Right turn Clyde. :-)
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Check his bio page on IMDb. Dude had an amazing life.

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0810342/..._=nm_ov_bio_sm

Air Force veteran during the Korean War. Was a champion boxer and weightlifter. Played semi-pro football, fought wildfires in California.
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Homeless people are starting the fires, saw it on the news.
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I always loved the guy he played in the series Laredo too...

He was great as the bad guy in Rich Man, Poor Man....
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One of the most underrated mini-series in TV history.

I remember watching it as a teenager and it was incredible!
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Yea. No kidding. His Bio is pretty amazing. He was still making movies as of late.
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Smith also had memorable (to me anyway) roles in Gunsmoke and in the very first episode of The Rockford Files. He was also in a lot of trashy B movies that I have a soft spot for.


IMDb says his first role was in The Ghost of Frankenstein back in 1942. I had no idea he started acting as a kid.

RIP.
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I was 20 at the time....trying to impress the girl I was dating. I wanted nothing to do with watching a mini-series, but she wanted to watch it, so I did. (that paid off for me in so many ways)

I ended up loving it....I actually related to the Nick Nolte character so much because I had an older brother whose life, to some extent, mirrored the Peter Strauss character.

The essence of the story being....who really was the Rich Man and who was the Poor Man.

I actually read the follow up Beggarman, Thief but wasn't as enamored as I was of Rich Man, Poor Man.
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A lot of those made for tv movie and mini series from the 70s and 80s really kicked ass. Lonesome Dove, Shogun, Dark Night of the Scarecrow, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, Murder By Natural Causes and so many more.
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I know.....in those days you could get your "man card" taken away for letting people know you watched mini-series.

I actually REALLY liked Lonesome Dove and Shogun....the others were good watching but not on the par with the RMPM, LD or Shogun.

Plus....it got me in good graces with the then-girlfriend.
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You're forgetting the best one - North and South.
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Patrick Swayze had, what, Outsiders and Red Dawn under his belt at that time.

North and South and Lonesome Dove led me to read everything John Jakes and Larry McMurtry. . . I mean everything. Back in my 'read everything I could get my hands on' phase. Bradbury, Asimov, L'Engle, Tolkien, Herbert, CS Lewis, and eventually Bachman/King [and of course starting with all the Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew/Encyclopedia Brown, etc].
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Encyclopedia Brown....man does that bring out some memories.

You forgot The 3 Investigators (Alfred Hitchcock) and the baseball series, Bronc Burnett.
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I was recently listening to a podcast with some comedians [forgot which one, probably Threedom with Aukerman/Tompkins/Lapkus] and one of them was trying to remember a 'kid detective' series with a clubhouse in a junkyard. I was yelling '3 Investigators' at my PC.
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William Smith had a small part in The Outsiders movie as well. I think he played the store clerk that Dally tries to rob at the end.
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