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Height: 5' 17" (age 19) Weight: 150 lbs (age 19) Eyes: blue Marriages: (1) Mildred Agnes Barker, actress (Feb 14. 1922 - bfr. 1930) (2) (Lily K.) Lillian Boardman, singer & dancer (aft. 1930 - Sep 19. 1953) (her death) no children |
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Above: Wife of Howard Smith, Lillian Boardman in 1922, aged 29. | |
Went to school in Providence, and
at McGill University, Montreal.
Began as secretary, stock clerk.
He made his film debut in September 1918, in
Young America, a silent movie. Directed by Arthur Berthelet
the movie was based on the Cohan and Harris production, which made a hit on
stage both in New York and Chicago.
Since June 14. 1911 Mildred was married to the actor Roy
McNicol (later a well known painter) and on Sep 9.
1915 their son Roy B. McNicol was born. Mildred's marriage to Roy didn't
survive and they divorced prior to 1920. Tragically at 5 years old her son
died, after an illness of three days, on January 30. 1921 at the Merchants'
Hotel, Johnstown, Pa. Mildred was appearing at "The Majestic", Johnstown, at
the time of her son's death. Howard who apparently
also performed there wrote another thank-you letter in Vaudeville News in
April to everyone who worked at "The Majestic" for supporting Miss Barker. |
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Pretty Kitty Kelly was a soap opera broadcast on CBS between March 8. 1937 and September 27, 1940 about Kitty Kelly (Arline Blackburn), a "golden-haired Irish girl" trying to make her way in America. Clayton Bud Collyer was the policeman who befriended her and Howard Smith was Inspector Grady, the Irish police chief who made Kitty's welfare his concern. Right: Photograph by Pinchot, specially posed by Clayton Collyer, Arline Blackburn and Howard Smith, of the Pretty Kitty Kelly air serial. |
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A member of the repertory company of Orson Welles's CBS Radio series The Mercury Theatre on the Air and The Campbell Playhouse, Smith played the role of the ill-fated bomber commander in the 1938 production of "The War of the Worlds". Smith appears as Cuban plantation owner Joseph Johnson in Welles's rediscovered film Too Much Johnson — slapstick sequences that were to be integrated into a theatre production that was briefly staged in August 1938 before it was shelved. |
![]() Above: Howard Smith, Mary Wickes, Orson Welles, Virginia Nicolson, William Herz, Erskine Sanford, Eustace Wyatt and Joseph Cotten outside the Stony Creek Theatre during the two-week run of the Mercury Theatre stage production of Too Much Johnson (August 16–29, 1938) |
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In
radio's Jane Arden (1938-1939) he played Jack
Galloway, a city editor of the Comet-Globe. He was also the first actor to portray Sergeant Velie in the hour-long first radio series The Adventures of
Ellery Queen
(1939) Pictured right: Howard Smith in 1939. |
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By 1940 Smith was married to Lillian Goodman, a vaudeville singer/dancer who
up to 1930 performed in vaudeville. She
had been a part "Gus Edwards and his Song Revue", with Edwards,
Lillian Boardman, a beautiful blonde soprano, and a company of 25 personally
developed protégés in a musical extravaganza during 1910s. They lived
in Manhattan. He played the role of Will Brown, Homer's father, on radio's The Aldrich Family (1943-45) and later reprised the role on the NBC television series (1949-1953). Between radio commitments he had appeared on Broadway in Miss Quis (1937), Solitaire (1942), Manhattan Nocturne (1943), Decemberision (1944) and Dear Ruth (1944-1946). ![]() ![]() Above left: Dear Ruth (1946-1947) with John Dall as Lt. William Seawright, Phyllis Povah as Mrs. Edith Wilkins and Howard Smith as Judge Harry Wilkins. Above right: 1946 rehearsal for Mr. Peebles and the Mr. Hooker standing next to Howard Smith (L), Rhys Williams and Randee Sanford (R) In 1944 former N.Y. stage producer Murray Phillips' widow Lucille Phillips (né Arnold), fell head over heels in love with an actor, Howard Smith. Physically Howard, with his portly belly, towered over Lucy. Her daughter Peggy describes him in her memoirs: "Huge and genial, with a deep rumbling laugh, Smith's talent commanded high respect in theatrical circles. Coming from a vaudeville background he had mastered a comedic sense of timing that was the envy of all his peers. With his bright blue eyes, shock of white hair and baby-smooth skin, he resembled a robust, beardless Santa Claus. Howard adored my mother, and she him. They danced the night away to Eddie Duchin's music at the Astor Hotel Roof, went for Sunday drives in the country, and savored gourmet candle-lit dinners. The romance progressed and in Decemberember of 1949, Howard had been offered leading roles in two new plays slated for Broadway. One was a comedy, and because most of his successes had always been in comedies, he was pre-disposed to accept that play over the other which was a drama "Death of a