Biography
Born on 8 September 1898 in New York City, New York, USA, and dying on 5 August 1978 in Burbank, California, USA, Smith began ballet lessons as a youngster and later rose to principal dancer with the Metropolitan Opera Company during her teenage years. Stage appearances followed in plays and musical comedies, several of them on Broadway. One of those productions was Tip-Toes (1925), where she performed the title character Tip-Toes Kaye and introduced the George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin numbers “That Certain Feeling” and “Looking For A Boy.” Another Broadway credit was Hit The Deck (1927), featuring songs by Vincent Youmans, Clifford Grey and Leo Robin. In 1929 she joined the cast of the unrelated play The Street Singer.
Though possible screen work dates back to 1915, her sustained film career opened in the mid-1930s. While based in California she taught at the Hollywood Professional School, was at one point rumored to be engaged to Cary Grant, and took minor parts in pictures such as Mississippi (1935), starring Bing Crosby and W.C. Fields with a score by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. She portrayed Ellie May Chipley in Show Boat (1936), which carried songs by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II and co-starred Paul Robeson and Helen Morgan. The 1939 screen adaptation On Your Toes cast her as Lil Dolan; Rodgers and Hart material was used only as underscoring, yet the film preserved Vera Zorina’s performance of George Balanchine’s “Slaughter On Tenth Avenue” choreography. Small roles continued through the 1940s in The Killers and Nocturne (both 1946) plus The Snake Pit (1948). Later credits included Caged (1950), My Sister Eileen (1955) and Sweet Smell Of Success (1957). During the late 1960s and 1970s she appeared in The Legend of Lylah Clare (1968), The Day Of The Locust (1975) and Foul Play (1978). Television work from the early 1970s onward encompassed guest spots and recurring parts on series including The Monkees (1967), The Funny Side (1971), Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In (1971-72), The Odd Couple, Here’s Lucy and The Waltons (all 1973), McMillan And Wife (1974), Little House On The Prairie (1974), Chico And The Man and Dawn: Portrait Of A Teenage Runaway (both 1976) and The Love Boat (1977).
Though possible screen work dates back to 1915, her sustained film career opened in the mid-1930s. While based in California she taught at the Hollywood Professional School, was at one point rumored to be engaged to Cary Grant, and took minor parts in pictures such as Mississippi (1935), starring Bing Crosby and W.C. Fields with a score by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. She portrayed Ellie May Chipley in Show Boat (1936), which carried songs by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II and co-starred Paul Robeson and Helen Morgan. The 1939 screen adaptation On Your Toes cast her as Lil Dolan; Rodgers and Hart material was used only as underscoring, yet the film preserved Vera Zorina’s performance of George Balanchine’s “Slaughter On Tenth Avenue” choreography. Small roles continued through the 1940s in The Killers and Nocturne (both 1946) plus The Snake Pit (1948). Later credits included Caged (1950), My Sister Eileen (1955) and Sweet Smell Of Success (1957). During the late 1960s and 1970s she appeared in The Legend of Lylah Clare (1968), The Day Of The Locust (1975) and Foul Play (1978). Television work from the early 1970s onward encompassed guest spots and recurring parts on series including The Monkees (1967), The Funny Side (1971), Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In (1971-72), The Odd Couple, Here’s Lucy and The Waltons (all 1973), McMillan And Wife (1974), Little House On The Prairie (1974), Chico And The Man and Dawn: Portrait Of A Teenage Runaway (both 1976) and The Love Boat (1977).
Singles
