Career
Smith served with the Naval Reserve in Hawaii. After a chance meeting with the actor James Cagney, he was encouraged to try a career in Hollywood. (Cagney had also encouraged other young actors, including Don Dubbins, for whom he found roles in two 1956 films.) He would later play Cagney's son in Man of a Thousand Faces.
Smith signed with Columbia Pictures in 1957 and made several films, then moved to Warner Bros. in 1959.
On April 16, 1958, Smith appeared with Charles Bickford in "The Daniel Barrister Story" on NBC's Wagon Train. In this first season episode, Daniel Barrister, played by Bickford, objects to medical treatment for his wife, Jenny, the victim of a wagon accident. Meanwhile, Dr. Peter H. Culver, played by Smith, has successfully fought a smallpox epidemic in a nearby town. He is brought to the wagon train by scout Flint McCullough, portrayed by series regular Robert Horton to treat Mrs. Barrister. Viewers never know if Barrister yielded to allow Dr. Culver to treat Jenny.
His greatest film exposure came with playing the adult nephew Patrick Dennis in Auntie Mame, with Rosalind Russell in the title role.
His signature television role came as Jeff Spencer, a private detective in the firm of Bailey & Spencer partnered with Stuart Bailey, played by Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. in 77 Sunset Strip. Series costars included Edd Byrnes and Richard Long.
Smith appeared in seventy-four episodes of this Warner Bros.-produced series but left the popular ABC program in 1962 because of a blood clot in his brain. He recovered from this injury post-surgery. Several years later his health declined and he was diagnosed with myasthenia gravis, a neuromuscular disease. His condition went into remission in 1985. Following his retirement from performing, he managed his wife Ann-Margret's career and produced her popular Las Vegas stage shows.
Smith appeared very rarely on television once his health deteriorated, but did participate on This is Your Life when host Ralph Edwards devoted an episode to Ann-Margret. In addition to the appearances credited below, Smith also has been on several game shows.
Read more about this topic: Roger Smith (actor)
Famous quotes containing the word career:
“I seemed intent on making it as difficult for myself as possible to pursue my “male” career goal. I not only procrastinated endlessly, submitting my medical school application at the very last minute, but continued to crave a conventional female role even as I moved ahead with my “male” pursuits.”
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“Work-family conflicts—the trade-offs of your money or your life, your job or your child—would not be forced upon women with such sanguine disregard if men experienced the same career stalls caused by the-buck-stops-here responsibility for children.”
—Letty Cottin Pogrebin (20th century)
“I’ve been in the twilight of my career longer than most people have had their career.”
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