Does anyone remember this guy? He has been in tons of movies (almost always a villain) and tv shows. He is probably best known as Conan’s father and as Clint Eastwood’s nemesis in “Any Which Way You Can”. One of my favorite roles was the pilot episode of The Rockford Files where he plays a thug/martial artist. He had an awesome physique, good looks and a laundry list of accomplishments…
Appeared in the final episode of Batman (1966).
Lifetime Achievement Award from Academy of Bodybuilding and Fitness
Record-holder for reverse-curling his own body weight.
2 Time Arm Wrestling World Champion-200lb class-Petaluma, CA
Served in the Airforce, National Security Agency, during the Korean War.
Graduated UCLA Cum Laude.
He was the Marlboro Man in the final televised Marlboro commercial.
Fluent in English, Russian, German, French, Serbo-Croatian.
Competed as a downhill skier in AAU events at Mammoth Mountain
Competed in motocross events with Steve McQueen and doubled as one of the track riders in C.C. & Company (1970).
Had a 31-1 record as an amateur boxer
Held the Air Force Light-Heavyweight Weightlifting Championship
Performed over 5,100 continuous sit-ups over a five hour period
Played semi-pro football for the Wiesbaden Flyers in Germany
Has a Masters Degree in Russian and taught Russian Language Studies at UCLA in the late 1950s.
Won a Muscle Beach contest by performing 35 inverted handstand dips
Honorary member of the Stuntmen’s Association of Motion Pictures.
Direct descendant of Western figures Kit Carson and Daniel Boone.
Bruce Lee personally offered Smith the co-lead in Enter the Dragon (1973), but another film went over schedule and John Saxon stepped into the role.
Filmed an eight-minute test pilot portraying Caine for the TV series Kung Fu (1972), wearing prosthetic eyepieces to make him appear Chinese. The network wanted Smith for the role, but producer Jerry Thorpe ultimately deemed him too muscular and menacing.
Studied kung fu for eight years with Jimmy Woo and kenpo karate master Ed Parker.
Stunt doubled for former Tarzan Lex Barker while living in France.
Turned down the role of Tarzan at MGM.
Training partner of first Mr. Olympia, Larry Scott.
Fought California wildfires in the early 1950s
Worked as a lifeguard on the French Riviera
Worked as a trainer at Bert Goodrich’s Hollywood Gym
Child actor in both “A” and “B” movies of the 1940s. He stated in a horror magazine that during breaks on the set of The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942), star Lon Chaney Jr., treated all of the children on the set to ice cream.
Threw the discus 151 feet at a time when the top AAU distance was 150.6 feet.
Won the Light-Heavyweight German-Austrian Boxing Championship while in the service.
In 1942’s The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942), he plays the boy who throws the little girl’s ball to the top of the roof. This role marks the first of his many appearances as a villain.
Has a master’s degree in Russian.
His favorite writer is Fyodor Dostoevsky.
Recipient of the 2008 Silver Spur Award.
Recipient of the 2005 Southern California Motion Picture Council Award.
Inducted into the Venice Muscle Beach Bodybuilding Hall of Fame 2010.
Bill Smith is also a most accomplished bull whip master. In a 2011 History Channel special on “Marksmen” he was chosen as “the most skilled bull whip master known today.” In several feats of skill & accuracy he demonstrated among other things, how the tip at the end of a bull whip goes supersonic just before it pulls the flame off a candle. The “crack of the whip” sound is the result of the tip going supersonic & breaking the sound barrier, as was demonstrated in “slo-mo” video.
Auditioned for a role in Django Unchained (2012).
