Won a Muscle Beach contest by performing 35 inverted handstand dips. Has a Masters Degree in Russian and taught Russian Language Studies at UCLA in the late 1950s. Played semi-pro football for the Wiesbaden Flyers in Germany Performed over 5,100 continuous sit-ups over a five hour period Held the Air Force Light-Heavyweight Weightlifting Championship He was the Marlboro Man in the final televised Marlboro commercial.įluent in English, Russian, German, French, Serbo-Croatian.Ĭompeted as a downhill skier in AAU events at Mammoth MountainĬompeted in motocross events with Steve McQueen and doubled as one of the track riders in C.C. Served in the Airforce, National Security Agency, during the Korean War. Record-holder for reverse-curling his own body weight.Ģ Time Arm Wrestling World Champion-200lb class-Petaluma, CA Lifetime Achievement Award from Academy of Bodybuilding and Fitness With a prolific number of roles in westerns, biker, horror, sci-fi, and action pictures, his face-and muscular physique-are familiar to generations of movie fans.Īppeared in the final episode of "Batman" (1966). Over the next thirty years, Smith became one of the kings of B-movie villainy. While working towards his doctorate, he landed a contract with MGM and never looked back. There, his fluency in five languages landed him in the N.S.A. He first came to the screen as a child actor in films such as Going My Way (1944) and The Song of Bernadette (1943), before entering the service during the Korean War. William Smith is probably best known for his portrayal as "Falconetti" in "Rich Man, Poor Man" (1976). A true legend in the business, Bill's acting career is still going strong in 2006, well into the 64th year of his career. He's educated, intelligent and energetic. Just about everybody who has ever worked with Bill speaks highly of him. He was in what could be called a textbook example of low-budget, campy sci-fi, Hell Comes to Frogtown (1988). Tougher than Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bill played his dad in Conan the Barbarian (1982), and was one of the few actors in the wildly popular, but critically lambasted, youth-oriented Red Dawn (1984) to receive any recognition from critics. Just about everybody's favorite William Smith movie, though, is Any Which Way You Can (1980), where as a bare-knuckle brawler he had a knock-down, drag-out fight with Clint Eastwood that wrecked about half the town. In the early 1970s, Bill got into horror films-playing a vampire slayer in Grave of the Vampire (1974)-and science fiction, in the camp classic Invasion of the Bee Girls (1973), where he fought killer insect-women wearing sunglasses. These early, ground-breaking features defined the genre, and would be imitated endlessly (but never duplicated). His first biker flick, Run, Angel, Run! (1969), was shot in 13 days for under $100,000-and made $13 million! This was followed by Angels Die Hard (1970). On the big screen, Bill is legendary for biker flicks (he does his own motorcycle riding). James "Kimo" Carew (the episode with Cathy Lee Crosby, "The Kahuna," drew particularly high ratings). He was a series regular in "Hawaii Five-O" (1968), where he played Det. He's best remembered for appearing in "Batman" (1966) as, appropriately, Adonis in the last episode. On TV he played in many westerns (did his own horseback riding), cop and sci-fi shows. Bill would go on to become one of Hollywood's best-known character actors, with over 300 TV and movie credits. He studied at the University of Munich, and Syracuse University. After high school, he joined the Air Force and served during the Korean War and flew secret ferret missions over Russia while in the NSA. From 1942, when he was eight, through young adulthood, Bill appeared in many movies as an extra (uncredited). After losing everything to the dust bowl, the family moved to California. He was born on March 24, 1934, in Columbia, Missouri, on Rolling Acres, a Hereford cattle ranch. I've highlighted entries that I found interesting and/or impressive.īiker, bare-knuckle brawler, cowboy, Bee-Girl fighter, vampire hunter. To expedite things, I'll just copy the page below. I've been meaning to start a thread about him for a while, but time hasn't been on my side lately. Idly pulling up names online, I came across his bio all I could say when I finished reading it was whoaa!. William Smith has been one of my favorite character actors for a long time, but I had no idea of his myriad accomplishments.
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