Loring B. Smith (November 18, 1890â€"July 8, 1981) was an American
vaudeville, stage, film, radio and television actor, frequently of
broadly comic and gregarious characters who enjoyed a 65-year career
in every aspect of the entertainment business.A native of Stratford,
Connecticut, Smith left doubt as to the year of his birth. Most of the
earliest sources list 1890, by the 1940s, it was 1895, and by the
1950s, the year became 1900. He does, however, have vaudeville and
theatrical credits reaching back to the 1910s. While he served in the
Tank Corps during World War I, he put on shows for soldiers. A booking
agent saw him in a show at Camp Upton on Long Island, and that
exposure led to his becoming a professional entertainer.During the
1920s, 1930s and 1940s, he played hundreds of characters in radio
drama, comedy and variety. He also intermittently appeared in films,
playing supporting parts in 1941's Keep 'Em Flying, with Abbott and
Costello and Shadow of the Thin Man, fourth in the William
Powellâ€"Myrna Loy series of Nick and Nora Charles mysteries. Over the
following twenty-six years he was seen in nine others, including a
cameo in Orson Welles' 1958 Touch of Evil as the driver of a car at a
police check point, usually playing his patented persona of a
blustery, equivocating businessman or politician.At age 50, he became
a Broadway actor, appearing in twelve productions between November
1940 and March 1964. In most of those, he was, as usual, billed as
"Senator" or "Mayor". His Broadway debut came in Glamour Preferred
(1940). While the majority of his assignments placed him in supporting
roles, he was given a co-starring billing in the comedy Be Your Age,
with Conrad Nagel. His most memorable Broadway role came nearly three
years later when he portrayed Horace Vandergelder in Thornton Wilder's
The Matchmaker.
vaudeville, stage, film, radio and television actor, frequently of
broadly comic and gregarious characters who enjoyed a 65-year career
in every aspect of the entertainment business.A native of Stratford,
Connecticut, Smith left doubt as to the year of his birth. Most of the
earliest sources list 1890, by the 1940s, it was 1895, and by the
1950s, the year became 1900. He does, however, have vaudeville and
theatrical credits reaching back to the 1910s. While he served in the
Tank Corps during World War I, he put on shows for soldiers. A booking
agent saw him in a show at Camp Upton on Long Island, and that
exposure led to his becoming a professional entertainer.During the
1920s, 1930s and 1940s, he played hundreds of characters in radio
drama, comedy and variety. He also intermittently appeared in films,
playing supporting parts in 1941's Keep 'Em Flying, with Abbott and
Costello and Shadow of the Thin Man, fourth in the William
Powellâ€"Myrna Loy series of Nick and Nora Charles mysteries. Over the
following twenty-six years he was seen in nine others, including a
cameo in Orson Welles' 1958 Touch of Evil as the driver of a car at a
police check point, usually playing his patented persona of a
blustery, equivocating businessman or politician.At age 50, he became
a Broadway actor, appearing in twelve productions between November
1940 and March 1964. In most of those, he was, as usual, billed as
"Senator" or "Mayor". His Broadway debut came in Glamour Preferred
(1940). While the majority of his assignments placed him in supporting
roles, he was given a co-starring billing in the comedy Be Your Age,
with Conrad Nagel. His most memorable Broadway role came nearly three
years later when he portrayed Horace Vandergelder in Thornton Wilder's
The Matchmaker.
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