Cyril Bruce Smith was a Scottish actor who began his career as a child in the 1900s and went on to appear in over 100 films between 1914 and his death almost 50 years later.

Career

Smith first became known as a child stage actor, and by the age of 13 travelled to New York

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 to appear in a production of the J. M. Barrie

J. M. Barrie

Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, OM was a Scottish author and dramatist, best remembered today as the creator of Peter Pan. The child of a family of small-town weavers, he was educated in Scotland. He moved to London, where he developed a career as a novelist and playwright...

 play Alice-Sit-By-The Fire, with the New York Times referring to him as "one of the best-known child actors in England". Smith's film career began in 1914 in the Wilfred Noy

Wilfred Noy

Wilfred Noy was an English film director, actor, screenwriter and producer of the silent era. He directed 89 films between 1910 and 1936...

-directed Old St. Paul's and he appeared in almost 20 other silent films of the 1910s and 1920s before making the transition to sound. From the early 1930s until his death, he featured in dozens of films ranging from the quota quickies of the 1930s and the B-movies of the 1940s and 1950s, through to more prestigious productions starring names such as Vivien Leigh

Vivien Leigh

Vivien Leigh, Lady Olivier was an English actress. She won the Best Actress Academy Award for her portrayal of Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire , a role she also played on stage in London's West End, as well as for her portrayal of the southern belle Scarlett O'Hara, alongside Clark...

, Trevor Howard

Trevor Howard

Trevor Howard , born Trevor Wallace Howard-Smith, was an English film, stage and television actor.-Early life:...

 and Deborah Kerr

Deborah Kerr

Deborah Kerr, CBE was a Scottish film and television actress from Glasgow. She won the Sarah Siddons Award for her Chicago performance as Laura Reynolds in Tea and Sympathy, a role which she originated on Broadway, a Golden Globe Award for the motion picture The King and I, and was a three-time...

. Smith was not a name-billed film actor and many of his roles were uncredited bit parts or minor roles with generic titles such as "Publican", "Reporter" or "Bailiff"; however towards the end of his life he achieved several more prominent billings after finding a late-career niche portraying scatty and doddery elderly men. Smith also moved into television, starring as Merlin in the 1956 ITV

ITV

ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...

 series The Adventures of Sir Lancelot

The Adventures of Sir Lancelot

The Adventures of Sir Lancelot is a British television series first broadcast in 1956, produced by Sapphire Films for ITC Entertainment and screened on the ITV network...

which was also a success in the U.S. and as Harold Wormold in the first series of the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 sitcom Hugh and I

Hugh and I

Hugh and I was a highly successful black-and-white British sitcom that aired from 1962 to 1967. It starred Terry Scott and Hugh Lloyd as two friends who shared lodgings with Terry's mother and was followed by a sequel called Hugh and I Spy...

in 1962.

Smith suffered a heart attack in December 1962 and died on 5 March 1963, aged 70.

Partial filmography

• Fires of Fate
  Fires of Fate (1923 film)
  Fires of Fate is a 1923 British-American silent adventure film directed by Tom Terriss and starring Wanda Hawley, Nigel Barrie and Pedro de Cordoba. It was adapted from the play Fires of Fate by Arthur Conan Doyle which was in turn based on his 1898 novel The Tragedy of the Korosko...
  
  (1923)
• 1932: The Mayor's Nest
  The Mayor's Nest
  The Mayor's Nest is a 1932 British comedy film directed by Maclean Rogers and starring Sydney Howard, Claude Hulbert and Al Bowlly. A trombonist becomes Mayor of a small town, but he struggles to cope with municipal issues.-Cast:...
  
  
• 1933: The Roof
  The Roof (1933 film)
  The Roof is a 1933 British crime film directed by George A. Cooper and starring Leslie Perrins, Judy Gunn, Russell Thorndike and Michael Hogan.-Cast:* Leslie Perrins - Inspector Darrow* Judy Gunn - Carol Foster* Russell Thorndike - Clive Bristow...
  
