Season
Twilight's Last Gleaming
as Hoxey
The Frisco Kid
Hell Comes to Frogtown
The Shooter
Atlantis: The Lost Continent
Boss Nigger
Eye of the Tiger
Invasion of the Bee Girls
Uncle Sam
Mail Order Bride
The Ultimate Warrior
Grave of the Vampire
Rapturious
The Phantom Empire
Action U.S.A.
as Conover
The Deadly Trackers
The Mating Game
The Last American Hero
Platoon Leader
as Major Flynn
The Losers
Fast Company
The Rockford Files: Backlash of the Hunter
as Jerry Grimes
The Thing with Two Heads
Memorial Valley Massacre
Chrome and Hot Leather
Hell on the Battleground
Terror in Beverly Hills
as President
B.O.R.N.
Emperor of the Bronx
as Fitz
C.C. and Company
Black Samson
The Jerk, Too
as Suicide
Crowhaven Farm
as Patrolman Hayes
Blood & Guts
as Dan O'Neil
Fever Pitch
as Panama Hat
Broken Vessels
Scorchy
The Final Sanction
Taken Alive
as L.E.
Bulletproof
East L.A. Warriors
A Taste of Hell
as Jack Lowell
Empire of Ash III
Darker Than Amber
The Last Riders
GetEven
Instant Karma
Run, Angel, Run!
Sweet Jesus, Preacherman
as Martelli
L.A. Vice
Hammer