C. Aubrey Smith

Sir
C. Aubrey Smith

CBE
	Smith in about 1940
Personal information
Full name	Charles Aubrey Smith
Born	21 July 1863; London, England
Died	20 December 1948 (aged 85); Beverly Hills, California, U.S.
Batting	Right-handed
Bowling	Right arm fast
International information
National side	England;
Only Test (cap 66)	12 March 1889 v South Africa
Domestic team information
1882–1896	Sussex
1882–1885	Cambridge University
1889/90	Transvaal
Career statistics
	Source: CricketArchive, 23 September 2008

Sir Charles Aubrey Smith CBE (21 July 1863 – 20 December 1948) was an English Test cricketer who became a stage and film actor, acquiring a niche as the officer-and-gentleman type, as in the first sound version of The Prisoner of Zenda (1937). In Hollywood, he organised British actors into a cricket team, much intriguing local spectators.

Early life

Smith was born in London, England, to Charles John Smith (1838–1928), a medical doctor, and Sarah Ann (née Clode, 1836–1922).^[1]^[2] His sister, Beryl Faber (died 1912), was married to Cosmo Hamilton.

Smith was educated at Charterhouse School and St John's College, Cambridge.^[3]^[4] He settled in South Africa to prospect for gold in 1888–89. While there he developed pneumonia and was wrongly pronounced dead by doctors. He married Isabella Wood in 1896.

Cricket career

As a cricketer, Smith was primarily a right arm fast bowler, though he was also a useful right-hand lower-order batsman and a good slip fielder. His oddly curved bowling run-up, which started from deep mid-off, earned him the nickname "Round the Corner Smith".^[5]^[6] When he bowled round the wicket his approach was concealed from the batsman by the umpire until he emerged, leading W. G. Grace to comment "it is rather startling when he suddenly appears at the bowling crease."^[7] He is widely regarded as one of the very best amateur bowlers of his day.^[8] He played for Cambridge University (1882–1885) and for Sussex at various times from 1882 to 1892.^[3]

While in South Africa he captained the Johannesburg English XI.^[3] He captained England to victory in his only Test match,^[5] against South Africa at Port Elizabeth in March 1889, taking five wickets for nineteen runs in the first innings.^[9] The English team who played were by no means representative of the best players of the time and nobody at the time realised that the match would enter the cricket records as an official Test match. His home club for much of his career was West Drayton Cricket club. Actors would arrive from London to the purpose-built train station in West Drayton and taken by horse-drawn carriage to the ground.

In 1932, he founded the Hollywood Cricket Club and created a pitch with imported English grass. He attracted fellow expatriates such as David Niven, Laurence Olivier, Nigel Bruce (who served as captain), Leslie Howard^[10] and Boris Karloff to the club as well as local American players. Smith's stereotypical Englishness spawned several amusing anecdotes: while fielding at slip for the Hollywood Club, he dropped a difficult catch and ordered his English butler to fetch his spectacles; they were brought on to the field on a silver platter. The next ball looped gently to slip, to present the kind of catch that "a child would take at midnight with no moon." Smith dropped it and, snatching off his lenses, commented, "Damned fool brought my reading glasses."^[11] Decades after his cricket career had ended, when he had long been a famous face in films, Smith was spotted in the pavilion on a visit to Lord's. "That man over there seems familiar", remarked one member to another. "Yes", said the second, seemingly oblivious to his Hollywood fame, "Chap called Smith. Used to play for Sussex."^[12]

Acting career

Smith began acting on the London stage in 1895. His first major role was in Prisoner of Zenda the following year, playing the dual lead roles of king and look-alike. Forty-one years later, he appeared in the most acclaimed film version of the novel, this time as the wise old adviser. When Raymond Massey asked him to help him understand the role of Black Michael, he answered "My dear Ray, in my time I have played every part in The Prisoner of Zenda except Princess Flavia. And I always had trouble with Black Michael!"^[13] He made his Broadway debut as early as 1895 in The Notorious Mrs. Ebbsmith. In 1907 he appeared with Marie Doro in The Morals of Marcus, a play Doro later made into a silent film. Smith later appeared in a revival of George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion in the starring role of Henry Higgins.