  
• 1933: The Man from Toronto
  The Man from Toronto
  The Man from Toronto is a 1933 British romance film directed by Sinclair Hill and starring Jessie Matthews, Ian Hunter, Kathleen Harrison and Herbert Lomas. After an inheiritance is left to them if they marry an Englishwoman and a Canadian must meet for the first time to investigate the other -...
  
  
• 1933: The Good Companions
  The Good Companions (1933 film)
  The Good Companions is a 1933 comedy film directed by Victor Saville starring Jessie Matthews and John Gielgud. It is based on the novel of the same name.-Cast:* Jessie Matthews - Susie Dean* Edmund Gwenn - Jess Oakroyd* John Gielgud - Inigo Jollifant...
  
  
• 1933: Channel Crossing
  Channel Crossing
  Channel Crossing is a 1933 British crime film and starring Milton Rosmer and starring Matheson Lang, Constance Cummings, Anthony Bushell and Nigel Bruce.-Cast:* Matheson Lang - Jacob Van Eeden* Constance Cummings - Marion Slade...
  
  
• 1933: Friday the Thirteenth
  Friday the Thirteenth (1933 film)
  Friday the Thirteenth is a 1933 British drama film directed by Victor Saville and starring Jessie Matthews, Sonnie Hale and Muriel Aked. The film depicts the lives of several passengers in the hours before they are involved in a bus crash.-Cast:...
  
  
• 1934: It's a Cop
  It's a Cop
  It's a Cop is a 1934 British comedy film directed by Maclean Rogers and starring Sydney Howard, Chili Bouchier and Garry Marsh. An incompetent police constable gets a lucky break and catches some thieves, earning promotion to sergeant.-Cast:...
  
  
• 1934: Waltzes from Vienna
  Waltzes from Vienna
  Waltzes from Vienna is a British musical film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, also known as Strauss' Great Waltz.-Production background:The film tells the story of the writing and performance of The Blue Danube. According to Hitchcock:...
  
  
• 1935: Oh, Daddy!
  Oh, Daddy!
  Oh, Daddy! is a 1935 British comedy film directed by Graham Cutts and Austin Melford and starring Leslie Henson, Frances Day, Robertson Hare and Barry MacKay.-Cast:* Leslie Henson - Lord Pye* Frances Day - Benita de Lys* Robertson Hare - Rupert Boddy...
  
  
• 1935: Music Hath Charms
  Music Hath Charms
  Music Hath Charms is a 1935 British musical film directed by Thomas Bentley. Walter Summers, Arthur B. Woods and Alexander Esway, and starring Henry Hall, Carol Goodner and Arthur Margetson.-Cast:* Henry Hall - Himself* W.H. Berry - Basil Turner...
  
  
• 1935: Bulldog Jack
  Bulldog Jack
  Bulldog Jack is a 1935 film produced by Gaumont International, directed by Walter Forde, and starring Jack Hulbert, Fay Wray, Ralph Richardson; it also starred Atholl Fleming as Bulldog Drummond....
  
  
• 1935: Brown on Resolution
  Brown on Resolution (film)
  Brown on Resolution is a 1935 film adaptation of the CS Forester novel Brown on Resolution. The plot is centred on the illegitimate son of a British naval officer singlehandedly bringing about the downfall of a German battleship during World War I...
  
  
• 1935: Me and Marlborough
  Me and Marlborough
  Me and Marlborough is a 1935 British comedy film directed by Victor Saville and starring Cicely Courtneidge, Tom Walls, Barry MacKay, Peter Gawthorne, Henry Oscar and Cecil Parker.-Plot summary:...
  
  
• 1935: The Tunnel
  The Tunnel (1935 film)
  The Tunnel, also known as Transatlantic Tunnel in the United States, is a 1935 British science fiction film based on the 1913 novel Der Tunnel by Bernhard Kellermann, about the building of a transatlantic tunnel. It was directed by Maurice Elvey and stars Richard Dix, Leslie Banks, Madge Evans,...
  
