William Smithers

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

William Smithers (born 10 July 1927 in Richmond, Virginia) is an American actor, probably best known for his recurring role in the television series Dallas as Jeremy Wendell. He appeared in the series from 1984 to 1989. He attended Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia and Catholic University in Washington, D.C.

After his freshman year, he was chosen to play the leading role of Thomas Jefferson in Paul Green's "The Common Glory," presented in Williamsburg, VA. NY Times critic Brooks Atkinson called him "worth encouraging." In 1951, he made his Broadway debut as Tybalt in the Dwight Deere Wiman production of "Romeo and Juliet," starring Olivia DeHavilland; for this performance he received a Theater World Award. In 1957 he received an Obie Award for his portrayal of the young poet Treplev in Anton Chekhov's "The Sea Gull." After appearing in a number of Broadway and Off-Broadway plays, he moved to Los Angeles in 1965 to do the recurring role of David Schuster in the TV series "Peyton Place." He has guest-starred or appeared in nearly 400 television productions and in six feature films, most notably "Attack!" (Lt. Woodruff) and "Papillon" (Warden Barrot). In personal life, as a plaintiff in "Smithers vs. MGM," he stood alone against a multi-million-dollar corporation to protect violated contractual rights re billing in the 1976 TV series "Executive Suite" - and won a case appealed all the way to the California Supreme Court (and since taught in Entertainment Law courses), establishing in law that star billing has monetary value.