A diminutive, generally bespectacled character player of film and TV, generally cast as scientists or accountants, Charles Martin Smith has also embarked on a secondary career as a director. The California native made his screen debut as a member of "The Culpepper Cattle Company" (1972). He had one of his best early screen roles the following year as Terry (a.k.a. 'Toad'), a bumbler who romances an older woman (Candy Clark), in George Lucas' seminal "American Graffiti". Smith offered strong support to Gary Busey as a 1950s musician in "The Buddy Holly Story" (1978) and had one of his best screen roles as a biologist in the Arctic in Carroll Ballard's "Never Cry Wolf" (1983). He was again cast as a scientist, this time pursuing alien Jeff Bridges, in John Carpenter's "Starman" (1984) and he offered a fine turn as a methodical accountant recruited as one of "The Untouchables" (1987). Smith made his directing debut with the rock 'n' roll horror film, "Trick or Treat" (1986), in which he also appeared and he performed similar double duty on his sophomore effort, the mediocre actioner "Fifty/Fifty" (1991).

On the small screen, Smith began by providing a character voice on the animated CBS series "Speed Buggy" (1973-74). He also was featured in longforms ranging from the well-intentioned "Go Ask Alice" (ABC, 1973) to the Emmy-winning "And the Band Played On" (HBO, 1993). Smith played yet another accountant in the CBS miniseries "Larry McMurtry's 'Streets of Laredo'" (1995) before turning villainous in "Peter Benchley's 'The Beast'" (NBC, 1996). In addition to make guest appearances in high quality dramas ("Picket Fences", "Northern Exposure" and "The X-Files"), Smith moved to the other side of the camera to helm three episodes of the Fox sci-fi series "Space: Above and Beyond" (1995-96).