  
• 1936: The Last Journey
  The Last Journey
  The Last Journey is a 1936 British B-movie. The movie was directed by Bernard Vorhaus.-Synopsis:A train driver on his last journey before retirement thinks his fireman is having an affair with his wife. The driver intends to kill himself and his passengers by crashing the train...
  
  
• 1936: Pot Luck
• 1936: Jack of All Trades
  Jack of All Trades (film)
  Jack of All Trades is a 1936 comedy film British directed by Robert Stevenson and Jack Hulbert. It stars Jack Hulbert and Gina Malo.-Cast:*Jack Hulbert as Jack Warrender*Gina Malo as Frances Wilson*Robertson Hare as Lionel Fitch...
  
  
• 1937: O.H.M.S.
  O.H.M.S. (film)
  O.H.M.S. is a 1937 British action comedy film directed by Raoul Walsh and starring Wallace Ford, John Mills, Anna Lee and Grace Bradley. An American criminal evades the police by joining the British army.-Cast:* Wallace Ford - Jimmy Tracy...
  
  
• 1937: Dark Journey
  Dark Journey (film)
  Dark Journey is a 1937 British spy film directed by Victor Saville set in the First World War. Its plot concerns two secret agents on opposite sides, played by Conrad Veidt and Vivien Leigh, who fall in love.-Cast:* Conrad Veidt as Baron Karl von Marwitz...
  
  
• 1937: Storm in a Teacup
  Storm in a Teacup (film)
  Storm in a Teacup is a 1937 British romantic comedy film starring Vivien Leigh, Rex Harrison, Cecil Parker, and Sara Allgood. It is based on the German play Sturm im Wasserglas by Bruno Frank. A reporter writes an article that embarrasses a politician...
  
  
• 1937: The Frog
  The Frog
  The Frog is a 1937 British crime film directed by Jack Raymond and starring Noah Beery, Jack Hawkins and Richard Ainley. The police are on the trail of a criminal mastermind who goes by the name of The Frog. It was based on a novel by Edgar Wallace...
  
  
• 1938: Sidewalks of London
  Sidewalks of London
  Sidewalks of London, also known as St. Martin's Lane, is a 1938 British, black-and-white, comedy drama starring Charles Laughton as a busker or street entertainer who teams up with a talented pickpocket, played by Vivien Leigh. It also stars Ronald Shiner as the Barman...
  
  
• 1938: The Return of the Frog
  The Return of the Frog
  The Return of the Frog is a 1938 British crime film directed by Maurice Elvey and starring Gordon Harker, Hartley Power and René Ray. It was a sequel to the 1937 film The Frog which was based on an Edgar Wallace novel...
  
  
• 1939: Sword of Honour
  Sword of Honour (film)
  Sword of Honour is a 1939 British drama film directed by Maurice Elvey and starring Geoffrey Toone, Sally Gray, Wally Patch and Peter Gawthorne...
  
  
• 1939: Traitor Spy
  Traitor Spy
  Traitor Spy is a 1939 British mystery film directed by Walter Summers and starring Bruce Cabot, Marta Labarr, Tamara Desni and Edward Lexy. -Cast:* Bruce Cabot - Ted Healey* Marta Labarr - Freyda Healey* Tamara Desni - Marie Dufreyene...
  
  
• 1940: Law and Disorder
  Law and Disorder (1940 film)
  Law and Disorder is a 1940 British comedy crime film directed by David MacDonald and starring Barry K. Barnes, Diana Churchill, Austin Trevor, Alastair Sim and Edward Chapman. A young solicitor defends a number of petty criminals accused of sabotage....
  
  
• 1940: The Flying Squad
  The Flying Squad (1940 film)
  The Flying Squad is a 1940 British crime film directed by Herbert Brenon and starring Sebastian Shaw, Phyllis Brooks, Jack Hawkins, Basil Radford, Ludwig Stössel, Kathleen Harrison and Henry Oscar. It was based on a novel by Edgar Wallace in which the officers of the Flying Squad attempt to tackle...
  
  
• 1942: They Flew Alone
  They Flew Alone
  They Flew Alone is a 1942 British, black-and-white, biopic, drama, propaganda, war film, directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Anna Neagle, Robert Newton and Edward Chapman...
  