Salesman". Before choosing, however, he brought both scripts home to Lucille and asked her to have me read them. By then I had achieved a fairly respected reputation in the theatre as a press representative and writer." As a balding, heavy-set American character actor, he relocated to Hollywood in 1946 and specialized in judges, police officers, corporate bigwigs and assorted choleric authoritarians. ![]() ![]() Above left: The Magic Touch (1947) From L to R: William Terry as Jeff Turner, Sara Anderson as Cathy Turner, Frances Comstock as Amy Thompson and Howard Smith as J. L. Thompson. The production opened September 3rd, 1947 and closed after only twelve performances. Above right: State of the Union is a 1948 American drama film directed by Frank Capra about a man's desire to run for the nomination as the Republican candidate for President, and the machinations of those around him. Left to right: Angela Lansbury, Howard Smith and Katharine Hepburn. Shirley Booth's initial supporting cast for radio's Hogan's Daughter (NBC June 21-September 14. 1949) featured Howard Smith as her father. On October 12, 1961, in the television version of that same program, Howard was introduced as Harvey Griffin, a frequent client of George and Hazel's law firm. ![]() ![]() Above left: Howard Smith (L) with Fredric March in Death of a Salesman (1951). Above right: Howard Smith in a 1951 promotional photo for Death of a Salesman. Film director Kazan seemed to have reached out into what seemed the totally wrong direction for Howard Smith, the shouting comic who played in farces where he played the standard bewildered father of teenage girls. Howard read the play and refused the part, surely the best he had ever been offered in his life. Kazan,... tried to change his mind. "That play is terrible," he'd say. "Who's going to want to see something that sad?" Finally a meeting was fixed with Howard and Arthur Miller. Miller, pretending ignorance asked him to tell him why he was so against the play. "That poor man, for God's sake; the rotten things his sons say to him and his boss. Everybody's so down on him. It's just awful!" "Except Charley," Miller replied and he could see Smith's eyes change. He stopped moving. "Charley gives Willy good advice, lends him money, always makes time for him during office hours... Charley really tries, Howard." Howard sat there staring. Finally he said, "I'll think about it." That night he accepted the role. His instinct were as right for it as his personality. So Smith created the role of Charley in the original Broadway production of Death of a Salesman (1949-1950) but he may be best remembered for his recreation of the role in the 1951 screen version. On September 19. 1953 Lillian known to the stage as Lillian Boardman passed away in New York, aged 60. ![]() ![]() ![]() Top left: Eva Gabor, Howard Smith and Glenn Ford in Don't Go Near The Water (1957). Top right: Smith in The Twilight Zone first-season episode, "A Stop at Willoughby" (1960). Above: The Naked City aflevering "Debt of Honor" (aired November 23, 1960), opens on a poker game, in which the dealer was played, without credit, by Howard Smith. On television, Smith played the overbearing boss Oliver Misrell in The Twilight Zone first-season episode, "A Stop at Willoughby" (1960) where angered by the loss of a major account he drove James Daly near crazy with the lecture, "You need to PUSH PUSH PUSH them!". He also appeared in the 1962 episode, "Cavender Is Coming" starring a young Carol Burnett. In 1962 he was cast in the Perry Mason season six episode, "The Case of the Unsuitable Uncle", as character Frank Warden. He was a recurring guest in 1960s TV series Hazel (1961), where, during the first 4 seasons, he made no fewer than 27 appearances as George Baxter's gruff client Harvey Griffin. ![]() ![]() ![]() Top: Howard in Hazel (1961). Above left: Howard also appeared as angel in the 1962 Twilight Zone episode, "Cavender Is Coming" . Above right: "The Corn Is as High as a Guernsey's Eye" (Jan 26. 1967) an episode from the popular Bewitched series had Howard Smith (as C.L. Morton) opposite an unusual, uncredited, co-star! His last appearance on TV was in the pilot for The Hardy Boys. ("The Mystery of the Chinese Junk", Sep. 8, 1967) Smith died on January 10, 1968, in a Hollywood hospital, following a heart attack. He was cremated and buried, next to his wife Lillian, at Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York. |
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References
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This actor profile is a part of
Ellery Queen a website on deduction.
The actor above played Velie in the 1947
radio series of The Adventures of
Ellery Queen.
Click Uncle Sam if you think you can help
out...! Many of the profiles on this site have been compiled after very careful research of various sources. Please quote and cite ethically! |
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Page first published on Sep 1. 2017 Last updated November 23, 2023 |
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