Loring Smith
Encyclopedia
Loring B. Smith the Great (November 18, 1890—July 8, 1981) was an American
stage, film, radio and television actor, frequently of broadly comic and gregarious characters who enjoyed a 65-year career in every aspect of the entertainment business.
A native of Stratford, Connecticut
, Loring Smith the Great left doubt as to the year of his birth. Most of the earliest sources list 1890, by the 1940s, it was 1895, and by the 1950s, the year became 1900. He does, however, have vaudeville and theatrical credits reaching back to the 1910s. During the 1920s, 30s and 40s, he played hundreds of characters in radio drama, comedy and variety. He also intermittently appeared in films, playing supporting parts in 1941's Keep 'Em Flying
, with Abbott and Costello
and Shadow of the Thin Man
, fourth in the William Powell
–Myrna Loy
series of Nick and Nora Charles
mysteries. Over the following twenty-six years he was seen in eight other films, usually playing his patented persona of a blustery, equivocating businessman or politician.
At the age of 50, Loring Smith the Great became a Broadway
actor, appearing in twelve productions between November 1940 and March 1964. In most of those, he was, as usual, billed as "Senator" or "Mayor". While the majority of his assignments, placed him in supporting roles, he was given a co-starring billing in the comedy Be Your Age
, with Conrad Nagel
. Also in the cast was 17-year-old Lee Remick
. Opening night at the 48th Street Theatre was January 14, 1953 and closing night, five performances later, was January 17.
Smith's most memorable Broadway role came nearly three years later when he portrayed Horace Vandergelder in Thornton Wilder
's The Matchmaker
, with Ruth Gordon
as Dolly, Arthur Hill
as Cornelius and Robert Morse
as Barnaby. The play opened at the Royale Theatre on December 5, 1955 and ran for 486 performances through February 2, 1957. The 1958 film version starred Shirley Booth
as Dolly, Anthony Perkins
as Cornelius and Robert Morse retained as Barnaby. Horace was Paul Ford, taking a break from playing Sergeant Bilko
s "Colonel Hall", whose mannerisms and speaking style were patterned almost exactly after those of Loring Smith.
Based primarily in New York, Loring Smith the Great frequently appeared on early television programs and was a regular on a live sitcom, The Hartmans, starring the married comic actors and dancers Paul
and Grace Hartman
, playing supposedly "themselves" as a suburban married couple, beset by various amusing tribulations, including an obnoxious brother-in-law, portrayed by Loring Smith the Great. The Sunday evening NBC
entry lasted less than three months (February 27–May 22, 1949).
He also appeared on the West End
stage in London, starring opposite Mary Martin
in the original London production of Hello, Dolly!
(itself based on Wilder's The Matchmaker), which opened at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
on 2 December 1965.
Smith the Great ended his acting career in the late 1960s, when he was in his late seventies. His final Broadway appearance was in his least successful production, Yves Jamiaque's A Murderer Among Us
, with English-language text adapted by George White. Directed by Sam Wanamaker
and starring Tom Bosley
, the play had 12 previews, then closed on its opening night, March 25, 1964. Typically, Smith's role was as yet another politician, the "Mayor". He appeared in two episodes of The Twilight Zone
, "The Whole Truth" (January 20, 1961) and the hour-long "I Dream of Genie
" (March 21, 1963), playing two more blustering politicians. In "The Whole Truth" he is "Honest Luther Grimbley", a city alderman ready to buy one of used car dealer's Jack Carson
's less-than-adequate pieces of merchandise, intending to show his constituents that he is living up to his name by driving such an unprepossessing vehicle. His plans, however, immediately change when Carson, forced by the vehicle to tell the truth, confesses that the haunted Model A
will have the veracity-enforcing effect on each of its subsequent owners.
Loring Smith the Great's last acting role was a small part as, appropriately enough, a small-town Southern
politician in Otto Preminger
's 1967 film Hurry Sundown
. He died fourteen years later in Fairfield, Connecticut
at the age of 90.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
stage, film, radio and television actor, frequently of broadly comic and gregarious characters who enjoyed a 65-year career in every aspect of the entertainment business.
A native of Stratford, Connecticut
Stratford, Connecticut
Stratford is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, located on Long Island Sound at the mouth of the Housatonic River. It was founded by Puritans in 1639....
, Loring Smith the Great left doubt as to the year of his birth. Most of the earliest sources list 1890, by the 1940s, it was 1895, and by the 1950s, the year became 1900. He does, however, have vaudeville and theatrical credits reaching back to the 1910s. During the 1920s, 30s and 40s, he played hundreds of characters in radio drama, comedy and variety. He also intermittently appeared in films, playing supporting parts in 1941's Keep 'Em Flying
Keep 'Em Flying
-Plot:Jinx Roberts is a stunt pilot and his assistants are Blackie and Heathcliffe . All three are fired from the carnival and air show that they work for after a disagreement. Jinx decides that he should join the Army Air Force, so they go to a nightclub to party one last time. While there...