  
• 1943: When We Are Married
  When We Are Married (film)
  When We Are Married is a 1943 British comedy-drama film, directed by Lance Comfort and starring Sydney Howard, Raymond Huntley and Olga Lindo.The film is a screen version of the well-known 1938 stage play by J. B...
  
  
• 1944: One Exciting Night
  One Exciting Night (1944 film)
  One Exciting Night is a 1944 British musical comedy film directed by Walter Forde and starring Vera Lynn, Donald Stewart and Mary Clare. A female singer becomes involved with a man who is the victim of a kidnap plot.-Cast:* Vera Lynn ... Vera Baker...
  
  
• 1944: Fanny by Gaslight
  Fanny by Gaslight (film)
  Fanny by Gaslight was a 1944 British drama film, produced by Gainsborough Pictures, set in the 1870s and adapted from a novel by Michael Sadleir . It was one of its famous period-set "Gainsborough melodramas"...
  
  
• 1945: The Agitator
  The Agitator (1945 film)
  The Agitator is a 1945 British drama film directed by John Harlow and starring William Hartnell, Mary Morris and John Laurie. A young socialist is forced to question his beliefs when he unexpectedly inherits a large firm. It was based on the novel Peter Pettenger by William Riley.-Cast:* William...
  
  
• 1945: Meet Sexton Blake
  Meet Sexton Blake
  Meet Sexton Blake is a 1945 British drama film directed by John Harlow and starring David Farrar, Manning Whiley, Dennis Arundell and John Varley.-Cast:* David Farrar - Sexton Blake* Manning Whiley - Raoul Sudd* Dennis Arundell - Johann Sudd...
  
  

• 1945: Don Chicago
  Don Chicago
  Don Chicago is a 1945 British comedy film directed by Maclean Rogers and starring Jackie Hunter, Joyce Heron and Claud Allister. It is based on a novel by C.E. Bechhofer-Roberts. An aspiring but timid gangster is forced to leave the United States after crossing the wrong people, but on arriving in...
  
  
• 1945: The Echo Murders
  The Echo Murders
  The Echo Murders is a 1945 British thriller film directed by John Harlow and starring David Farrar, Dennis Price, Pamela Stirling and Julien Mitchell.- Cast :*David Farrar as Sexton Blake*Dennis Price as Dick Warren*Pamela Stirling as Stella Duncan...
  
  
• 1946: This Man Is Mine
  This Man Is Mine (1946 film)
  This Man Is Mine is a 1946 British comedy film directed by Marcel Varnel and starring Tom Walls, Glynis Johns and Jeanne De Casalis. A Canadian soldier is billeted with a British family for the Christmas holidays to the delight of the two unmarried daughters...
  
  
• 1946: Appointment with Crime
  Appointment with Crime
  Appointment with Crime is a 1946 British crime film directed by John Harlow.-Plot:Leo Martin works for a criminal gang run by Gus Loman that primarily uses a smash and grab tactic. During one particular risky robbery heist, Leo breaks the window at a jewelry store only to have his wrists broken...
  
  
• 1946: School for Secrets
  School for Secrets
  School for Secrets is a 1946 British film written and directed by Peter Ustinov and starring David Tomlinson, Ralph Richardson, Raymond Huntley, Richard Attenborough, John Laurie and Michael Hordern...
  
  
• 1947: They Made Me a Fugitive
  They Made Me a Fugitive
  They Made Me A Fugitive is a 1947 British film noir set in postwar England. Based on the Jackson Budd novel A Convict has Escaped, the black-and-white film was directed by Alberto Cavalcanti with brooding and atmospheric cinematography by noted cameraman Otto Heller...
  
  
• 1947: So Well Remembered
  So Well Remembered
  So Well Remembered is a 1947 British film starring John Mills, Martha Scott, and Trevor Howard. The film was based on the James Hilton novel of the same name and tells the story of a reformer and the woman he marries in a fictional Lancashire mill town. Hilton also narrated...
  
