ROGER SMITH

(18 December 1932 - 4 June 2017)

The American actor Roger Smith, most famous for appearing on the 77 Sunset Strip TV series from 1958, got his big break through meeting James Cagney while in the US Naval Reserve in Hawaii. Cagney suggested he try the movies and, following some TV appearances, Smith gained a contract with Columbia Pictures in 1957, appearing in Teenage Delinquents, Operation Mad Ball and Crash Landing. Cagney invited him to appear in Man of a Thousand Faces, a biopic of Lon Chaney, and then Never Steal Anything Small. He also played the older Patrick Dennis in Auntie Mame with Rosalind Russell. But television called again and Smith landed the part of private detective Jeff Spencer in 77 Sunset Strip, a part he had already played in Hawaiian Eye and Surfside 6. He was in the series until 1963 when he became ill with a blood clot on his brain. Forced to give up acting, he formed a production company with his manager Allan Carr, while also returning to television and the theatre. However, after the TV series of Mr Roberts and a couple of movies in 1968, he contracted a muscle and nerve disorder and retired from acting altogether. Having divorced his first wife, actress Victoria Shaw with whom he had three children, Smith married actress-singer Ann-Margret in 1967. Becoming her manager he produced her Las Vegas shows and TV specials and helped  her recover from a near fatal accident. He also wrote the films C.C & Company (for Ann-Margret) and They Don’t Need Pajamas at Rosie’s. Smith’s health subsequently recovered and he and Ann-Margret stayed married for fifty years until his death. 

MICHAEL DARVELL