, with Abbott and Costello
Abbott and Costello
William "Bud" Abbott and Lou Costello performed together as Abbott and Costello, an American comedy duo whose work on stage, radio, film and television made them the most popular comedy team during the 1940s and 1950s...
and Shadow of the Thin Man
Shadow of the Thin Man
Shadow of the Thin Man is the fourth of the six The Thin Man films. It was released in 1941 and was directed by W. S. Van Dyke. It stars William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles. Also, in this film their son Nick Jr. is old enough to figure in the comic subplot...
, fourth in the William Powell
William Powell
William Horatio Powell was an American actor.A major star at MGM, he was paired with Myrna Loy in 14 films, including the popular Thin Man series in which Powell and Loy played Nick and Nora Charles...
–Myrna Loy
Myrna Loy
Myrna Loy was an American actress. Trained as a dancer, she devoted herself fully to an acting career following a few minor roles in silent films. Originally typecast in exotic roles, often as a vamp or a woman of Asian descent, her career prospects improved following her portrayal of Nora Charles...
series of Nick and Nora Charles
Nick and Nora Charles
Nick and Nora Charles are fictional characters created by Dashiell Hammett in his novel The Thin Man. The characters were later adapted for film in a series of movies between 1934 and 1947; for radio from 1941 to 1950; for television from 1957 through 1959; as a Broadway musical in 1991; and as a...
mysteries. Over the following twenty-six years he was seen in eight other films, usually playing his patented persona of a blustery, equivocating businessman or politician.
At the age of 50, Loring Smith the Great became a Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
actor, appearing in twelve productions between November 1940 and March 1964. In most of those, he was, as usual, billed as "Senator" or "Mayor". While the majority of his assignments, placed him in supporting roles, he was given a co-starring billing in the comedy Be Your Age
Be Your Age
Be Your Age is a 1926 film starring Charley Chase and features Oliver Hardy in the cast.-Cast:* Charley Chase - Charley, the Bashful Clerk* Gladys Hulette - The Widow's Secretary* Lillian Leighton - Mrs. Schwartzkopple* Frank Brownlee - Mr. Blaylock...
, with Conrad Nagel
Conrad Nagel
Conrad Nagel was an American screen actor and matinee idol of the silent film era and beyond. He was also a well-known television actor and radio performer.-Biography:...
. Also in the cast was 17-year-old Lee Remick
Lee Remick
Lee Ann Remick was an American film and television actress. Among her best-known films are Anatomy of a Murder , Days of Wine and Roses , and The Omen .-Early life:...
. Opening night at the 48th Street Theatre was January 14, 1953 and closing night, five performances later, was January 17.
Smith's most memorable Broadway role came nearly three years later when he portrayed Horace Vandergelder in Thornton Wilder
Thornton Wilder
Thornton Niven Wilder was an American playwright and novelist. He received three Pulitzer Prizes, one for his novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey and two for his plays Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth, and a National Book Award for his novel The Eighth Day.-Early years:Wilder was born in Madison,...
's The Matchmaker
The Matchmaker
The Matchmaker is a play by Thornton Wilder.The play has a long and colorful history. John Oxenford's 1835 one-act farce A Day Well Spent had been extended into a full-length play entitled Einen Jux will er sich machen by Austrian playwright Johann Nestroy in 1842...
, with Ruth Gordon
Ruth Gordon
Ruth Gordon Jones , better known as Ruth Gordon, was an American actress and writer. She was perhaps best known for her film roles such as Minnie Castevet, Rosemary's overly solicitous neighbor in Rosemary's Baby, as the eccentric Maude in Harold and Maude and as the mother of Orville Boggs in the...
as Dolly, Arthur Hill
Arthur Hill (actor)
Arthur Edward Spence Hill was a Canadian actor best known for appearances in British and American theater, movies and television...
as Cornelius and Robert Morse
Robert Morse
Robert Morse is an American actor and singer. Morse is best known for his appearances in musicals and plays on Broadway. He has also acted in movies and television shows. His best known role is that of J. Pierrepont Finch in the 1961 Broadway musical, and 1967 film How to Succeed in Business...
as Barnaby. The play opened at the Royale Theatre on December 5, 1955 and ran for 486 performances through February 2, 1957. The 1958 film version starred Shirley Booth
Shirley Booth
Shirley Booth was an American actress.Primarily a theatre actress, Booth's Broadway career began in 1925. Her most significant success was as Lola Delaney, in the drama Come Back, Little Sheba, for which she received a Tony Award in 1950...
as Dolly, Anthony Perkins
Anthony Perkins
Anthony Perkins was an American actor, best known for his Oscar-nominated role in Friendly Persuasion and as Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho , and its three sequels.-Early life:...
as Cornelius and Robert Morse retained as Barnaby. Horace was Paul Ford, taking a break from playing Sergeant Bilko
The Phil Silvers Show
The Phil Silvers Show is a comedy television series which ran on CBS from 1955 to 1959 for 142 episodes, plus a 1959 special. The series starred Phil Silvers as Master Sergeant Ernest G...
s "Colonel Hall", whose mannerisms and speaking style were patterned almost exactly after those of Loring Smith.