Smith appeared in early films for the nascent British film industry, starring in The Bump in 1920 (written by A. A. Milne for the company Minerva Films, which was founded in 1920 by the actor Leslie Howard and his friend and story editor Adrian Brunel).^[14] Smith later went to Hollywood where he had a successful career as a character actor playing either officer or gentleman roles. One role in 1937 was as Colonel Williams in Wee Willie Winkie, starring Shirley Temple, Victor McLaglen, Cesar Romero and June Lang. He was regarded as being the unofficial leader of the British film industry colony in Hollywood, which Sheridan Morley characterised as the Hollywood Raj,^[15] a select group of British actors who were seen to be colonising the capital of the film business in the 1930s. Other film stars considered to be "members" of this select group were David Niven (whom Smith treated like a son), Ronald Colman, Rex Harrison, Robert Coote, Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce (whose daughter's wedding he had attended as best man), Leslie Howard (whom Smith had known since working with him on early films in London),^[16] and Patric Knowles.

Smith expected his fellow countrymen to report for regular duty at his Hollywood Cricket Club. Anyone who refused was known to "incur his displeasure".^{[citation needed]} Fiercely patriotic, Smith became openly critical of the British actors of enlistment age who did not return to fight after the outbreak of World War II in 1939. Smith loved playing on his status as Hollywood's "Englishman in Residence". His bushy eyebrows, beady eyes, handlebar moustache, and height of 6'2" made him one of the most recognisable faces in Hollywood.

Smith starred alongside leading ladies such as Greta Garbo, Elizabeth Taylor, and Vivien Leigh as well as the actors Clark Gable, Laurence Olivier, Ronald Colman, Maurice Chevalier, and Gary Cooper. His films include The Prisoner of Zenda (1937), The Four Feathers (1939), Hitchcock's Rebecca (1940), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941), And Then There Were None (1945) in which he played General Mandrake, and the 1949 remake of Little Women starring Elizabeth Taylor and Janet Leigh, in which he portrayed the aged grandfather of Laurie Lawrence (played by a young Peter Lawford), who generously gives a piano to the frail Beth March (played by Margaret O'Brien). He also appeared as the father of Maureen O'Sullivan in Tarzan the Ape Man, the first Tarzan film with Johnny Weissmüller. Smith also played a leading role as the Earl of Dorincourt in David O. Selznick's adaption Little Lord Fauntleroy (1936).

He appeared in Dennis Wheatley's 1934 thriller Such Power Is Dangerous, about an attempt to take over Hollywood, under the fictitious name of Warren Hastings Rook (rather than Charles Aubrey Smith). Author Evelyn Waugh leaned heavily on Smith in drawing the character of Sir Ambrose Abercrombie for Waugh's 1948 satire of Hollywood The Loved One. Commander McBragg in the TV cartoon Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales is a parody of him.^{[citation needed]}

Death

Smith died of pneumonia at home in Beverly Hills on 20 December 1948, aged 85. He was survived by his wife and their daughter, Honor.^[17] His body was cremated and nine months later, in accordance with his instructions, the ashes were returned to England and interred in his mother's grave at St Leonard's churchyard in Hove, Sussex.

Honours and awards

Smith has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.^[18]

Smith was an officer in the Legion of Frontiersmen.

In 1933, he served on the first board of the Screen Actors Guild.

