William Emmett Smith Jr. (March 24, 1933 – July 5, 2021) was an American actor and stunt performer. His career spanned nearly 80 years across film and television, often in imposing or villainous character roles.
Smith starred as Texas Ranger Joe Riley on the Western television series Laredo (1965-67), and played the menacing Anthony Falconetti in the acclaimed television mini-series Rich Man, Poor Man (1976) and Rich Man, Poor Man Book II (1976-77). He played prominent roles in films like Any Which Way You Can (1980), Conan the Barbarian (1982), Rumble Fish (1983), and Red Dawn (1984). He was also a leading man in several exploitation and action films, during the 1970s and 1990s.
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Early life and education
Smith was born on March 24, 1933, in Columbia, Missouri, to William Emmett Smith and Emily (Richards) Smith and grew up on their cattle ranch. His sister was actress Joy Windsor.
His family later moved to Southern California, where he began his acting career at the age of eight in 1942, entering show business as a child actor in such films as The Ghost of Frankenstein, The Song of Bernadette and Meet Me in St. Louis.
He earned a master's degree in Russian from the University of California, Los Angeles, where he also competed in discus throwing. While working on his doctorate, Smith was offered a contract with MGM that would redirect his career. During the 1950s, Smith also worked as a lifeguard and a volunteer firefighter.
Military service
Smith enlisted in the United States Air Force in 1951. A fluent Russian speaker, during the Korean War Smith was a Russian Intercept Interrogator and flew secret ferret missions over the Russian SFSR and was also a military language instructor. He was reportedly also fluent in French, German and Serbo-Croatian.
Career
From 1961 to 2014, Smith established himself as a prolific and talented character actor with roles in a diverse range of genres. Although often typecast as an anti-social personality, he sporadically got the opportunity to prove his effectiveness in other kinds of roles as a law enforcement officer or an anti-heroic protagonist. He was a regular on the 1961 ABC television series The Asphalt Jungle, portraying police Sergeant Danny Keller. In 1964, he appeared in the episode "The Rope of Lies" as Bill, a ranch hand from the Shiloh Ranch in the NBC television series The Virginian. He appeared in the 1964 Wagon Train episode "The Bob Stuart Story" and also gave a moving performance as the orphaned Native American valet who rails against violence opposite Guy Stockwell in "The Richard Bloodgood Story" S8 E10 which aired on 11/28/1964. One of his earliest leading roles was Joe Riley, a good-natured Texas Ranger with arms of steel on the NBC western series Laredo (1965–1967). Smith guest starred as Jude Bonner on James Arness's long-lived western Gunsmoke in a 1972 episode, "Hostage!"; his character abducts, beats, and apparently rapes (off-screen) 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 Stoney Burke. Smith starred in one episode each of the Adam West Batman TV series (in the episode "Minerva, Mayhem and Millionaires" as Adonis, one of the minions of the title guest villainess portrayed by Zsa Zsa Gabor), I Dream of Jeannie (in the episode "Operation: First Couple on the Moon" as Turk Parker), 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 opposite James Garner in the 1974 two-hour pilot for The Rockford Files (titled "Backlash of the Hunter") and George Peppard in The A-Team (in two appearances as different characters, in the first season's "Pros and Cons" and the fourth season'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.
Other 1970s TV appearances included the Kolchak: The Night Stalker episode "The Energy Eater", as an Indian medicine man who advises Kolchak, and an early Six Million Dollar Man episode "Survival of the Fittest" as Commander Maxwell. He also appeared in the 1979 miniseries The Rebels as John Waverly; 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; and an episode of Knight Rider as Harold Turner, the manipulative leader of a hellish biker gang whom Michael Knight (David Hasselhoff) has to outsmart.
Other activities
An avid athlete and lifelong bodybuilder, Smith was a record holder for reverse-curling his own body weight. His trademark arms measured as much as 18+1⁄4 inches, and he was a one-time training partner of Larry Scott. In 2000, he was inducted into the Muscle Beach Venice Hall of Fame.
Smith studied Kung Fu San Soo, and earned a black belt in American Kenpo Karate from Ed Parker.
Smith held a 31–1 record as an amateur boxer. He won the 200-pound (91 kg) arm-wrestling championship of the world multiple times, also winning the United States Air Force weightlifting championship. He briefly played semi-pro American football in Wiesbaden, Germany, and competed in amateur alpine skiing.
In 2009, Smith published a collection of poetry, The Poetic Works of William Smith.
Personal life
Smith was married twice, and had two children, William Smith III and Sherri Anne Cervelli.
Death
Smith died at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Los Angeles on July 5, 2021, at the age of 88.