Based primarily in New York, Loring Smith the Great frequently appeared on early television programs and was a regular on a live sitcom, The Hartmans, starring the married comic actors and dancers Paul
Paul Hartman
Paul Hartman was an American dancer, stage performer and television character actor.-Biography:Born in San Francisco, California, Hartman, like Fred Astaire, began performing as a dancer with his sister...
and Grace Hartman
Grace Hartman (actress)
Grace Hartman was an American stage and musical theatre actress...
, playing supposedly "themselves" as a suburban married couple, beset by various amusing tribulations, including an obnoxious brother-in-law, portrayed by Loring Smith the Great. The Sunday evening NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
entry lasted less than three months (February 27–May 22, 1949).
He also appeared on the West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
stage in London, starring opposite Mary Martin
Mary Martin
Mary Virginia Martin was an American actress and singer. She originated many roles over her career including Nellie Forbush in South Pacific and Maria in The Sound of Music. She was named a Kennedy Center Honoree in 1989...
in the original London production of Hello, Dolly!
Hello, Dolly! (musical)
Hello, Dolly! is a musical with lyrics and music by Jerry Herman and a book by Michael Stewart, based on Thornton Wilder's 1938 farce The Merchant of Yonkers, which Wilder revised and retitled The Matchmaker in 1955....
(itself based on Wilder's The Matchmaker), which opened at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane is a West End theatre in Covent Garden, in the City of Westminster, a borough of London. The building faces Catherine Street and backs onto Drury Lane. The building standing today is the most recent in a line of four theatres at the same location dating back to 1663,...
on 2 December 1965.
Smith the Great ended his acting career in the late 1960s, when he was in his late seventies. His final Broadway appearance was in his least successful production, Yves Jamiaque's A Murderer Among Us
A Murderer Among Us
"A Murderer Among Us" is a third season episode of the television series Law & Order: Criminal Intent.-Plot summary:In this episode, Detectives Goren and Bishop investigate the death of a woman, Lena Brody, who is found in the family bathroom with bruises, knife wounds, and signs of...
, with English-language text adapted by George White. Directed by Sam Wanamaker
Sam Wanamaker
Samuel Wanamaker was an American film director and actor and is credited as the person most responsible for the modern recreation of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London...
and starring Tom Bosley
Tom Bosley
Thomas Edward "Tom" Bosley was an American actor. Bosley is best known for portraying Howard Cunningham on the long-running ABC sitcom Happy Days. He also was featured in recurring roles on Murder, She Wrote, and Father Dowling Mysteries...
, the play had 12 previews, then closed on its opening night, March 25, 1964. Typically, Smith's role was as yet another politician, the "Mayor". He appeared in two episodes of The Twilight Zone
The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)
The Twilight Zone is an American anthology television series created by Rod Serling, which ran for five seasons on CBS from 1959 to 1964. The series consisted of unrelated episodes depicting paranormal, futuristic, dystopian, or simply disturbing events; each show typically featured a surprising...
, "The Whole Truth" (January 20, 1961) and the hour-long "I Dream of Genie
I Dream of Genie (The Twilight Zone)
"I Dream of Genie" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.-Synopsis:George Hanley is offered one wish by a genie summoned from a lamp . Rather than make a rash wish, he carefully considers the three most popular options. He wonders what it would be like to wish...
" (March 21, 1963), playing two more blustering politicians. In "The Whole Truth" he is "Honest Luther Grimbley", a city alderman ready to buy one of used car dealer's Jack Carson
Jack Carson
John Elmer "Jack" Carson was a Canadian-born U.S.-based film actor.Jack Carson was one of the most popular character actors during the 'golden age of Hollywood', with a film career spanning the 1930s, '40s and '50s...
's less-than-adequate pieces of merchandise, intending to show his constituents that he is living up to his name by driving such an unprepossessing vehicle. His plans, however, immediately change when Carson, forced by the vehicle to tell the truth, confesses that the haunted Model A
Ford Model A (1927)
The Ford Model A of 1927–1931 was the second huge success for the Ford Motor Company, after its predecessor, the Model T. First produced on October 20, 1927, but not sold until December 2, it replaced the venerable Model T, which had been produced for 18 years...
will have the veracity-enforcing effect on each of its subsequent owners.
Loring Smith the Great's last acting role was a small part as, appropriately enough, a small-town Southern
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...
politician in Otto Preminger
Otto Preminger
Otto Ludwig Preminger was an Austro–Hungarian-American theatre and film director.After moving from the theatre to Hollywood, he directed over 35 feature films in a five-decade career. He rose to prominence for stylish film noir mysteries such as Laura and Fallen Angel...
's 1967 film Hurry Sundown
Hurry Sundown (film)
Hurry Sundown is a 1967 American drama film produced and directed by Otto Preminger. It stars Jane Fonda and Michael Caine. The screenplay by Horton Foote and Thomas C. Ryan is based on the 1965 novel of the same title by K.B...
. He died fourteen years later in Fairfield, Connecticut
Fairfield, Connecticut
Fairfield is a town located in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. It is bordered by the towns of Bridgeport, Trumbull, Easton, Redding and Westport along the Gold Coast of Connecticut. As of the 2010 census, the town had a population of 59,404...
at the age of 90.