C. Aubrey Smith

Sir Charles Aubrey Smith was an English test 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 of The Prisoner of Zenda. In Hollywood, he organised British actors into a cricket team, much intriguing local spectators.

Early life

Smith was born in London, England, to Charles John Smith, a medical doctor, and Sarah Ann. His sister, Beryl Faber, was married to Cosmo Hamilton.
Smith was educated at Charterhouse School and St John's College, Cambridge. He settled in South Africa to prospect for gold in 1888–89. While there he developed pneumonia and was wrongly pronounced dead by doctors. He married Isabella Wood in 1896.

Cricket career

As a cricketer, Smith was primarily a right arm fast bowler, though he was also a useful right-hand lower-order batsman and a good slip fielder. His oddly curved bowling run-up, which started from deep mid-off, earned him the nickname "Round the Corner Smith". When he bowled round the wicket his approach was concealed from the batsman by the umpire until he emerged, leading W. G. Grace to comment "it is rather startling when he suddenly appears at the bowling crease." He is widely regarded as one of the very best amateur bowlers of his day. He played for Cambridge University and for Sussex at various times from 1882 to 1892.
While in South Africa he captained the Johannesburg English XI. He captained England to victory in his only Test match, against South Africa at Port Elizabeth in March 1889, taking five wickets for nineteen runs in the first innings. 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 the Hollywood Cricket Club and created a pitch with imported English grass. He attracted fellow expatriates such as David Niven, Laurence Olivier, Nigel Bruce, Leslie Howard and Boris 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." 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 to Lord'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."

Acting career

Smith began acting on the London stage in 1895. His first major role was in Prisoner of Zenda the following year, playing the dual lead roles of king and look-alike. Forty-one years later, he appeared in the most acclaimed film version of the novel, this time as the wise old adviser to Ronald Colman. When Raymond 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 in The Prisoner of Zenda except Princess Flavia. And I always had trouble with Black Michael!" He made his Broadway debut as early as 1895 in The Notorious Mrs. Ebbsmith. In 1907 he appeared with Marie Doro in The Morals of Marcus, a play Doro later made into a silent film. Smith later appeared in a revival of George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion in the starring role of Henry Higgins.
Smith appeared in early films for the nascent British film industry, starring in The Bump in 1920. Smith later went to Hollywood where he had a successful career as a character actor playing either officer or gentleman roles. One role in 1937 was as Colonel Williams in Wee Willie Winkie, starring Shirley Temple, Victor McLaglen, Cesar Romero and June Lang. He was regarded as being the unofficial leader of the British film industry colony in Hollywood, which Sheridan Morley characterised as the Hollywood Raj, 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 were David Niven, Ronald Colman, Rex Harrison, Robert Coote, Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Leslie Howard, and Patric Knowles.
Smith expected his fellow countrymen to report for regular duty at his Hollywood Cricket Club. Anyone who refused was known to "incur his displeasure". Fiercely patriotic, Smith became openly critical of the British actors of enlistment age who did not return to fight after the outbreak of World 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 as Greta Garbo, Elizabeth Taylor, and Vivien Leigh as well as the actors Clark Gable, Laurence Olivier, Ronald Colman, Maurice Chevalier, and Gary Cooper. His films include The Prisoner of Zenda, The Four Feathers, Hitchcock's Rebecca, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, And Then There Were None in which he played General Mandrake, and the 1949 remake of Little Women starring Elizabeth Taylor and Janet Leigh, in which he portrayed the aged grandfather of Laurie Lawrence, who generously gives a piano to the frail Beth March. He also appeared as the father of Maureen O'Sullivan in Tarzan the Ape Man, the first Tarzan film with Johnny Weissmüller. Smith also played a leading role as the Earl of Dorincourt in David O. Selznick's adaption Little Lord Fauntleroy.
He appeared in Dennis Wheatley's 1934 thriller Such Power Is Dangerous, about an attempt to take over Hollywood, under the fictitious name of Warren Hastings Rook. Author Evelyn Waugh leaned heavily on Smith in drawing the character of Sir Ambrose Abercrombie for Waugh's 1948 satire of Hollywood The Loved One. Commander McBragg in the TV cartoon Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales is a parody of him.

Death

Smith died of pneumonia at home in Beverly Hills on 20 December 1948, aged 85. He was survived by his wife Isobel Mary Scott Wood and their daughter, Honor. 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 at St Leonard's churchyard in Hove, Sussex.

