Sidney Smith (February 28, 1892 – July 4, 1928), known on-screen as Sid Smith, was an American

actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), li ...

and director who appeared in short comedy films. Smith entered the motion picture industry in 1911, and eventually performed in 187 releases- most of them short

silent film A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, when ...

comedies, directing six shorts in total. Smith had his own starring series, but also worked in support of such comics as

Monty Banks Montague (Monty) Banks (18 July 1897 – 7 January 1950), born Mario Bianchi, was a 20th century Italian-born American comedian, film actor, director and producer who achieved success in the UK and the United States. Career Banks was born Mario ...

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

and Billy Bevan at the

Mack Sennett Mack Sennett (born Michael Sinnott; January 17, 1880 – November 5, 1960) was a Canadian-American film actor, director, and producer, and studio head, known as the 'King of Comedy'. Born in Danville, Quebec, in 1880, he started in films in the ...

studio. Smith died of alcohol poisoning, attributed to his consumption of bad liquor at a Malibu beach party. Perhaps because of the

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic ...

laws then in effect, one of the few trade papers covering Smith's passing gave the cause of death as “heart trouble.”Editors p.224

Filmography

*'' The Awful Adventures of an Aviator'' (1915), partially survives * The Ne'er-Do-Well (1916 film) *'' Kismet'' (1920) *'' Tell Us, Ouija!'' (1920) *'' We'll Get You Yet'' (1921), reissued by Pathescope in the UK in the 1930s as ''James & the Brown Hand'' *'' Better Late Than Never'' (1922) *''

The Ne'er-Do-Well ''The Ne'er-Do-Well'' is a 1923 American comedy silent film directed by Alfred E. Green. The film stars Thomas Meighan, Lila Lee, Gertrude Astor, John Miltern, Gus Weinberg, and Sidney Smith. The screenplay by Rex Beach and Louis Stevens is ...

'' (1923) *'' Sweet Marie'' (1925) *''

The Heart Breaker ''The Heart Breaker'' is a 1925 American short comedy film directed by Philadelphian director, Benjamin Stoloff. Cast * Judy King *Jerry Madden as Little boy * Sid Smith *Dagmar Oakland Dagmar Oakland (born Edna Martine Dagmar Anderse ...

'' (1925) * ''

Dugan of the Dugouts ''Dugan of the Dugouts'' is a 1928 American silent comedy film directed by Bobby Ray and starring Pauline Garon, Danny O'Shea and Ernest Hilliard.Munden p.206 It was one of two films directed by Ray, a former silent-era film comedian, who late ...

'' (1928) *''

One Spooky Night 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

'' (1928) *''

Heave-Ho ''Heave Ho'' (stylized as ''HEAVE HO!'') is a platform party video game developed by Le Cartel Studio and published by Devolver Digital. In ''Heave Ho'', players must navigate their characters through a ravine across a series of increasingly co ...

'', with Teddy Reavis. Extant.

References

Bibliography

* Brent E. Walker. ''Mack Sennett’s Fun Factory: A History and Filmography of His Studio and His Keystone and Mack Sennett Comedies, with Biographies of Players and Personnel''. McFarland, 2013. * Editors. ''South East''.

Motion Picture News The ''Motion Picture News'' was an American film industry trade paper published from 1913 to 1930. History The publication was created through the 1913 merger of the ''Moving Picture News'' founded in 1908 and ''The Exhibitors' Times'', founded ...

, July 11, 1928.

External links

* 1890s births 1928 deaths American male film actors Deaths by poisoning 20th-century American male actors {{US-film-actor-1890s-stub