Biography
This page uses content from the C. Aubrey Smith biography page on the English version of Wikipedia and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. This list of authors can be seen in the page history. Rotten Tomatoes disclaims any and all warranties as to the accuracy or reliability of the content.
Sir Charles Aubrey Smith (known as Sir Aubrey Smith) (born 21 July 1863 in London, died 20 December 1948 in Beverly Hills) was an English cricketer and actor. He was knighted in 1944 for services to Anglo-American amity. As a cricketer, he had the nickname "Round the Corner Smith"; he played for Cambridge University 1882-5; for Sussex at various time between 1882-92Anglo-African Who's Who, p337 and played in one Test match, where he captained England, and which he won.
Smith was educated at Charterhouse School and Cambridge UniversityAnglo-African Who's Who and settled in South Africa to prospect for gold in 1888-9, where he captained the Johannesburg English XIAnglo-African Who's Who. While he was in South Africa, he developed pneumonia and was wrongly pronounced dead by doctors.
He began acting on the London stage in 1895. His first major role was in The Prisoner of Zenda. Forty-two years later, he appeared in the most acclaimed film version. He married Isabella Wood in 1896.
He later went to Hollywood, where he had a successful career as a character actor playing either officer or gentleman roles. His bushy eyebrows, beady eyes, handlebar moustache and a height of 6' 7" made him one of the most recognisable faces in Hollywood. As an actor, he starred alongside such screen legends as Elizabeth Taylor, Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Laurence Olivier, Ronald Colman and Gary Cooper.
The cartoon character Commander McBragg from Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales is a parody of him. Commander McBragg also appears in The Simpsons episode The Seemingly Never-Ending Story
His star appears on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
In 1933 he was on the first board of the Screen Actors Guild.
He helped set up the Hollywood Cricket Club.
He died from pneumonia in Beverly Hills, California, USA in 1948.
Selected filmography
- Little Women (1949)...Mr James Laurence
- And Then There Were None (1945)...General Sir John Mandrake
- Rebecca (1940)...Colonel Julyan
- The Four Feathers (1939)...General Burroughs
- Another Thin Man (1939)...Colonel Burr MacFay
- Five Came Back (1939)...Professor Henry Spengler
- Little Lord Fauntleroy (1937)...The Earl of Dorincourt
- The Hurricane (1937)...Father Paul
- The Prisoner of Zenda (1937)...Colonel Zapt
- Wee Willie Winkie (1937)...Colonel Williams
- The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1935)...Major Hamilton
Reference
- Wills, Walter H., 1907. The Anglo-African Who's Who, Jeppestown Press, United Kingdom. ISBN 0-9553936-3-9
See also
- History of Test cricket (1884 to 1889)
External links
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