Kent Smith

Biography

Kent Smith (born Frank Kent Smith) was an American stage, screen, and television actor. Smith's early acting experience started in 1925 when he was one of the founders of the famed Harvard "University Players", which later included Henry Fonda, James Stewart, Joshua Logan and Margaret Sullavan in Falmouth, Massachusetts. Smith's stock experience also included productions with the Maryland Theatre in Baltimore. His professional acting debut was in 1929 in Blind Window in Baltimore, Mayland. He made his Broadway acting debut in 1932 in Men Must Fight. He also appeared on Broadway in Measure for Measure, Sweet Love Remembered, The Best Man, Ah, Wilderness!, Dodsworth, Saint Joan,, Old Acquaintance, Antony and Cleopatra and Bus Stop. Smith moved to Hollywood, California, where he made his film debut in The Garden Murder Case. He appeared in such films as Cat People, Hitler's Children, This Land Is Mine, Three Russian Girls, Youth Runs Wild, The Curse of the Cat People, The Spiral Staircase, Nora Prentiss, Magic Town, My Foolish Heart, The Fountainhead, and The Damned Don't Cry. He continued acting in films such as Comanche, Sayonara, Party Girl, The Mugger, Imitation General, The Badlanders, This Earth Is Mine, Strangers When We Meet, Susan Slade, The Balcony, A Distant Trumpet, Youngblood Hawke, and The Young Lovers. Smith had roles in television films such as How Awful About Allan, The Night Stalker, The Judge and Jake Wyler, The Cat Creature, The Affair and The Disappearance of Flight 412. His numerous television credits included a continuing role in the soap opera Peyton Place as Dr. Robert Morton; Smith's wife, actress Edith Atwater, played his character's wife on the series. He began guest-starring in television series in 1949 in The Philco Television Playhouse, and also appeared in Robert Montgomery Presents, Wagon Train, General Electric Theater, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Naked City, Have Gun Will Travel, Perry Mason, Gunsmoke, The Beverly Hillbillies, Rawhide, The Americans, Barnaby Jones, The Outer Limits, Night Gallery, and the 1976 miniseries Once an Eagle. His last appearance was in a 1977 episode of Wonder Woman.

Filmography

James Simpson
Peter Keating
Oliver Reed
Jeffrey Stewart
Dr. Richard Talbot
Warren Packer
Gen. Webster
Oliver 'Ollie' Reed
Martin Blackford
District Attorney Tom Paine
Attorney (uncredited)
Secretary of the Air Force
Dr. Pete Graham
Secretary of War
Dr. Fain
Harry Gordon
Danny Coates
Bill Fergunson
Professor Nichols
Quanah Parker
Paul Winter Sr.
Akamai Barnes
Frank Lucas
Capt. Reining - American Working for the Nazis
Francis Fairon
Kenneth Bartlett
Dr. Edward Laurent
Brig. Gen. Charles Lane
Dr. Shoemaker
Gus Iverson
John Rogers
Oliver Parmalee
Hoopendecker
Uncle George Clancy
Mr. Patterson
Cyril Lounsberry
Lewis H. Wengler
Mr. Eversley
Paul Kimmel
Gates Trimble Pomfret
Father Keating
Kaverley
Captain A. Edwards
Instructor Lieutenant
Professor Fritz Bhaer