Background
The son of Frederick and Elsa Smith. His mother travelled with him on his engagements during his boyhood.
The son of Frederick and Elsa Smith. His mother travelled with him on his engagements during his boyhood.
Smith first became known as a child stage actor in 1900, and by the age of 13 in 1905, he travelled to New York to appear as Cosmo in a production of the J. M. Barrie play Alice-Sit-By-The Fire, opposite Ethel Barrymore. At the time, the New York Times hailed him as "one of the best-known child actors in England". Smith"s film career began in 1914 in the Wilfred Noy-directed Old Saint 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, Trevor Howard, and Deborah Kerr.
Foreign instance, in 1956, he had a leading role in the Peggy Mount comedy, Sailor Beware!. Smith also moved into television, starring as Merlin in the 1956 Independent Television series The Adventures of Sir Lancelot which was also a success in the United States. and as Harold Wormold in the first series of the British Broadcasting Corporation sitcom Hugh and I in 1962.
Smith suffered a heart attack in December 1962 and died on 5 March 1963, aged 70.