  
• 1947: If Winter Comes
  If Winter Comes
  If Winter Comes is a 1947 drama film released by MGM. The movie was directed by Victor Saville, based on the novel by A.S.M. Hutchinson. The film tells the story of an English textbook writer who takes in a pregnant girl...
  
  
• 1948: Daughter of Darkness
  Daughter of Darkness (1948 film)
  Daughter of Darkness is a 1947 British film, with macabre overtones, directed by Lance Comfort and starring Anne Crawford, Maxwell Reed and - in the central role - Siobhan McKenna...
  
  
• 1948: Escape
  Escape (1948 film)
  Escape is a 1948 British-American thriller film directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. It follows a RAF Second World War veteran who goes to prison and then escapes and meets a woman who persuades him to surrender...
  
  
• 1948: No Room at the Inn
  No Room at the Inn
  No Room at the Inn is a 1948 British melodrama, directed by Daniel Birt and starring Freda Jackson and Ann Stephens. The screenplay was adapted by Dylan Thomas and Ivor Foxwell from the play by Joan Temple...
  
  
• 1949: The History of Mr. Polly
  The History of Mr. Polly (film)
  The History of Mr. Polly is a 1949 British film, based on the 1910 comic novel The History of Mr. Polly by H.G. Wells. It was directed by Anthony Pelissier and stars John Mills, Betty Ann Davies, Megs Jenkins and Finlay Currie...
  
  
• 1949: The Interrupted Journey
  The Interrupted Journey
  The Interrupted Journey is a 1949 British thriller film directed by Daniel Birt and Valerie Hobson, Richard Todd, Christine Norden and Tom Walls. A man fleeing with his mistress narrowly escapes a train crash after he pulls the emergency chord and is wracked with guilt...
  
  
• 1949: Conspirator
  Conspirator (1949 film)
  Conspirator is a 1949 British thriller film directed by Victor Saville and starring Elizabeth Taylor, Robert Taylor and Robert Flemyng. A British guards officer who is a spy for the Soviet Union is ordered by his KGB handlers to murder his young American wife when she discovers his true...
  
  
• 1949: The Rocking Horse Winner
  The Rocking Horse Winner (film)
  The Rocking Horse Winner is a 1949 fantasy film about a young boy who can pick winners in horse races with complete accuracy. It is an adaptation of the D. H. Lawrence short story "The Rocking-Horse Winner" and starred Valerie Hobson, John Howard Davies and Ronald Squire...
  
  
• 1951: Green Grow the Rushes
  Green Grow the Rushes (film)
  Green Grow the Rushes is a British comedy film from the production company A.C.T. Films. -Plot:Three British government bureaucrats arrive in Kent to inquire as to why the costal marsh is not being cultivated...
  
  
• 1951: The Third Visitor
  The Third Visitor
  The Third Visitor is a 1951 British crime film directed by Maurice Elvey and starring Sonia Dresdel, Guy Middleton and Karel Stepanek. A police detective investigating a murder, discovers that the dead man is not in fact dead. It was based on a play by Gerald Anstruther.-Cast:* Sonia Dresdel ... ...
  
  
• 1952: Hindle Wakes
  Hindle Wakes (1952 film)
  Hindle Wakes is a 1952 British drama film, directed by Arthur Crabtree and starring Lisa Daniely and Leslie Dwyer. The film was the fourth and last screen adaptation of the famous Stanley Houghton play of the 1910s, dealing with an independent-minded young woman insisting on her right to enjoy a...
  
  
• 1952: Stolen Face
  Stolen Face
  Stolen Face is a British film noir directed by Terence Fisher for Hammer Film Productions. With its theme of a man who, after the sudden end of a powerful romance with a beautiful blonde tries to recreate her by altering the appearance of another woman, it is clearly a forerunner of Vertigo...
  
  
• 1952: The Lost Hours
  The Lost Hours
  The Lost Hours is a 1952 British drama film directed by David MacDonald and starring Mark Stevens, Jean Kent and Garry Marsh. An American returns for a reunion in the United Kingdom, where he served as a pilot during the Second World War, but finds himself framed for a murder he didn't...
  
