Alexis Smith

Margaret Alexis Smith was born on June 8, 1921, in Penticton, British Columbia, Canada, the only child of Gladys Mabel Smith and Alexander Smith. Her family relocated to Los Angeles when she was approximately one year old, and she grew up there, attending Hollywood High School alongside future actress Nanette Fabray. Her parents became naturalized United States citizens in 1939, through which Smith derived her own American citizenship. She made her professional debut performing ballet at the Hollywood Bowl before being discovered by a Warner Bros. talent scout in 1940 while acting in a production at Los Angeles City College.

Signed to a contract by Warner Bros., Smith began with uncredited bit parts in a series of films in 1940 and 1941, including Lady with Red Hair, Flight from Destiny, and Singapore Woman, among others. Her first credited role came in Dive Bomber (1941), in which she played the female lead opposite Errol Flynn. She appeared alongside her future husband Craig Stevens in Steel Against the Sky (1941), the first film in which she received top billing. Smith and Flynn were reunited in Gentleman Jim (1942), one of the year's most popular releases, and she went on to appear in The Constant Nymph (1943), The Adventures of Mark Twain (1944) opposite Fredric March, and The Doughgirls (1944) with Ann Sheridan. She co-starred with Humphrey Bogart in Conflict (1945) and again in The Two Mrs. Carrolls (1947), and appeared with Cary Grant in Night and Day (1946). Smith later reflected that during her Warner Bros. years she more often than not played the other woman. She was released from her contract in October 1949 after nine years at the studio.

Following her departure from Warner Bros., Smith worked across several studios. At Paramount she appeared in Here Comes the Groom (1951) with Bing Crosby and Jane Wyman, a role she identified as her favorite. She also made The Turning Point (1952) with William Holden. During this period she began appearing on stage, performing in Private Lives and Bell Book and Candle, both with Victor Jory, and took on television work across programs including Lux Video Theatre, Robert Montgomery Presents, and The United States Steel Hour. She toured with her husband Craig Stevens, whom she had married in 1944, in a national company production of Plain and Fancy in 1955, a credit that would later appear among her verified Broadway appearances. She continued in film through the late 1950s, appearing in Beau James (1957) with Bob Hope, This Happy Feeling (1958), and The Young Philadelphians (1959) with Paul Newman.

Smith's Broadway career spanned 1956 to 1980 and included productions such as Plain and Fancy, Cactus Flower, Summer Brave, Platinum, and The Old Women. Her most celebrated stage role came in Hal Prince's production of Follies, the Stephen Sondheim and James Goldman musical, in which she played Phyllis Rogers Stone. The performance earned her widespread critical acclaim for her singing and dancing, and her appearance on the cover of Time magazine on May 3, 1971, reflected the attention the production received. She won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical in 1972 for the role and received the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Performance in 1971. Her stage work continued through the decade with the 1973 all-star revival of The Women, the William Inge drama retitled Summer Brave in 1975, and the musical Platinum in 1978, which earned her an additional Tony nomination despite the production's brief run. She also starred in regional productions of Applause and toured for more than a year in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, including a seven-month engagement in Los Angeles.

Smith returned to film in 1975 with a starring role in Jacqueline Susann's Once Is Not Enough opposite Kirk Douglas, followed by The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (1976) with Martin Sheen and Jodie Foster, and Casey's Shadow (1978) with Walter Matthau. She and Stevens appeared together in Joseph Losey's The Trout (1982), and she reunited with Douglas in Tough Guys (1986). On television, she held a recurring role on Dallas as Lady Jessica Montford in 1984 and again in 1990, starred in the short-lived 1988 series Hothouse, and received an Emmy nomination for a guest appearance on Cheers in 1990. Her final film role was in The Age of Innocence (1993). Smith died on June 9, 1993, one day after her seventy-second birthday.