He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1938^[19] and was knighted by George VI in 1944^[20] for services to Anglo-American amity.^[21]^[22]^[23]

Complete filmography

Year	Film	Role	Director	Notes
1915	The Builder of Bridges	Edward Thursfield
1915	John Glayde's Honor	John Glayde
1916	Jaffery	Jaffery
1916	The Witching Hour	Jack Brookfield
1918	Red Pottage	Lord Newhaven	Meyrick Milton
1920	The Face at the Window	Bentinck	Wilfred Noy
	Castles in Spain	The builder	Horace Lisle Lucoque
	The Bump			Short subject
	The Shuttle of Life	Reverend John Stone	D. J. Williams	Lost film
1922	The Bohemian Girl	Devilshoof	Josef von Sternberg	Incomplete film
1922	Flames of Passion	Richard Hawke, K.C.	Graham Cutts
1923	The Temptation of Carlton Earle	Carlton Earle	Wilfred Noy
1924	The Unwanted	Col. Carrington	Walter Summers	(rediscovered and restored 2011)^[24]
1924	The Rejected Woman	Peter Leslie	Albert Parker
1928	Show People	Extra at Movie Preview	King Vidor	uncredited
1930	Such Is the Law	Sir James Whittaker	Sinclair Hill
	Birds of Prey	Arthur Hilton	Basil Dean John E. Burch (assistant)
	Passion Flower	Man at Ferry Boat Pier	William C. deMille (uncredited)	uncredited
1931	The Bachelor Father	Sir Basil Algernon 'Chief' Winterton	Robert Z. Leonard
	Trader Horn	St. Clair	W.S. Van Dyke	uncredited
	Contraband Love	Paul Machin, JP	Sidney Morgan
	Daybreak	General von Hertz	Jacques Feyder
	Never the Twain Shall Meet	Mr. Pritchard	W. S. Van Dyke
	Just a Gigolo	Lord George Hampton	Jack Conway
	The Man in Possession	Mr. Dabney	Sam Wood (uncredited)
	Son of India	Dr. Wallace	Jacques Feyder
	Guilty Hands	Reverend Hastings	Lionel Barrymore
	The Phantom of Paris	Bourrelier	John S. Robertson
	Surrender	Count Reichendorf	William K. Howard
1932	Polly of the Circus	Reverend James Northcott	Alfred Santell
	Tarzan the Ape Man	James Parker	W. S. Van Dyke	Jane's father
	But the Flesh Is Weak	Florian Clement	Jack Conway
	Love Me Tonight	the Duc d'Artelines	Rouben Mamoulian
	Trouble in Paradise	Adolph J. Giron	Ernst Lubitsch
	No More Orchids	Jerome Cedric	Walter Lang
	They Just Had to Get Married	Aubrey Hampton	Edward Ludwig
1933	The Monkey's Paw	Sgt. Maj. Morris	Wesley Ruggles Ernest B. Schoedsack (uncredited)
	Luxury Liner	Edward Thorndyke	Lothar Mendes
	Secrets	Mr. William Marlowe	Frank Borzage
	The Barbarian	Cecil Harwood	Sam Wood
	Adorable	Prime Minister Von Heynitz	William Dieterle
	Morning Glory	Robert Harley "Bob" Hedges	Lowell Sherman
	Curtain at Eight	Detective Jim Hanvey	E. Mason Hopper
	Bombshell	Mr. Wendell Middleton	Victor Fleming
	Queen Christina	Aage	Rouben Mamoulian
1934	Caravan	Baron von Tokay	Erik Charell
	Gambling Lady	Peter Madison	Archie Mayo
	The House of Rothschild	Duke of Wellington	Alfred L. Werker Maude T. Howell (asst.)
	The Scarlet Empress	Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst	Josef von Sternberg	Catherine's father
	One More River	Gen. Charwell	James Whale
	Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back	Captain Reginald Neilsen aka Colonel	Roy Del Ruth
	Cleopatra	Enobarbus	Cecil B. DeMille
	We Live Again	Prince Kortchagin	Rouben Mamoulian
	The Firebird	Police Inspector Miller	William Dieterle
