John Smith’s Net Worth, Height, Age & Personal Info Wiki

By 1950, he was starting to work as a messenger for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and in 1952, the studio cast him as James Stewart’s uncredited brother in Carbine Williams. His agent Henry Willson renamed him in contrast to the more exciting names of Willson’s other clients because he was “the only John Smith in the business.” Smith starred as newlywed Milo Buck, opposite Karen Sharpe as Nell Buck, in John Wayne’s award-winning airplane disaster film, The High and the Mighty, in 1954.

In the 1955 film Wichita, starring Joel McCrea and Vera Miles, Smith played James Earp, Wyatt Earp’s older brother. The same year, he played Willie McGill, also known as the “Colfax Kid,” in the episode “Paper Gunman” of NBC’s anthology series Frontier, which was hosted and narrated by Walter Coy. Smith appeared as John Sontag in the syndicated television series Stories of the Century in 1955, the first series to win an Emmy Award. “Sontag and Evans” refers to Sontag’s older criminal partner, Chris Evans, played by Morris Ankrum. Sontag and Evans resort to crime to combat the Southern Pacific Railroad’s encroachment.

John appeared in the episode “The Irwin Brown Story” of the U.S. Navy television drama Men of Annapolis in 1958. Smith landed a starring role as Cimarron City’s blacksmith/deputy sheriff Lane Temple in the 1958-1959 television season. Smith and two other stars appeared in the episodes, including George Montgomery as Matt Rockford and Audrey Totter as Beth Purcell, the actual owner of the Cimarron City boarding house. In 1958, he played Smitty in “Letter of the Weak” in Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer detective series, starring Darren McGavin. In 1959, he played Irving Randall in the Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode “A Night with the Boys.”

Wayne asked director Henry Hathaway to cast John as Steve McCabe in his 1964 film Circus World. According to a biography of Smith, Hathaway developed an intense dislike for Smith for unknown reasons and attempted to keep him from working in Hollywood again. Smith appeared as Noble Vestry in the ABC comedy/western series The Rounders, starring Chill Wills, in 1966. In the same year, he portrayed Joe Gore in the film Waco. Smith played Ed Dow in three episodes of ABC’s short-lived Hondo western series, starring Ralph Taeger, in 1967. In three episodes, he appeared: “Hondo and the Ghost of Ed Dow,” “Hondo and the War Cry,” and “Hondo and the Eagle Claw.” (4)