Alexis Smith

For the American artist, see Alexis Smith (artist).

Alexis Smith
Smith in 1951
Born	Margaret Alexis Fitzsimmons Smith (1921-06-08)June 8, 1921 Penticton, British Columbia, Canada
Died	Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actress, singer
Years active	1940–1993
Spouse(s)	Craig Stevens (1944–1993; her death)

Margaret Alexis Fitzsimmons Smith (June 8, 1921 – June 9, 1993), known as Alexis Smith, was a Canadian-born stage, film, and television actress and singer. She appeared in several major Hollywood movies in the 1940s and had a notable career on Broadway in the 1970s, winning a Tony Award in 1972.

Early life

1946 photo

Split Second (1953)

Born in Penticton, British Columbia, to Gladys and Alexander Smith, her family relocated to Los Angeles when she was about a year old. Smith grew up in Southern California, attending Hollywood High School. When she was 13 she made her professional debut, performing ballet at the Hollywood Bowl. She was discovered in 1940 at Los Angeles City College, acting in a school production, by a Warner Brothers' talent scout.

Acting career

Film career

After being discovered by a talent scout while attending college, Smith was signed to a contract by Warner Bros. Her earliest film roles were uncredited bit parts, and it took several years for her career to gain momentum. Her first credited role was in the feature film Dive Bomber (1941), playing the female lead opposite Errol Flynn. Her appearance in The Constant Nymph (1943) was well received and led to bigger parts.

During the 1940s, Smith appeared alongside some of the most popular male stars of the day, including Errol Flynn in Gentleman Jim (1942) and San Antonio (1945) (in which she sang a special version of the popular ballad "Some Sunday Morning"), Fredric March in The Adventures of Mark Twain (1944), Humphrey Bogart in Conflict (1945) and The Two Mrs. Carrolls (1947), Cary Grant in a sanitized, fictionalized version of the life of Cole and Linda Porter in Night and Day (1946), and Bing Crosby in Here Comes the Groom (1951), her favorite role.

Among Smith's other films are Rhapsody In Blue (1945), Of Human Bondage (1946), and The Young Philadelphians (1959). She also appeared on a Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis radio (NBC) broadcast on 25 January 1952.

Stage career

While Smith was under contract at Warner Bros., she met fellow actor Craig Stevens; they wed in 1944. In later years, Smith toured in several stage hits including the 1955 National company of Plain and Fancy, co-starring with her husband in Jean Kerr's Mary, Mary and Cactus Flower.

Smith appeared on the cover of the May 3, 1971, issue of Time as the result of the critical acclaim for her singing and dancing role in Hal Prince's Broadway production of Stephen Sondheim's Follies, which marked her long-awaited Broadway debut. In 1972, she won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her performance.

Her stage career continued through the 1970s, with appearances in the 1973 all-star revival of The Women (1973), the short-lived re-working of William Inge's drama Picnic, re-titled Summer Brave (1975), and the ill-fated musical Platinum (1978), which earned Smith another Tony nomination for her performance but closed after a brief run. She then toured for more than a year as the madam in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, including a seven-month run in Los Angeles.

Later work

Smith returned to the big screen with star billing at the age of 54 in Jacqueline Susann's Once Is Not Enough (1975) opposite Kirk Douglas, followed by The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane with Martin Sheen and Jodie Foster the following year and Casey's Shadow with Walter Matthau in 1978.

One of her final film roles came in 1986, again with Douglas when he reunited with frequent co-star Burt Lancaster for a 1986 crime comedy, Tough Guys.

Smith had a recurring role on the television series Dallas as Clayton Farlow's sister Lady Jessica Montford in 1984, and again in 1990. She also starred in the short-lived 1988 series Hothouse, and was nominated for an Emmy Award for her guest appearance on Cheers in 1990.

Death

Alexis Smith died of brain cancer in Los Angeles in 1993 on the day after her 72nd birthday. She had no children and her sole survivor was her husband of 49 years, actor Craig Stevens. Smith's final film, The Age of Innocence (1993), was released shortly after her death. Her body was cremated and her ashes were scattered over the Pacific.

