in The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942) and showed up in The Song of Bernadette (1943), Going My Way (1944), Meet Me in St. He was an uncredited child extra on set with Bela Lugosi and Lon Chaney Jr. Speaking of smoking, Smith was the last “Marlboro Man” in commercials before cigarette advertising was discontinued.īorn on a cattle ranch in Columbia, Missouri, on March 24, 1933, Smith and his family moved to Southern California after the Dust Bowl. “We shot it in Jackson, Wyoming, which is about 8,000 feet high in altitude, and I was smoking so hard at the time.” “It has to be one of the longest two-man fights ever done on film without doubles,” Smith said in an interview for Louis Paul’s 2014 book Tales From the Cult Film Trenches. The trailer called it “the most knuckle-busting, gut-wrenching, brain-scrambling, butt-bruising, lip-splitting brawl of all time.” In Any Which Way You Can (1980), Smith’s Jack Wilson squares off with Clint Eastwood’s Philo Beddoe in a long bare-knuckle bout through the streets and restaurants of Wyoming. Now that was a good fight!”Īfter they healed, they worked again in the Western The Deadly Trackers (1973). Rod is a skilled fighter and at the same time a real scrapper. That was a real fight with real blood and real broken bones. “Fight choreography and staging went out the window when Rod decided to really hit me,” Smith remembered in a 2010 interview. Taylor broke three of Smith’s ribs and Smith busted Taylor’s nose during the scene. Smith appeared late in a vicious turn as the hired thug Anthony Falconetti, then returned the following year for the sequel.Īs a sadistic bodybuilder in Darker Than Amber (1970), he participated in a violent free-for-all with Taylor that is regarded as one of the most realistic of all time. James “Kimo” Carew.ĪBC’s Rich Man, Poor Man, which premiered in February 1976, was the first miniseries broadcast on American television (it preceded Roots by 11 months) and was an adaptation of the Irwin Shaw novel about two German-American brothers (Peter Strauss and Nick Nolte) and their lives after World War II. On NBC’s Laredo, Smith starred as gunfighter turned Texas Ranger Joe Riley during that Western’s two seasons (1965-67), and he joined CBS’ original Hawaii Five-O for its final year (1979-80) to portray Det. and Company (1970), starring Joe Namath and Ann-Margret in Chrome and Hot Leather (1971), opposite Marvin Gaye and in Gentle Savage (1973) and Eye of the Tiger (1986).
He was a go-to-guy when casting for biker films, starring in director Jack Starrett’s Run, Angel, Run! (1969) and The Losers (1970) in Angels Die Hard (1970), from Roger Corman’s New World Pictures in C.C. Smith starred with fellow bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger in Conan the Barbarian (1982) and spoke fluent Russian as a colonel in Red Dawn (1984) - both those films were directed by John Milius - and, as a gang leader named Carrot, battled Yul Brynner with a ball and chain in The Ultimate Warrior (1975). As prolific as he was strong, he had a whopping 289 credits on IMDb, seemingly in everything from the ’60s onward. The 6-foot-2 Smith, who was a champion discus thrower at UCLA, an arm-wrestling champion and a black belt in the martial arts, had 18-inch biceps and could do 5,100 continuous sit-ups and reverse curl 163 pounds. She did not want to reveal the cause of death. Smith died Monday at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, his wife, Joanne Cervelli Smith, told The Hollywood Reporter.
#William smith actor arm wrestler movie
William Smith, the rugged actor who starred on television on Laredo, Rich Man, Poor Man and Hawaii Five-O and went toe-to-toe with Clint Eastwood and Rod Taylor in two of the more remarkable brawls in movie history, has died.
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