Known For
Acting
Born
Mar 24, 1933
Died
Jul 05, 2021
Place of Birth
Columbia, Missouri, USA
Credits
227 titles
William 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".
Known For
Filmography
Irresistible
Hofbrau Bar Fly
Doses of Horror
Neil Agar ("A Dose of Bee Stings" segment) (archive footage) (uncredited)
Rock n' Roll Cops Lite
Rinaldi (archive footage)
The Boneyard Collection
Bill, the First Director (segment "Her Morbid Desires")
Rapturious
Sheriff
Fall Guy: The John Stewart Story
Man with Machine Gun
Inner Rage
Sam
Voices from the Graves
Lester Jiggs
Hell to Pay
Emil Brax
Killer Story
Monty
Y.M.I.
Cal
The Rock 'n Roll Cops
Rinaldi
A Mission to Kill
Zombiegeddon
Lord Zombie
God Has a Rap Sheet
Lucifer
Deadly Memories
Sheriff Taggart
Justice League
Draaga (voice)
The Erotic Rites of Countess Dracula
Count Dracula
The Vampire Hunters Club
Johnny
Vice
Spooky Harlow
Conan Unchained: The Making of 'Conan'
Conan's Father (archive footage)
Never Look Back
Lee Clayton
Debbie Does Damnation
Wasteland Justice
Moon
Blood of His Own
Broken Vessels
Bo
Heat of Las Vegas
Mario Verelli
The Shooter
Jerry Krants
Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction
Wes Tronker (segment "Devil's Tattoo")
Doublecross on Costa's Island
L. E.
Hollywood Cops
Rinaldi
Uncle Sam
Major
The Colony
Theo Maxwell
Nash Bridges
Boris Zarkov
Neon Signs
Clyde
Raw Energy
Sam Stompkins
Big Sister 2000
The Man
Manosaurus
Sheriff Todd
Due South
Harold Geiger
Maverick
Riverboat Poker Player
Taken Alive
L.E.
GetEven
Normad
Legend of The Roller Blade Seven
Pharoah
Walker, Texas Ranger
Silas Quint
Return of the Roller Blade Seven
Pharoah
Vinnie & Bobby
Warren Bean
American Me
Deacon
The Last Riders
Hammer
Feast
Det. George Bordelli
Dark Secrets
Robert