Filmography

Film
Year	Film	Role	Notes
1940	Alice in Movieland	Guest at Carlo's	Uncredited
	Lady with Red Hair	Girl at Wedding	Uncredited
	She Couldn't Say No	Phone Gossip #4	Uncredited
1941	Flight from Destiny	Girl	Uncredited
	The Great Mr. Nobody	Woman in office	Uncredited
	Here Comes Happiness	Blonde	Uncredited
	Affectionately Yours	Bridesmaid	Uncredited
	Singapore Woman	Miss Oswald	Uncredited
	Three Sons o' Guns	Actress	Uncredited
	Passage from Hong Kong	Nightclub dancer	Uncredited
	The Smiling Ghost	Elinor Bentley
	Steel Against the Sky	Helen Powers
	Dive Bomber	Mrs. Linda Fisher	1 of 4 with Errol Flynn
1942	Gentleman Jim	Victoria Ware	2 of 4 with Errol Flynn
1943	The Constant Nymph	Florence Creighton
	Thank Your Lucky Stars	As Herself
1944	The Adventures of Mark Twain	Olivia Langdon Clemens	With Fredric March
	The Doughgirls	Nan Curtiss Dillon
1945	The Horn Blows at Midnight	Elizabeth	With Jack Benny
	San Antonio	Jeanne Star	3 of 4 with Errol Flynn
	Conflict	Evelyn Turner	1 of 2 with Humphrey Bogart
	Rhapsody in Blue	Christine Gilbert
1946	One More Tomorrow	Cecelia Henry
	Night and Day	Linda Lee Porter	With Cary Grant
	Of Human Bondage	Nora Nesbitt
1947	Stallion Road	Rory Teller	With Ronald Reagan
	The Two Mrs. Carrolls	Cecily Latham	2 of 2 with Humphrey Bogart
1948	Whiplash	Laurie Durant
	The Woman in White	Marian Halcombe
	The Decision of Christopher Blake	Evelyn Blake
1949	One Last Fling	Olivia Pearce
	South of St. Louis	Rouge de Lisle
	Any Number Can Play	Lon Kyng	With Clark Gable
1950	Undercover Girl	Christine Miller
	Montana	Maria Singleton	4 of 4 with Errol Flynn
	Wyoming Mail	Mary Williams
1951	Cave of Outlaws	Elizabeth Trent
	Here Comes the Groom	Winifred Stanley	With Bing Crosby
1952	The Turning Point	Amanda Waycross	With William Holden
1953	Split Second	Kay Garven
1954	The Sleeping Tiger	Glenda Esmond
1955	The Eternal Sea	Sue Hoskins
1957	Beau James	Allie Walker	With Bob Hope
1958	This Happy Feeling	Nita Hollaway	Directed by Blake Edwards
1959	The Young Philadelphians	Carol Wharton	With Paul Newman
1975	Once Is Not Enough	Deidre Milford Granger	With Kirk Douglas
1976	The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane	Mrs. Hallet	With Jodie Foster
1978	Casey's Shadow	Sarah Blue	With Walter Matthau
1982	The Trout (aka La Truite)	Gloria
1986	Tough Guys	Belle	With Burt Lancaster
1993	The Age of Innocence	Luisa van der Luyden	Directed by Martin Scorsese
Television
Year	Title	Role	Notes
1955	Stage 7	Caroline Taylor	1 episode
1956	The 20th Century Fox Hour	Emily Hefferan	1 episode
	The Joseph Cotten Show	Libby Wilson	1 episode, "We Who Love Her"
1958	Schlitz Playhouse of Stars	Vivian Braxton	1 episode
1959	Adventures in Paradise	Loraine Lucas	1 episode
1960	Michael Shayne	Nora Carroll	1 episode
1965	The Defenders	Carol Defoe	1 episode
1970	The Governor & J.J.	Leslie Carroll	1 episode
1971	Marcus Welby, M.D.	Evie Craig	1 episode
1973	Nightside	Smitty	Television movie Alternative title: A Very Special Place
1984	Dallas	Lady Jessica Farlow Montford	Season 7: Episodes 24-30
1985	A Death in California	Honey Niven	Television mini-series
1986	Dress Gray	Mrs. Iris Rylander	Television movie
1988	Hothouse	Lily Garrison Shannon	7 episodes
1988	Marcus Welby, M.D.: A Holiday Affair	Tessa Menard	Television movie
1990	Dallas	Lady Jessica Farlow Montford	Season 13: Episodes 23, 24, 26, 27
1990	Lola	Phoebe	Television movie
1990	Cheers	Professor Alice Anne Volkman	1 episode, nominated for an Emmy

Stage work

• Private Lives (1952)
• Bell, Book and Candle (1953)
• Wonderful Town (1957)
• Mary, Mary (1965)
• Follies (1971)
• The Women (1973)
• Applause (1973)
• Summer Brave (1975)
• Platinum (1978)
• The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1979)
• Pal Joey (1983)
• Nymph Errant (1989)

Radio appearances

Year	Program	Episode/source
1952	Lux Radio Theatre	Submarine Commander

References

Bibliography

• Bubbeo, Daniel. The Women of Warner Brothers. McFarland, 2001. ISBN 978-0-7864-1137-5.
• Cozad, W. Lee. More Magnificent Mountain Movies: The Silver Screen Years 1940–2004. Lake Arrowhead, California: Sunstroke Media, 2006. ISBN 978-0-9723372-3-6.
• Donnelley, Paul. Fade to Black: A Book of Movie Obituaries. London: Omnibus Press, 2005. ISBN 1-84449-430-6.
• Kirby, Walter. "Better Radio Programs for the Week". The Decatur Daily Review, November 16, 1952. Retrieved: June 18, 2015 via – Newspapers.com .
• Maltin, Leonard. "Alexis Smith". Leonard Maltin's Movie Encyclopedia. New York: Dutton, 1994. ISBN 0-525-93635-1.
• Monush, Barry. Screen World Presents the Encyclopedia of Hollywood Film Actors: From the silent era to 1965. Applause Theatre & Cinema Books, 2003. ISBN 978-1-55783-551-2.
• "Film and legit actress Alexis Smith dead at 72". Variety, June 10, 1993. Retrieved: March 11, 2009.

External links

• Alexis Smith at AllMovie
• Alexis Smith at the Internet Broadway Database
• Alexis Smith at the Internet Movie Database
• Alexis Smith at the TCM Movie Database