Kent Smith

Kent Smith

1907-03-19 – 1985-04-23 (age 78) New York City, New York, USA
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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.

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Known For

The Night Stalker
The Night Stalker

1972

as District Attorney Tom Paine

The Fountainhead
The Fountainhead

1949

as Peter Keating

Party Girl
Party Girl

1958

as Jeffrey Stewart

Paula
Paula

1952

as John Rogers

Sayonara
Sayonara

1957

as Gen. Webster

Cat People
Cat People

1942

as Oliver Reed

The Trouble with Angels
The Trouble with Angels

1966

as Uncle George Clancy

Lost Horizon
Lost Horizon

1973

as Bill Fergunson

The Badlanders
The Badlanders

1958

as Cyril Lounsberry

The Spiral Staircase
The Spiral Staircase

1946

as Dr. Parry

This Land Is Mine
This Land Is Mine

1943

as Paul Martin

Games
Games

1967

as Harry Gordon

Death of a Gunfighter
Death of a Gunfighter

1969

as Andrew Oxley

Youngblood Hawke
Youngblood Hawke

1964

as Paul Winter Sr.

Strangers When We Meet
Strangers When We Meet

1960

as Stanley Baxter

Moon Pilot
Moon Pilot

1962

as Secretary of the Air Force

Probe
Probe

1972

as Dr. Edward Laurent

Comanche
Comanche

1956

as Quanah Parker

Assignment to Kill
Assignment to Kill

1968

as Mr. Eversley

The Games
The Games

1970

as Kaverley