 Smith in about 1940 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Full name | Charles Aubrey Smith | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | (1863-07-21)21 July 1863 London, England | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | 20 December 1948(1948-12-20) (aged 85) Beverly Hills, California, U.S. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Batting | Right-handed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bowling | Right armfast | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| International information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| National side | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Only Test (cap 66) | 12 March 1889 v South Africa | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Domestic team information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1882–1896 | Sussex | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1882–1885 | Cambridge University | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1889/90 | Transvaal | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Career statistics | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Source:CricketArchive,23 September 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sir Charles Aubrey Smith (21 July 1863 – 20 December 1948) was an Englishtest cricketer and actor of stage and screen. During his acting career, he acquired a niche as the officer-and-gentleman type, as in the first sound version ofThe Prisoner of Zenda (1937). In Hollywood, he organised British actors into a cricket team, much intriguing local spectators.
Smith was born in London, England, to Charles John Smith (1838–1928), a medical doctor, and Sarah Ann (née Clode, 1836–1922).[1][2] His sister, Beryl Faber (died 1912), was married toCosmo Hamilton.
Smith was educated atCharterhouse School andSt John's College, Cambridge.[3][4] He settled in South Africa to prospect for gold in 1888–89. While there he developedpneumonia and was wrongly pronounced dead by doctors. He married Isabella Wood in 1896.
As a cricketer, Smith was primarily a right armfast bowler, though he was also a useful right-hand lower-orderbatsman and a goodslip fielder. His oddly curved bowling run-up, which started from deep mid-off, earned him the nickname "Round the Corner Smith".[5][6] When he bowled round the wicket his approach was concealed from the batsman by the umpire until he emerged, leadingW. G. Grace to comment "it is rather startling when he suddenly appears at the bowling crease."[7] He is widely regarded as one of the very best amateur bowlers of his day.[8] He played forCambridge University (1882–1885) and forSussex at various times from 1882 to 1892.[3]
While in South Africa he captained theJohannesburg English XI.[3] Hecaptained England to victory in his onlyTest match,[5] againstSouth Africa atPort Elizabeth in March 1889, taking five wickets for nineteen runs in the first innings.[9] The English team who played were by no means representative of the best players of the time and nobody at the time realised that the match would enter the cricket records as an official Test match. His home club for much of his career was West Drayton Cricket club. Actors would arrive from London to the purpose-built train station in West Drayton and taken by horse-drawn carriage to the ground.
In 1932, he founded theHollywood Cricket Club and created a pitch with imported English grass. He attracted fellow expatriates such asDavid Niven,Laurence Olivier,Nigel Bruce (who served as captain),Leslie Howard[10] andBoris Karloff to the club as well as local American players. Smith's stereotypical Englishness spawned several amusing anecdotes: while fielding at slip for the Hollywood Club, he dropped a difficult catch and ordered his English butler to fetch his spectacles; they were brought on to the field on a silver platter. The next ball looped gently to slip, to present the kind of catch that "a child would take at midnight with no moon." Smith dropped it and, snatching off his lenses, commented, "Damned fool brought my reading glasses."[11] Decades after his cricket career had ended, when he had long been a famous face in films, Smith was spotted in the pavilion on a visit toLord's. "That man over there seems familiar", remarked one member to another. "Yes", said the second, seemingly oblivious to his Hollywood fame, "Chap called Smith. Used to play for Sussex."[12]
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Smith began acting on theLondon stage in 1895. His first major role was inPrisoner of Zenda the following year, playing the dual lead roles of king and look-alike. Forty-one years later, he appeared in themost acclaimed film version of the novel, this time as the wise old adviser toRonald Colman. WhenRaymond Massey asked him to help him understand the role of Black Michael, he answered "My dear Ray, in my time I have played every part inThe Prisoner of Zenda except Princess Flavia. And I always had trouble with Black Michael!"[13] He made his Broadway debut as early as 1895 inThe Notorious Mrs. Ebbsmith. In 1907 he appeared withMarie Doro inThe Morals of Marcus, a play Doro later made into a silent film. Smith later appeared in a revival ofGeorge Bernard Shaw'sPygmalion in the starring role ofHenry Higgins.