  
• 1953: Women of Twilight
  Women of Twilight
  Women of Twilight is a 1952 British crime film directed by Gordon Parry and starring René Ray, Lois Maxwell, Freda Jackson and Laurence Harvey. The screenplay was by Anatole de Grunwald. 89 minutes.-Plot:...
  
  
• 1953: The Steel Key
  The Steel Key
  The Steel Key is a 1953 British thriller film directed by Robert S. Baker and starring Terence Morgan, Joan Rice and Raymond Lovell.-Cast:* Terence Morgan - Johnny O'Flynn* Joan Rice - Doreen Wilson* Raymond Lovell - Inspector Forsythe...
  
  
• 1954: The Angel Who Pawned Her Harp
  The Angel Who Pawned Her Harp
  The Angel Who Pawned Her Harp is a 1956 British black and white part-fantasy comedy film directed by Alan Bromly and starring Felix Aylmer as a second hand store owner, and Diane Cilento as the Angel....
  
  
• 1954: Svengali
  Svengali (1954 film)
  Svengali is a 1954 British drama film directed by Noel Langley and starring Hildegard Knef, Donald Wolfit and Terence Morgan. A svengali hypnotises an artist's model into becoming a great opera singer, but she struggles to escape from his powers. It was based on a novel by George Du Maurier.-Cast:*...
  
  
• 1954: Burnt Evidence
  Burnt Evidence
  Burnt Evidence is a 1954 British drama film directed by Daniel Birt and starring Jane Hylton, Duncan Lamont and Donald Gray. A man accidentally kills another and is hunted down by the police.-Cast:* Jane Hylton - Diana Taylor...
  
  
• 1955: John and Julie
  John and Julie
  John and Julie was a 1955 British comedy film. It featured Peter Sellers and Sid James in early screen roles-Plot:John and Julie are two children who personally want to see The Queen's coronation in spite of the fact that their parents have no intention of going. The two decide to run off to...
  
  
• 1955: Value for Money
  Value for Money
  Value for Money is a 1955 British comedy film directed by Ken Annakin and starring John Gregson, Donald Pleasence, Leslie Phillips, Joan Hickson, Derek Farr and Diana Dors.-Cast:* John Gregson as Chayley Broadbent* Diana Dors as Ruthine West...
  
  
• 1956: Sailor Beware!
  Sailor Beware! (1956 film)
  Sailor Beware! is a 1956 British comedy film directed by Gordon Parry.-Cast:* Peggy Mount ... Emma Hornett* Shirley Eaton ... Shirley Hornett* Ronald Lewis ... Albert Tufnell* Cyril Smith ... Henry Hornett* Esma Cannon ... Edie Hornett...
  
  
• 1959: The Rough and the Smooth
  The Rough and the Smooth
  The Rough and the Smooth is a 1959 British drama film directed by Robert Siodmak and starring Nadja Tiller, Tony Britton, William Bendix and Edward Chapman. An archaeologist has an affair with a German woman putting his engagement to another woman in jeopardy...
  
  
• 1960: Light Up the Sky!
  Light Up the Sky! (film)
  Light Up the Sky! is a 1960 British comedy film directed by Lewis Gilbert and starring Ian Carmichael, Tommy Steele, Benny Hill and Dick Emery- Plot :...
  
  
• 1961: Over the Odds
  Over the Odds
  Over the Odds is a 1961 British comedy film directed by Michael Forlong and starring Marjorie Rhodes, Glenn Melvyn, Cyril Smith, Esma Cannon and Thora Hird and Wilfrid Lawson. A bookmaker struggles to cope with his two mother-in-laws...
  
  
• 1961: On the Fiddle
  On the Fiddle
  On the Fiddle is a 1961 British comedy film directed by Cyril Frankel and starring Sean Connery, Alfred Lynch, Cecil Parker, Stanley Holloway, Eric Barker, Mike Sarne, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Kathleen Harrison, Victor Maddern and John Le Mesurier....
  
  

External links

Cyril Smith at the Internet Movie Database

Internet Movie Database

Internet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...