William Smithers is an American actor, perhaps best known for his recurring role as Jeremy Wendell in the television series Dallas. He appeared in the series in 1981 and from 1984 to 1989.
Early life and career
Smithers 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 the first production of Paul Green's The Common Glory, presented at Williamsburg, Virginia. 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 de Havilland; for this performance he received a Theater World Award. In 1952, he was accepted as a life member of The Actors Studio. In 1957, he received an Obie Award for his portrayal of Treplev in Anton Chekhov's The Seagull.
Stage
His other Broadway plays included Anouilh's Legend of Lovers, Calder Willingham's End as a Man,, Carson McCullers's The Square Root of Wonderful and Terence Rattigan's Man and Boy. Off-Broadway, he played leading roles in Frank Gilroy's Who'll Save the Plowboy?, Willingham's End as a Man, Sean O'Casey's Shadow of a Gunman and George Bellak's The Troublemakers.
Film and television
In 1965, he moved to Los Angeles to play David Schuster in the television series Peyton Place for nine months. He also played Stanley Norris on the soap Guiding Light from 1970–71, and from 1976–77 was a cast member in the series Executive Suite. He has guest-starred or appeared in nearly 400 television productions, including The Invaders, Barnaby Jones in the episode titled “Theater of Fear” alongside Anne Francis ; Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea, ', Combat, ', and Hawaii Five-O, as well as feature films such as Attack, Trouble Man, Scorpio, Papillon, The Six Million Dollar Man, and Deathsport. His performance in Papillon prompted the producers of Demolition Man to name that film's prison warden "William Smithers". In 1981 and from 1984–1989, he played oil baron Jeremy Wendell on the prime time soap operaDallas.
Smithers vs. MGM
As the plaintiff in Smithers vs. MGM, despite being threatened with blacklisting should he pursue the matter, he sued a multimillion-dollar corporation to protect his contractual rights with regard to star billing in the 1976 television series Executive Suite. In so doing, he won a case that was appealed as far as the California Supreme Court, and is now taught in entertainment law courses.
Later life
He now lives in Santa Barbara, California, with his wife, acting teacher Lorrie Hull Smithers. From 2003–2005, he created, produced and directed the Santa Barbara Theatre of the Air for KCSB radio, broadcasting works of classic and contemporary playwrights. From 2010 to 2013, the couple were co-hosts and co-producers of the Santa Barbara Channels television interview program "Just Between Us!" Seven episodes of this program were named finalists for the 2011, 2012 and 2013 WAVE Awards – the most nominations of the kind for a similar period in that station's history. Several dozen of the program's episodes are available on Vimeo. In 2010 and 2011, Smithers served on the Board of Directors of TV Santa Barbara. In December 2015, he was appointed by the Santa Barbara City Council to the city's Arts Advisory Committee.
Authorship
In 2018-2019, he authored and published the e-book 'The Wizard of Sacramento: Governor Jerry Brown', "an independent assessment of the nature, priorities, politics and governmental methods of Jerry Brown as California governor.".