Smith appeared in early films for the nascent British film industry, starring inThe Bump in 1920 (written byA. A. Milne for the company Minerva Films, which was founded in 1920 by the actorLeslie Howard and his friend and story editorAdrian Brunel).[14] Smith later went toHollywood where he had a successful career as a character actor playing either officer or gentleman roles. One role in 1937 was as Colonel Williams inWee Willie Winkie, starringShirley Temple,Victor McLaglen,Cesar Romero andJune Lang. He was regarded as being the unofficial leader of the British film industry colony in Hollywood, whichSheridan Morley characterised as the Hollywood Raj,[15] a select group of British actors who were seen to be colonising the capital of the film business in the 1930s. Other film stars considered to be "members" of this select group wereDavid Niven (whom Smith treated like a son),Ronald Colman,Rex Harrison,Robert Coote,Basil Rathbone,Nigel Bruce (whose daughter's wedding he had attended as best man),Leslie Howard (whom Smith had known since working with him on early films in London),[16] andPatric Knowles.
Smith expected his fellow countrymen to report for regular duty at hisHollywood Cricket Club. Anyone who refused was known to "incur his displeasure".[citation needed] Fiercely patriotic, Smith became openly critical of the British actors of enlistment age who did not return to fight after the outbreak ofWorld War II in 1939. Smith loved playing on his status as Hollywood's "Englishman in Residence". His bushy eyebrows, beady eyes, handlebar moustache, and height of 6'2" made him one of the most recognisable faces in Hollywood.
Smith starred alongside leading ladies such asGreta Garbo,Elizabeth Taylor, andVivien Leigh as well as the actorsClark Gable,Laurence Olivier,Ronald Colman,Maurice Chevalier, andGary Cooper. His films includeThe Prisoner of Zenda (1937),The Four Feathers (1939), Hitchcock'sRebecca (1940),Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941),And Then There Were None (1945) in which he played General Mandrake, and the 1949 remake ofLittle Women starringElizabeth Taylor andJanet Leigh, in which he portrayed the aged grandfather of Laurie Lawrence (played by a youngPeter Lawford), who generously gives a piano to the frail Beth March (played byMargaret O'Brien). He also appeared as the father ofMaureen O'Sullivan inTarzan the Ape Man, the first Tarzan film withJohnny Weissmüller. Smith also played a leading role as the Earl of Dorincourt inDavid O. Selznick's adaptionLittle Lord Fauntleroy (1936).
He appeared inDennis Wheatley's 1934 thrillerSuch Power Is Dangerous, about an attempt to take over Hollywood, under the fictitious name of Warren Hastings Rook (rather than Charles Aubrey Smith). AuthorEvelyn Waugh leaned heavily on Smith in drawing the character of Sir Ambrose Abercrombie for Waugh's 1948 satire of HollywoodThe Loved One.Commander McBragg in the TV cartoonTennessee Tuxedo and His Tales is a parody of him.[citation needed]
Smith died ofpneumonia at home in Beverly Hills on 20 December 1948, aged 85. He was survived by his wife Isobel Mary Scott Wood (m. 1896-1948)[17] and their daughter, Honor.[18] His body was cremated and nine months later, in accordance with his instructions, the ashes were returned to England and interred in his mother's grave atSt Leonard's churchyard inHove,Sussex.
Smith has a star on theHollywood Walk of Fame.[19]
Smith was an officer in theLegion of Frontiersmen.
In 1933, he served on the first board of theScreen Actors Guild.
He was appointed aCommander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1938[20] and wasknighted byGeorge VI in 1944[21] for services to Anglo-American amity.[22][23][24]
| Sporting positions | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | English national cricket captain 1888–1889 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Sussex county cricket captain 1886–1888 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Sussex county cricket captain 1890 | Succeeded by |
