William Smithers

William Smithers, born July 10, 1927, in Richmond, Virginia, is an American actor whose career has spanned Broadway, film, and television. The son of systems engineer Marion Wilkinson Smithers and Marion Albany Smithers (née Thompson), he is perhaps most widely recognized for his recurring role as oil baron Jeremy Wendell on the prime-time soap opera Dallas, a part he played in 1981 and again from 1984 to 1989.

Smithers made his Broadway debut in 1951 as Tybalt in the Dwight Deere Wiman production of Romeo and Juliet, which starred Olivia de Havilland. That performance earned him a Theatre World Award. The following year, in 1952, he was accepted as a life member of The Actors Studio, an association that shaped several of his subsequent stage projects. His Broadway credits across the period from 1951 to 1963 include Jean Anouilh's Legend of Lovers, Calder Willingham's End as a Man, Carson McCullers's The Square Root of Wonderful, Sean O'Casey's The Shadow of a Gunman, and Terence Rattigan's Man and Boy, the last of which was performed in both London and New York.

Off-Broadway, Smithers took on leading roles in a number of productions, several of which originated as Actors Studio projects. These included Willingham's End as a Man before it transferred to Broadway, O'Casey's Shadow of a Gunman, Frank Gilroy's Who'll Save the Plowboy?, and George Bellak's The Troublemakers. In 1957, he received an Obie Award for his portrayal of Treplev in Anton Chekhov's The Seagull, and Who'll Save the Plowboy? earned the Obie Award for Best Drama.

In 1965, Smithers relocated to Los Angeles to join the cast of the television series Peyton Place, where he played David Schuster for nine months. He subsequently portrayed Stanley Norris on the soap opera Guiding Light from 1970 to 1971, and was a cast member of Executive Suite from 1976 to 1977. His television work encompasses nearly 400 productions, including appearances on Star Trek, Mission: Impossible, Combat, The Invaders, Barnaby Jones, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, and Hawaii Five-O. His feature film credits include Attack (1956), Trouble Man (1972), Scorpio (1973), Papillon (1973), The Six Million Dollar Man (1974), and Deathsport (1978).

During his time on Executive Suite, Smithers initiated legal action against MGM to protect his contractual rights regarding star billing. Despite facing the threat of blacklisting, he pursued the case, which was ultimately appealed to the California Supreme Court. He prevailed, and the case, Smithers vs. MGM, is now taught in entertainment law courses.

Smithers lived in Santa Barbara, California, with his wife, acting teacher S. Loraine Boos Hull, known as Lorrie Hull Smithers, who was born August 5, 1928, and died January 10, 2022. She authored Strasberg's Method: As Taught by Lorrie Hull, and the two co-produced an acting-training DVD titled The Method. From 2003 to 2005, Smithers created, produced, and directed the Santa Barbara Theatre of the Air for KCSB radio, presenting works by classic and contemporary playwrights. He and his wife co-hosted and co-produced the Santa Barbara Channels television interview program Just Between Us! from 2010 to 2013, with seven episodes of the program named finalists for the WAVE (Western Access Video Excellence) Awards in 2011, 2012, and 2013. Smithers served on the Board of Directors of TV Santa Barbara in 2010 and 2011, and in December 2015 was appointed by the Santa Barbara City Council to the city's Arts Advisory Committee.