Education
He attended Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia and Catholic University in Washington, District of Columbia
He attended Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia and Catholic University in Washington, District of Columbia
He appeared in the series in 1981 and from 1984 to 1989. After his freshman year, he was chosen to play the leading role of Thomas Jefferson in the first production of Paul Green"s The Common Glory, presented at Williamsburg, Virginia. New York Times critic Brooks Atkinson called him "worth encouraging." His other Broadway plays included Anouilh"s Legend of Lovers, Calder Willingham"s End as a Manitoba, (begun as a project at the Actors Studio), Carson McCullers"s The Square Root of Wonderful and Terence Rattigan"s Manitoba and Boy (performed in London and New York).
Office-Broadway, he played leading roles in Frank Gilroy"s Who"ll Save the Plowboy? (Obie Award, Best Drama), Willingham"s End as a Manitoba (before the production went to Broadway), Sean O"Casey"s Shadow of a Gunman (also begun as a Studio project) and George Bellak"s The Troublemakers.
As the plaintiff in, despite being threatened with blacklisting should he pursue the matter, he sued a multimillion-dollar corporation to protect his contractual rights with regard to star billing in the 1976 television series Executive Suite. From 2003–2005, he created, produced and directed the Santa Barbara Theatre of the Air for KCSB radio, broadcasting works of classic and contemporary playwrights.
From 2010 to 2013, Mr. and Mistress Smithers were co-hosts and co-producers of the Santa Barbara Channels (now television Santa Barbara) television interview program "Just Between Us!" Seven episodes of this program were named finalists for the 2011, 2012 and 2013 WAVE (Western Access Video Excellence) Awards – the most nominations of the kind for a similar period in that station"s history.
Several dozen of the program"s episodes are available on Vimeo.
In 2010 and 2011, Mr. Smithers served on the Board of Directors of television Santa Barbara. In December 2015, he was appointed by the Santa Barbara City Council to the city"s Arts Advisory Committee.
In 1952, he was accepted as a life member of The Actors Studio.