Honours and awards

Smith has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Smith was an officer in the Legion of Frontiersmen.
In 1933, he served on the first board of the Screen Actors Guild.
He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1938 and was knighted by George VI in 1944 for services to Anglo-American amity.

Complete filmography

Year	Film	Role	Director	Notes
1915	The Builder of Bridges	Edward Thursfield
1915	John Glayde's Honor	John Glayde
1916	Jaffery	Jaffery
1916	The Witching Hour	Jack Brookfield
1918	Red Pottage	Lord Newhaven	Meyrick Milton
1920	The Face at the Window	Bentinck	Wilfred Noy
1920	Castles in Spain	The builder	Horace Lisle Lucoque
1920	The Bump			Short subject
1920	The Shuttle of Life	Reverend John Stone	D. J. Williams	Lost film
1922	The Bohemian Girl	Devilshoof	Josef von Sternberg	Incomplete film
1922	Flames of Passion	Richard Hawke, K.C.	Graham Cutts
1923	The Temptation of Carlton Earle	Carlton Earle	Wilfred Noy
1924	The Unwanted	Col. Carrington	Walter Summers
1924	The Rejected Woman	Peter Leslie	Albert Parker
1928	Show People	Extra at Movie Preview	King Vidor	uncredited
1930	Such Is the Law	Sir James Whittaker	Sinclair Hill
1930	Birds of Prey	Arthur Hilton	Basil Dean John E. Burch
1930	Passion Flower	Man at Ferry Boat Pier	William C. deMille	uncredited
1931	The Bachelor Father	Sir Basil Algernon 'Chief' Winterton	Robert Z. Leonard
1931	Trader Horn	St. Clair	W.S. Van Dyke	uncredited
1931	Contraband Love	Paul Machin, JP	Sidney Morgan
1931	Daybreak	General von Hertz	Jacques Feyder
1931	Never the Twain Shall Meet	Mr. Pritchard	W. S. Van Dyke
1931	Just a Gigolo	Lord George Hampton	Jack Conway
1931	The Man in Possession	Mr. Dabney	Sam Wood
1931	Son of India	Dr. Wallace	Jacques Feyder
1931	Guilty Hands	Reverend Hastings	W.S. Van Dyke
1931	The Phantom of Paris	Bourrelier	John S. Robertson
1931	Surrender	Count Reichendorf	William K. Howard
1932	Polly of the Circus	Reverend James Northcott	Alfred Santell
1932	Tarzan the Ape Man	James Parker	W. S. Van Dyke	Jane's father
1932	But the Flesh Is Weak	Florian Clement	Jack Conway
1932	Love Me Tonight	the Duc d'Artelines	Rouben Mamoulian
1932	Trouble in Paradise	Adolph J. Giron	Ernst Lubitsch
1932	No More Orchids	Jerome Cedric	Walter Lang
1932	They Just Had to Get Married	Aubrey Hampton	Edward Ludwig
1933	The Monkey's Paw	Sgt. Maj. Morris	Wesley Ruggles Ernest B. Schoedsack
1933	Luxury Liner	Edward Thorndyke	Lothar Mendes
1933	Secrets	Mr. William Marlowe	Frank Borzage
1933	The Barbarian	Cecil Harwood	Sam Wood
1933	Adorable	Prime Minister Von Heynitz	William Dieterle
1933	Morning Glory	Robert Harley "Bob" Hedges	Lowell Sherman
1933	Curtain at Eight	Detective Jim Hanvey	E. Mason Hopper
1933	Bombshell	Mr. Wendell Middleton	Victor Fleming
1933	Queen Christina	Aage	Rouben Mamoulian
1934	Caravan	Baron von Tokay	Erik Charell
1934	Gambling Lady	Peter Madison	Archie Mayo
1934	The House of Rothschild	Duke of Wellington	Alfred L. Werker Maude T. Howell
1934	The Scarlet Empress	Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst	Josef von Sternberg	Catherine's father
1934	One More River	Gen. Charwell	James Whale
1934	Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back	Captain Reginald Neilsen aka Colonel	Roy Del Ruth
1934	Cleopatra	Enobarbus	Cecil B. DeMille
1934	We Live Again	Prince Kortchagin	Rouben Mamoulian
1934	The Firebird	Police Inspector Miller	William Dieterle