1935	The Lives of a Bengal Lancer	Major Hamilton	Henry Hathaway
	Clive of India	British Prime Minister	Richard Boleslawski
	The Gilded Lily	Lloyd Granton, Duke of Loamshire	Wesley Ruggles
	The Right to Live	Major Licondra	William Keighley
	The Florentine Dagger	Dr. Lytton	Robert Florey
	Jalna	Uncle Nicholas Whiteoak	John Cromwell
	China Seas	Sir Guy Wilmerding	Tay Garnett
	The Crusades	The Hermit	Cecil B. DeMille
	Hollywood Extra Girl			Documentary short
	The Tunnel	Lloyd	Maurice Elvey
1936	Little Lord Fauntleroy	The Earl of Dorincourt	John Cromwell
	Romeo and Juliet	Lord Capulet	George Cukor	his only Shakespearean role on screen
	The Garden of Allah	Father J. Roubier	Richard Boleslawski
	Lloyd's of London	Old 'Q'	Henry King
	The Story of Papworth, the Village of Hope			short
1937	Wee Willie Winkie	Colonel Williams	John Ford
	The Prisoner of Zenda	Colonel Zapt	John Cromwell W. S. Van Dyke (uncredited)
	Victoria the Great		Herbert Wilcox
	The Hurricane	Father Paul	John Ford
	Thoroughbreds Don't Cry	Sir Peter Calverton	Alfred E. Green
1938	Four Men and a Prayer	Col. Loring Leigh	John Ford
	Kidnapped	Duke of Argyle	Alfred L. Werker
	Sixty Glorious Years	Duke of Wellington	Herbert Wilcox
1939	East Side of Heaven	Cyrus Barrett Snr.	David Butler
	The Four Feathers	General Burroughs	Zoltan Korda
	The Sun Never Sets	Sir John Randolph	Rowland V. Lee
	Five Came Back	Professor Henry Spengler	John Farrow
	The Under-Pup	Grandpa	Richard Wallace
	Eternally Yours	Gramps, aka Bishop Peabody	Tay Garnett Charles Kerr (assistant)
	Another Thin Man	Colonel Burr MacFay	W. S. Van Dyke
	Balalaika	Gen. Karagin	Reinhold Schünzel
1940	City of Chance	The Judge	Ricardo Cortez
	Rebecca	Colonel Julyan	Alfred Hitchcock
	Beyond Tomorrow	Allan Chadwick	A. Edward Sutherland
	Waterloo Bridge	Sr. Military officer / The Duke	Mervyn LeRoy
	A Bill of Divorcement	Dr. Alliot	John Farrow
	A Little Bit of Heaven	Grandpa	Andrew Marton
1941	Maisie Was a Lady	Al Walpole	Edwin L. Marin
	Free and Easy	The Duke	George Sidney Edward Buzzell (uncredited)
	Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde	Bishop Manners	Victor Fleming
1943	Forever and a Day	Admiral Eustace Trimble	multiple director^[25]
	Two Tickets to London	Admiralty Detective Fairchild	Edwin L. Marin
	Flesh and Fantasy	Dean of Norwalk	Julien Duvivier	Episode 2
	Madame Curie	Lord Kelvin	Mervyn LeRoy
1944	The Adventures of Mark Twain	Oxford Chancellor	Irving Rapper
	The White Cliffs of Dover	Colonel Walter Forsythe	Clarence Brown
	Sensations of 1945	Dan Lindsey	Andrew Stone
	Secrets of Scotland Yard	Sir Christopher Pelt	George Blair
1945	Forever Yours	Grandfather	William Nigh
	Scotland Yard Investigator	Sir James Collison	George Blair
	And Then There Were None	General Sir John Mandrake	René Clair
1946	Terror by Night	Elderly gentleman on train station	Roy William Neill	Uncredited
	Cluny Brown	Colonel Charles Duff Graham	Ernst Lubitsch
	Rendezvous with Annie	Sir Archibald Clyde	Allan Dwan
1947	High Conquest	Col. Hugh Bunning	Irving Allen
	Unconquered	Lord Chief Justice	Cecil B. DeMille
	An Ideal Husband	Earl of Caversham, Goring's Father	Alexander Korda
1948	Luxury Liner	Edward Thorndike	Richard Whorf
1949	Little Women	Mr. James Laurence	Mervyn LeRoy

