J. Scott Smart (born John Kenley Tener Smart, November 27, 1902 – January 15, 1960) was an American radio, film and stage actor during the 1930s, 1940s and early 1950s.
Smart told a reporter that before entering show business, he held thirty jobs in three years, including selling shoe polish, heaving coal on a boat, being a fire chief in a factory, drawing cartoons for a newspaper, and designing ads for an advertising agency.[1]
Career
When he was twenty-one, Smart began acting in stock theater in Buffalo. He acted there for five years. After that, a friend set up an audition for a program on NBC. The result was Smart's first role on radio, that of a singing waiter on Whispering Tables.[1] His Broadway credits include A Bell for Adano (1944) and Separate Rooms (1939).[3]
Smart is best known for his lead as Brad Runyon in the detective show The Fat Man, which aired on ABC Radio from 1946 to 1951.[4]: 114-115 (See Laughlin 1994, Dunning 1976, Buxton and Owen 1996.) A regular on The March of Time and The Fred Allen Show,[4]: 121-123 he played so many character roles during the early days of radio drama that he became known as the "Lon Chaney of Radio".[5] He was also an accomplished stage actor and played roles in major productions of A Bell For Adano and Waiting for Godot. He appeared in many movies, including Kiss of Death and the movie version of The Fat Man. In his later life, Smart's roles in radio programs included those shown in the table below.
Smart married Alice Coy Wright on July 23, 1931.[9] He was married to Mary-Leigh Smart from 1951 until his death in 1960. They had no children, but were an established part of the local arts community in Ogunquit, Maine.
Later years
Smart continued to live in Ogunquit, where he directed a summer theater. He also became a painter and sculptor.[8]
^ abcdefghTerrace, Vincent (1999). Radio Programs, 1924-1984: A Catalog of More Than 1800 Shows. McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN978-0-7864-4513-4. Pp. 113-114.
^ abDeLong, Thomas A. (1996). Radio Stars: An Illustrated Biographical Dictionary of 953 Performers, 1920 through 1960. McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN978-0-7864-2834-2. P. 245.
^"Wave Marks"(PDF). Radio Guide. July 28, 1934. p. 9. Retrieved 20 August 2016.
Buxton, Frank and Bill Owen (1996) The Big Broadcast: 1920-1950 (second edition), New York: Scarecrow Press.
Dallman, V.Y. (1960) Obituary in the Illinois State Register, January 15, 1960.
Dunning, John (1976) Tune In Yesterday: The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio, 1925–1976, Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.
Laughlin, Charles D. (1994) J. Scott Smart, a.k.a. The Fat Man. York, Maine: Three Faces East Press.
MacDonald, J. Fred (1979) Don't Touch That Dial: Radio Programming in American Life, 1920–1960. Chicago: Nelson-Hall, p. 173.
Plante, William C. (1960) "J. Scott Smart". The Players Bulletin, spring issue.
Taylor, Robert (1989) Fred Allen: His Life and Wit. Boston: Little, Brown and Company.
Listen to
Internet Archive: The Fat Man (29 episodes) Note: Only the last six episodes in this archive are from the original American J. Scott Smart series; the rest are from the Australian series.