Mark Smith

Mark Smith (April 16, 1887 – May 9, 1944) was an American actor of stage, radio, and film. He was a fourth-generation American actor: His great-grandfather was the actor and impresario Sol Smith. Mark Smith III began his stage career performing in small roles with his father in productions of two musicals by Charles H. Hoyt: A Milk White Flag and A Trip to Chinatown. His son continued the family's acting legacy. and at Broadway's Belasco Theatre. He later took over the larger parts of first Darby O'Donnovan and then Captain Tom Stafford in that work. In the 1906–1907 season he starred opposite Marie Cahill as Bishop Brigham Smudge in Silvio Hein's musical Marrying Mary which included a Broadway run at Daly's Theatre. He then toured as Jack Walkham in Edgar Allan Woolf and George Sylvester Viereck's The Vampire, On May 9, 1909, Smith married the actress Anna Muriel Feeney. At the time of his marriage he was starring in the title role of James Forbes's The Traveling Salesman Park Theatre in Boston,

Stage and silent film career in the 1910s and 1920s

In 1912 Smith returned to Broadway as Harry Lyon in the original production of Helen Kraft and Frank Mandel's farce Our Wives at Wallack's Theatre. In 1913 he created the role of Tom Robinson in Edgar Selwyn's comedy Nearly Married at the Gaiety Theatre. In 1914 he portrayed Baron Felix Puppchen in Milton Lusk's musical The Dancing Duchess at the Casino Theatre. That same year he performed the role of Oscar Bridwell in J. C. Drum's Milady's Boudoir at the Garrick Theatre.

In 1915 Smith portrayed Hillary Bronson in Charles Klein's Cousin Lucy at the George M. Cohan's Theatre. This production utilized songs by Jerome Kern and had a cast led by the female impersonator Julian Eltinge. In 1917 he starred as Tobby Matthews in Willard Mack and Lou Tellegen's Blind Youth at the Theatre Republic, and continued in that work at the 39th Street Theatre in 1918. From 1915 through 1920 he also worked as a silent film actor. His film credits included Zaza (1915, as Cascart), Putting It Over (1916, Lemuel Z. Hawksberry), Nearly Married (1917, as Tom Robinson), Annexing Bill (1918, as George Frayne), A Damsel in Distress (1919, as Percy Marsh), The Vengeance of Durand (1919, as "Tabby" Livingston), and Something Different (1920, as Richard Bidgley).

In 1920 Smith performed the role of Rufus Paterson in Guy Bolton and George Middleton's The Cave Girl at Broadway's Longacre Theatre with actress Grace Valentine in the title role. In 1922 he starred as Ferdie Simpson in the Broadway musical Up in the Clouds which ran first at the Lyric Theatre before transferring to the 44th Street Theatre. In 1924 he portrayed Parkinson in Vincent Youmans, Walter De Leon, and Zelda Sears's musical Lollipop at the Knickerbocker Theatre.

In 1925 Smith starred as George Carroll in Edgar Selwyn and William Le Baron's Something To Brag About at the Booth Theatre, and in 1925–1926 he appeared at the Sam H. Harris Theatre as Louis in René Fauchois's The Monkey Talks. He returned to Broadway later in 1926 as Richard Dennison in the musical Kitty's Kisses by composer Con Conrad. In 1927 he portrayed Big Bill in the Broadway production of Rudolf Friml's musical White Eagle at the Casino Theatre.

Later career on the stage and in radio In 1930 Smith starred as The Husband opposite Alice Brady as his wife in Fanny Hatton's Love, Honor and Betray at Eltinge 42nd Street Theatre. In 1932 he performed the role of Lucien Bridier in the Broadway production of Hans Kottow's The Stork is Dead at the 48th Street Theatre. In 1938 he created the role of Tienhoven in the original production of Kurt Weill's Knickerbocker Holiday at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. He portrayed Sir Toby Belch in the 1940–1941 Broadway revival of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night at the St. James Theatre.

Smith had a prolific career in radio during the 1930s and 1940s. According to The New York Times he had performed on more than 2,000 radio programs by 1941.