References

^ "Smith, Sir (Charles) Aubrey (1863–1948)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/56993. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
^ Who Was Who in the Theatre: 1912–1976 vol. 4, Q-Z, p. 2208; compiled from editions originally published annually by John Parker, this 1976 version by Gale Research.
^ ^a ^b ^c Wills, Walter H., 1907. The Anglo-African Who's Who, Jeppestown Press, United Kingdom. p. 337. ISBN 0-9553936-3-9
^ "Smith, Charles Aubrey (SMT881CA)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
^ ^a ^b Frindall, Bill (2009). Ask Bearders. BBC Books. p. 46. ISBN 978-1-84607-880-4.
^ "The Greatest: One Test Wonders". International Cricket Council. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
^ Sir Aubrey Smith. Content-uk.cricinfo.com. Retrieved on 19 May 2018.
^ [https://pictureshowman.com/c-aubrey-smith-hollywoods-resident-englishman/. Retrieved on 10 November 2024.
^ South Africa v England at Port Elizabeth, 1889. Content-uk.cricinfo.com. Retrieved on 19 May 2018.
^ Eforgan, E. (2010) Leslie Howard: The Lost Actor. London: Vallentine Mitchell; p. 94, ISBN 978-0-85303-971-6.
^ Jones, Grahame L (7 October 1989). "Howzat? It's Cricket: Popular From Karachi to Kingston, the Sport Is Also Alive and Well in the Southland". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 15 August 2012.
^ Lynch, Steven (28 February 2005). "The cricketer who died on the Titanic". Cricinfo Magazine. ESPN. Retrieved 15 August 2012.
^ Fairbanks, Douglas (1988). Salad Days (First ed.). New York: Doubleday. p. 275. ISBN 0-385-17404-7.
^ Eforgan, E. (2010) Leslie Howard: The Lost Actor. London: Vallentine Mitchell; chapter 3. ISBN 978-0-85303-971-6.
^ Sheridan Morley: The Brits in Hollywood: Tales from the Hollywood Raj (UK: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1983) ISBN 0-297-78289-4, also published as Tales From The Hollywood Raj: The British, the Movies, and Tinseltown (New York: Viking, 1983), ISBN 0-670-69162-3.
^ Eforgan, E. (2010) Leslie Howard: The Lost Actor London: Vallentine Mitchell; chapter 5. ISBN 978-0-85303-971-6.
^ "The Final Curtain". Billboard. 1 January 1949. Retrieved 23 September 2018.
^ C. Aubrey Smith – Awards. IMDb
^ Commanders of the Order of the British Empire – Supplement to The London Gazette, 9 June 1938, p. 3701.
^ Recipients of the Honour of Knighthood – Supplement to The London Gazette, 2 June 1944, p. 2566.
^ C. Aubrey Smith – Biography. IMDb
^ The Home of CricketArchive. Cricketarchive.com (20 December 1948). Retrieved on 2018-05-19.
^ Obituary Variety, 22 December 1948, p. 55.
^ "Silent Preservation Premieres: The Unwanted (1924) & A Hundred Years Ago – French shorts". Cinemamuseum.org.uk (8 September 2011). Retrieved on 2018-05-19.
^ Directors: René Clair, Edmund Goulding, Cedric Hardwicke, Frank Lloyd, Victor Saville, Robert Stevenson and Herbert Wilcox.

