Handsome stage leading man who matured into character and co-starring roles on the big and small screens in his vigorous middle-age. Smith's career began in the New York theater in the late 1950s with a slew of forgettable productions on-and-off Broadway until he finally achieved a breakthrough in the late 60s as McMurphy in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", a role which he performed some 650 times. Better stage parts followed including David Mamet's Pulitzer Prize-winning play "Glengarry Glen Ross" (1984), for which Smith received a Drama Desk Award.

Smith made his film debut in the drama