C. Aubrey Smith

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Sir C. Aubrey Smith

Smith in Little Lord Fauntleroy (1936)
Personal information
Full name	Charles Aubrey Smith
Born	21 July 1863(1863-07-21) London, England
Died	20 December 1948(1948-12-20) (aged 85) Beverly Hills, California, U.S.
Batting style	Right-handed
Bowling style	Right arm fast
International information
National side	England
Only Test (cap 66)	12 March 1889 v South Africa
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1882 – 1896	Sussex
1889 – 1890	Transvaal
1886	MCC
1882 – 1885	Cambridge University
Career statistics
Competition	Tests	First-class
Matches	1	143
Runs scored	3	2,986
Batting average	3.00	13.63
100s/50s	0/0	0/10
Top score	3	85
Balls bowled	154	17,953
Wickets	7	346
Bowling average	8.71	22.34
5 wickets in innings	1	19
10 wickets in match	0	1
Best bowling	5/19	7/16
Catches/stumpings	0/–	97/–
Source: CricketArchive, 23 September 2008

Sir Charles Aubrey Smith CBE (21 July 1863 – 20 December 1948), known to film-goers as C. Aubrey Smith,^[1] was an English cricketer and actor.

Early life

Smith was born in London, England and educated at Charterhouse School and St John's College, Cambridge.^[2][3] 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 seam bowler, though he was also a useful lower-order batsman and slip fielder. His oddly curved bowling run-up gave him the nickname "Round the Corner Smith".^[4] W. G. Grace commented that "it is rather startling when he suddenly appears at the bowling crease".^[5] He played for Cambridge University 1882-85 and for Sussex at various times between 1882 and 1892.^[6] While in South Africa he captained the Johannesburg English XI.^[2] He captained England to victory in his only Test match,^[4] against South Africa at Port Elizabeth in 1888-89, taking five wickets for 19 runs in the first innings.^[7] In 1932 he founded the Hollywood Cricket Club and created a pitch with imported English grass. He attracted fellow expats such as David Niven, Laurence Olivier, Nigel Bruce (who served as captain), Leslie Howard^[8] 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".^{[citation needed]} 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."^{[citation needed]}

Acting career

Smith began acting on the London stage in 1895. His first major role was in The 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 advisor. When Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. asked him whether it might damage his career as a romantic lead to play the villain Rupert of Hentzau, he answered "Young man, I have played every part in The Prisoner of Zenda except Lady Flavia, and I can assure you that nobody ever damaged his career by playing Rupert of Hentzau". He made his Broadway debut 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).^[9] Smith later went to Hollywood where he had a successful career as a character actor playing either officer or gentleman roles. He was also regarded as being the unofficial leader of the British film industry colony in Hollywood, which Sheridan Morley characterised as the Hollywood Raj,^[10] 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, 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)^[11] and Patric Knowles.

Smith became infamous for expecting his fellow countrymen to report for regular duty at his Hollywood Cricket Club, and anyone who refused was known to "incur his displeasure". 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 6'4" made him one of the most recognisable faces in Hollywood. He starred alongside such screen legends as leading ladies Greta Garbo, Elizabeth Taylor, Vivien Leigh, and actors Clark Gable, Laurence Olivier, Ronald Colman, Maurice Chevalier and Gary Cooper. His films include such classics as The Prisoner of Zenda (1937) mentioned above, The Four Feathers (1939), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941), and And Then There Were None (1945) in which he played General Mandrake.

Commander McBragg in the TV cartoon Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales is a parody of him. The cartoon character also appears in The Simpsons episode "The Seemingly Never-Ending Story".

Smith died from pneumonia in Beverly Hills in 1948, aged 85. His body was cremated and nine months later, in accordance with his wishes, his ashes were returned to England and interred in his mother's grave at St Leonard's churchyard in Hove, East Sussex.

Honours and awards

Smith has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame under the name Aubrey Smith.

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

He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1938,^[12] and knighted by King George VI in 1944^[13] for "services to the theatre".^[14]

Partial filmography

See also

Biography portal

• History of Test cricket (1884 to 1889)

References

Sources

• Wills, Walter H., 1907. The Anglo-African Who's Who, Jeppestown Press, United Kingdom. ISBN 0-9553936-3-9

Further reading

• David Rayvern Allen, Sir Aubrey: Biography of C. Aubrey Smith, England Cricketer, West End Actor, Hollywood Film Star, Elm Tree Books, 1982, ISBN 978-0-241-10590-0

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: C. Aubrey Smith

• C. Aubrey Smith at the Internet Movie Database
• C. Aubrey Smith at the Internet Broadway Database
• Stage performances in Theatre Archive University of Bristol
• CricketArchive page on C. Aubrey Smith
• C. Aubrey Smith at Find a Grave