Lois Smith
Smith, Lois [neé Lois Arlene Humbert] (b. 1930), actress. The durable dramatic player was born in Topeka, Kansas, and educated at the University of Washington and studied acting with Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio. After some experience in stock, Smith made her Broadway debut as high schooler Jeannie in Time Out for Ginger (1952), followed by other juvenile roles, most notably the daughter Laura opposite Helen Hayes in The Glass Menagerie (1956). She often returned to regional theatres, where she played a wide range of classical and contemporary characters. Of her many later, more mature roles in New York, special mention should be made of her determined Ma Joad in The Grapes of Wrath (1990) and her slovenly Hallie in Buried Child (1996).