1935	The Lives of a Bengal Lancer	Major Hamilton	Henry Hathaway
1935	Clive of India	British Prime Minister	Richard Boleslawski
1935	The Gilded Lily	Lloyd Granton, Duke of Loamshire	Wesley Ruggles
1935	The Right to Live	Major Licondra	William Keighley
1935	The Florentine Dagger	Dr. Lytton	Robert Florey
1935	Jalna	Uncle Nicholas Whiteoak	John Cromwell
1935	China Seas	Sir Guy Wilmerding	Tay Garnett
1935	The Crusades	The Hermit	Cecil B. DeMille
1935	Hollywood Extra Girl			Documentary short
1935	The Tunnel	Lloyd	Maurice Elvey
1936	Little Lord Fauntleroy	The Earl of Dorincourt	John Cromwell
1936	Romeo and Juliet	Lord Capulet	George Cukor	his only Shakespearean role on screen
1936	The Garden of Allah	Father J. Roubier	Richard Boleslawski
1936	Lloyd's of London	Old 'Q'	Henry King
1936	The Story of Papworth, the Village of Hope			short
1937	Wee Willie Winkie	Colonel Williams	John Ford
1937	The Prisoner of Zenda	Colonel Zapt	John Cromwell W. S. Van Dyke
1937	The Hurricane	Father Paul	John Ford
1937	Thoroughbreds Don't Cry	Sir Peter Calverton	Alfred E. Green
1938	Four Men and a Prayer	Col. Loring Leigh	John Ford
1938	Kidnapped	Duke of Argyle	Alfred L. Werker
1938	Sixty Glorious Years	Duke of Wellington	Herbert Wilcox
1939	East Side of Heaven	Cyrus Barrett Snr.	David Butler
1939	The Four Feathers	General Burroughs	Zoltan Korda
1939	The Sun Never Sets	Sir John Randolph	Rowland V. Lee
1939	Five Came Back	Professor Henry Spengler	John Farrow
1939	The Under-Pup	Grandpa	Richard Wallace
1939	Eternally Yours	Gramps, aka Bishop Peabody	Tay Garnett Charles Kerr
1939	Another Thin Man	Colonel Burr MacFay	W. S. Van Dyke
1939	Balalaika	Gen. Karagin	Reinhold Schünzel
1940	City of Chance	The Judge	Ricardo Cortez
1940	Rebecca	Colonel Julyan	Alfred Hitchcock
1940	Beyond Tomorrow	Allan Chadwick	A. Edward Sutherland
1940	Waterloo Bridge	Sr. Military officer / The Duke	Mervyn LeRoy
1940	A Bill of Divorcement	Dr. Alliot	John Farrow
1940	A Little Bit of Heaven	Grandpa	Andrew Marton
1941	Maisie Was a Lady	Al Walpole	Edwin L. Marin
1941	Free and Easy	The Duke	George Sidney Edward Buzzell
1941	Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde	Bishop Manners	Victor Fleming
1943	Forever and a Day	Admiral Eustace Trimble	multiple director
1943	Two Tickets to London	Admiralty Detective Fairchild	Edwin L. Marin
1943	Flesh and Fantasy	Dean of Norwalk	Julien Duvivier	Episode 2
1943	Madame Curie	Lord Kelvin	Mervyn LeRoy
1944	The Adventures of Mark Twain	Oxford Chancellor	Irving Rapper
1944	The White Cliffs of Dover	Colonel Walter Forsythe	Clarence Brown
1944	Sensations of 1945	Dan Lindsey	Andrew Stone
1944	Secrets of Scotland Yard	Sir Christopher Pelt	George Blair
1945	Forever Yours	Grandfather	William Nigh
1945	Scotland Yard Investigator	Sir James Collison	George Blair
1945	And Then There Were None	General Sir John Mandrake	René Clair
1946	Terror by Night	Elderly gentleman on train station	Roy William Neill	Uncredited
1946	Cluny Brown	Colonel Charles Duff Graham	Ernst Lubitsch
1946	Rendezvous with Annie	Sir Archibald Clyde	Allan Dwan
1947	High Conquest	Col. Hugh Bunning	Irving Allen
1947	Unconquered	Lord Chief Justice	Cecil B. DeMille
1947	An Ideal Husband	Earl of Caversham, Goring's Father	Alexander Korda
1948	Luxury Liner	Edward Thorndike	Richard Whorf
1949	Little Women	Mr. James Laurence	Mervyn LeRoy	Final film role; released posthumously