Background
William was born on December 4, 1806 in Montgomeryshire, Wales, United Kingdom, and is said to have been the son of an officer in the British army who was killed in Spain during the Peninsular War.
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William was born on December 4, 1806 in Montgomeryshire, Wales, United Kingdom, and is said to have been the son of an officer in the British army who was killed in Spain during the Peninsular War.
There is no information about his education.
At fourteen, after an unhappy childhood under the domination of a harsh stepfather, he ran away from home and joined a troupe of strolling players. On the stage he was known as W. H. Smith, but in private affairs he used his family name of Sedley. He acted in many provincial companies in theatres in Glasgow, Lancaster, and other cities of Great Britain.
He came to the United States and made his debut at once in Philadelphia at the Walnut Street Theatre in June 1827, appearing as Jeremy Diddler in Raising the Wind and as Lothair in Adelgitha.
It was not until 1840 that he ventured to New York, acting there for the first time in November of that year in support of Junius Brutus Booth, playing Edgar to his Lear, Laertes to his Hamlet, Gratiano to his Shylock, and Mark Antony to his Brutus. His subsequent appearances on the New York stage were infrequent. In 1843 he joined the new stock organization at the Boston Museum, becoming stage manager of the theatre, and remaining there in that capacity and also as actor for sixteen years. His making-over of The Drunkard, a manuscript play by another author, brought lasting popularity to the Boston Museum. Smith himself acted the role of Edward Middleton, the play remaining a favorite with American playgoers for several years.
His life after he left Boston and the Museum in 1859 was for some time a wandering one. An interesting episode in this part of his career was his acting of David Deans in the dramatization by Dion Boucicault of The Heart of Midlothian at the Winter Garden in New York, May 6, 1865, at the benefit of his daughter, Mrs. Sedley Brown, who played Jeanie Deans. During his last years he was in San Francisco, and was connected with the California Theatre as actor and stage manager.
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Quotes from others about the person
Joseph Cowell, with whom he was associated when he first came to America, says that he was "one of those pinklooking men, with yellow hair, that the ladies always admire, and in his day was considered the best fop and light comedian on the continent". Yet his art is said to have been "intellectual, truthful, conscientious, significant with thought and purpose, and warm with emotion".
When in Boston he had married Sarah (Lapsley) Riddle of the Philadelphia theatrical family of that name, who died in 1861 after a distinguished career on the stage. They had a son and a daughter who in later years became well known on the stage, first as Mrs. Sedley Brown, and later as Mrs. Sol Smith. His second wife, Lucy, survived him by many years.