Art Smith

Acting

Art Smith

Born 1899-03-22 · Chicago, Illinois, USA

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Arthur Gordon "Art" Smith (March 23, 1899 – February 24, 1973) was an American film, stage and television actor, best known for playing supporting roles in the 1940s. Born in Chicago, he was a member of the Group Theatre and performed in many of their productions, including Rocket to the Moon, Awake and Sing!, Golden Boy and Waiting for Lefty, all by Clifford Odets; House of Connelly by Paul Green; and Sidney Kingsley's Men in White. The gray-haired actor usually played studious and dignified types in films, such as doctors or butlers. Smith appeared in many black-and-white noirish films in supporting roles alongside more handsome and popular movie leads, such as John Garfield in Body and Soul (1947) and Humphrey Bogart in In a Lonely Place (1950). He had a key role as a federal agent in 1947's Ride the Pink Horse, starring and directed by Robert Montgomery. Two of these films, In a Lonely Place and Ride a Pink Horse, were based on novels by Dorothy B. Hughes. Smith was one of the victims of the Hollywood blacklist, which ended most of his film career in 1952. In 1957, he originated the role of Doc in the stage version of West Side Story. Smith only returned occasionally to the film business, for example in an uncredited part in The Hustler. He also worked on television before retiring in 1967. He died, aged 73, in Long Island, New York, from a heart attack.

Acting credits

The Hustler poster
7.7

Fast Eddie Felson is a small-time pool hustler with a lot of talent but a self-destructive attitude. His bravado causes him to challenge the legendary Minnesota Fats to a high-stakes match.

The Hustler

1961

Brute Force poster
7.3

Timeworn Joe Collins and his fellow inmates live under the heavy thumb of the sadistic, power-tripping guard Captain Munsey. Only Collins' dreams of escape keep him going, but how can he possibly bust out of Munsey's chains?

Brute Force

1947

South of St. Louis poster
5.8

With the advent of the American Civil War, three partners in a ranch see how this is destroyed. Needing money, will join the Confederate troops, each for their particular motivations.

South of St. Louis

1949

Letter from an Unknown Woman poster
7.8

A pianist about to flee from a duel receives a letter from a woman he cannot remember. As she tells the story of her lifelong love for him, he is forced to reinterpret his own past.

Letter from an Unknown Woman

1948

T-Men poster
6.7

Two T-men, U.S. Treasury agents, go undercover in Detroit, and then Los Angeles, in an attempt to break a U.S. currency counterfeiting ring.

T-Men

1947

In a Lonely Place poster
7.6

A violent screenwriter and a female neighbor fall in love after she clears him of murder, but she begins to have second thoughts.

In a Lonely Place

1950

Caught poster
6.6

Wide-eyed and poor young Leonora weds an obsessive millionaire named Ohlrig, but the marriage is loveless. Even worse, Ohlrig seems to have manic, violent tendencies. Eventually, young Leonora escapes her unhappy life and begins working with New York City doctor Larry Quinada, who she soon falls for. Unfortunately, Ohlrig refuses to grant his wife a divorce, and things get even darker for Leonora when she realizes she's pregnant with his child.

Caught

1949

A Double Life poster
6.4

A Shakespearian actor starring as Othello opposite his wife finds the character's jealous rage taking over his mind off-stage.

A Double Life

1947

Body and Soul poster
6.7

Charley Davis, against the wishes of his mother, becomes a boxer. As he becomes more successful the fighter becomes surrounded by shady characters, including an unethical promoter named Roberts, who tempt the man with a number of vices. Charley finds himself faced with increasingly difficult choices.

Body and Soul

1947

Mr. Winkle Goes to War poster
7.1

Wilbert Winkle, a henpecked, mild-mannered, middle-aged bank clerk and handyman finds himself in the midst of battle in the South Pacific.

Mr. Winkle Goes to War

1944

The Sound of Fury poster
6.5

A family man – desperate for a job – latches onto a friend who encourages him into being a criminal.

The Sound of Fury

1950

Arch of Triumph poster
6.0

In the winter of 1938, Paris is crowded with refugees from the Nazis, who live in the black shadows of night, trying to evade deportation. One such is Dr. Ravic, who practices medicine illegally and stalks his old Nazi enemy Haake with murder in mind. One rainy night, Ravic meets Joan Madou, a kept woman cast adrift by her lover's sudden death. Against Ravic's better judgment, they become involved in a doomed affair.