External links

Sporting positions
Preceded by W. G. Grace	English national cricket captain 1888–1889	Succeeded by W. G. Grace
Preceded by Frederick Lucas	Sussex county cricket captain 1886–1888	Succeeded by Billy Newham
Preceded by Billy Newham	Sussex county cricket captain 1890	Succeeded by Billy Newham

[ODNB-1] "Smith, Sir (Charles) Aubrey (1863–1948)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/56993. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

[2] Who Was Who in the Theatre: 1912–1976 vol. 4, Q-Z, p. 2208; compiled from editions originally published annually by John Parker, this 1976 version by Gale Research.

[Anglo-African_Who's_Who-3] Wills, Walter H., 1907. The Anglo-African Who's Who, Jeppestown Press, United Kingdom. p. 337. ISBN 0-9553936-3-9

[4] "Smith, Charles Aubrey (SMT881CA)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.

[Beard-5] Frindall, Bill (2009). Ask Bearders. BBC Books. p. 46. ISBN 978-1-84607-880-4.

[OTW-6] "The Greatest: One Test Wonders". International Cricket Council. Retrieved 19 April 2018.

[7] Sir Aubrey Smith. Content-uk.cricinfo.com. Retrieved on 19 May 2018.

[8] [https://pictureshowman.com/c-aubrey-smith-hollywoods-resident-englishman/. Retrieved on 10 November 2024.

[9] South Africa v England at Port Elizabeth, 1889. Content-uk.cricinfo.com. Retrieved on 19 May 2018.

[10] Eforgan, E. (2010) Leslie Howard: The Lost Actor. London: Vallentine Mitchell; p. 94, ISBN 978-0-85303-971-6.

[11] Jones, Grahame L (7 October 1989). "Howzat? It's Cricket: Popular From Karachi to Kingston, the Sport Is Also Alive and Well in the Southland". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 15 August 2012.

[12] Lynch, Steven (28 February 2005). "The cricketer who died on the Titanic". Cricinfo Magazine. ESPN. Retrieved 15 August 2012.

[Fairbanks-13] Fairbanks, Douglas (1988). Salad Days (First ed.). New York: Doubleday. p. 275. ISBN 0-385-17404-7.

[14] Eforgan, E. (2010) Leslie Howard: The Lost Actor. London: Vallentine Mitchell; chapter 3. ISBN 978-0-85303-971-6.

[15] Sheridan Morley: The Brits in Hollywood: Tales from the Hollywood Raj (UK: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1983) ISBN 0-297-78289-4, also published as Tales From The Hollywood Raj: The British, the Movies, and Tinseltown (New York: Viking, 1983), ISBN 0-670-69162-3.

[16] Eforgan, E. (2010) Leslie Howard: The Lost Actor London: Vallentine Mitchell; chapter 5. ISBN 978-0-85303-971-6.

[17] "The Final Curtain". Billboard. 1 January 1949. Retrieved 23 September 2018.

[18] C. Aubrey Smith – Awards. IMDb

[19] Commanders of the Order of the British Empire – Supplement to The London Gazette, 9 June 1938, p. 3701.

[20] Recipients of the Honour of Knighthood – Supplement to The London Gazette, 2 June 1944, p. 2566.

[21] C. Aubrey Smith – Biography. IMDb

[22] The Home of CricketArchive. Cricketarchive.com (20 December 1948). Retrieved on 2018-05-19.

[WVobit-23] Obituary Variety, 22 December 1948, p. 55.

[24] "Silent Preservation Premieres: The Unwanted (1924) & A Hundred Years Ago – French shorts". Cinemamuseum.org.uk (8 September 2011). Retrieved on 2018-05-19.

[25] Directors: René Clair, Edmund Goulding, Cedric Hardwicke, Frank Lloyd, Victor Saville, Robert Stevenson and Herbert Wilcox.

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C. Aubrey Smith

Early life

Cricket career

Acting career

Death

Honours and awards

Complete filmography

See also

References

Further reading

External links

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