Arch of Triumph

1948

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn poster
7.5

In Brooklyn circa 1900, the Nolans manage to enjoy life on pennies despite great poverty and Papa's alcoholism. We come to know these people well through big and little troubles: Aunt Sissy's scandalous succession of "husbands"; the removal of the one tree visible from their tenement; and young Francie's desire to transfer to a better school...if irresponsible Papa can get his act together.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

1945

Edge of Darkness poster
6.3

The film pivots around the local Norwegian doctor and his family. The doctor's wife (Ruth Gordon) wants to hold on to the pretence of gracious living and ignore their German occupiers. The doctor, Martin Stensgard (Walter Huston), would also prefer to stay neutral, but is torn. His brother-in-law, the wealthy owner of the local fish cannery, collaborates with the Nazis. The doctor's daughter, Karen (Ann Sheridan), is involved with the resistance and with its leader Gunnar Brogge (Errol Flynn). The doctor's son has just returned to town, having been sent down from the university, and is soon influenced by his Nazi-sympathizer uncle. Captain Koenig (Helmut Dantine), the young German commandant of the occupying garrison, whose fanatic determination to do everything by the book and spoutings about the invincibility of the Reich hides a growing fear of a local uprising.

Edge of Darkness

1943

Framed poster
6.5

Truck driver Mike Lambert is a down-and-out mining engineer searching for a job. When his rig breaks down in a small town, he happens upon a venomous seductress. When her boyfriend robs a bank, they intend to frame Lambert.

Framed

1947

Red, Hot and Blue poster
6.2

In her attempts to make a splash on Broadway, a lively would-be-actress lands herself in hot water with the mob.

Red, Hot and Blue

1949

Manhandled poster
5.2

Merle Kramer works as a stenographer for a psychiatrist. She is casually dating Karl Benson, a private eye and former cop. Merle mentions in passing that one of her boss's patients is an author with recurring dreams of murdering his wife, and she includes the fact that the wife owns valuable jewels. When the wife is found murdered in a manner identical to that of her husband's dream, the husband is naturally the prime suspect. But as the investigation of the police and insurance investigator Joe Cooper proceeds, it turns out that several people in the case, including Merle, are not what they seem.

Manhandled

1949

Quicksand poster
6.1

Young auto mechanic Dan Brady takes $20 from a cash register at work to go on a date with blonde femme fatale Vera Novak. Brady intends to put the money back before it is missed, but the garage's bookkeeper shows up earlier than scheduled. As Brady scrambles to cover evidence of his petty theft, he fast finds himself drawn into an ever worsening "quicksand" of crime.

Quicksand

1950

Native Land poster
6.3

By the start of World War II, Paul Robeson had given up his lucrative mainstream work to participate in more socially progressive film and stage productions. Robeson committed his support to Paul Strand and Leo Hurwitz’s political semidocumentary Native Land. With Robeson’s narration and songs, this beautifully shot and edited film exposes violations of Americans’ civil liberties and is a call to action for exploited workers around the country. Scarcely shown since its debut, Native Land represents Robeson’s shift from narrative cinema to the leftist documentaries that would define the final chapter of his controversial film career.

Native Land

1942

The Killer That Stalked New York poster
6.2

In New York, Sheila Bennet and her spouse, Matt Krane, are trying to unload a trove of rare jewels they smuggled into America from Cuba, but the police are hot on the couple's trail. Meanwhile, government officials begin a desperate search for an unknown individual who is infecting the city with smallpox.

The Killer That Stalked New York

1950

Ride the Pink Horse poster
7.2

A con man tries to blackmail a Mexican gangster.

Ride the Pink Horse

1947

Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid poster
6.6

As told to a psychiatrist: Mr. Peabody, a middle-aged Bostonian on vacation with his wife in the Caribbean, hears mysterious, wordless singing on an uninhabited rock in the bay. Fishing in the vicinity, he catches...a mermaid. He takes her home and, though she has no spoken language, falls in love with her. Of course, his wife won't believe that the thing in the bathtub is anything but a large fish.

Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid

1948

Angel in Exile poster
5.5

An ex-convict on his way to make his fortune in a gold mine in Arizona has his trip interrupted when the residents of a small Mexican village believe him to be a sacred religious figure.

Angel in Exile

1948

Just for You poster
5.4

Jordan Blake (a widower) is a successful Broadway Producer who has always been to busy for his children, Barbara and Jerry. Girlfriend, Carolina a musical comedy star, urges Jordan to take his kids on a vacation and get to know them before they are all grown up. Is Jordan already too late?

Just for You

1952