Charles Martin Smith Biography (2)
Smith came to prominence as one of the young stars of George Lucas' classic film American Graffiti. Over the years he has starred in such acclaimed films as Sam Peckinpah's Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, The Buddy Holly Story, Carroll Ballard's Never Cry Wolf, Brian DePalma's The Untouchables, and John Carpenter's Starman. More recently he has appeared in Dennis Hopper's The Hot Spot, Deep Cover, Speechless, I Love Trouble and Deep Impact. On the small screen, he has starred in HBO's award winning And the Band Played On, directed by Roger Spottiswoode, Larry McMurtry's mini series The Streets of Laredo and Peter Benchley's The Beast.
Smith turned to directing after working on Never Cry Wolf. Serving as a writer as well as the star, Smith saw the project through to completion, working closely with Ballard at every stage of the process, and gaining invaluable filmmaking experience. "I thought The Black Stallion was the most beautiful and original American film I had seen in years. Then Caleb Deshanel introduced us, and both he and George Lucas told me that working with Carroll would be an eye-opening experience. It was! I stayed with Carroll all the way through the editing of the film. Since the film had virtually no dialogue, a great deal of the structuring and story telling was done in post-production, and for me, to be there through post was like a one-on-one film school. It was amazing."
After the film's completion (it was three years in the making), Smith emigrated to Canada, relocating in Vancouver. There he made several short films and in 1983 helped found the Vancouver Shakespeare Festival.
In 1988, Smith made his feature film-directing debut with the tongue-in-cheek rock and roll film Trick or Treat, for Dino DeLaurentis. In 1992, he directed Peter Weller in Fifty Fifty, and after several years of dividing his time between directing, writing and acting, Smith worked with series creator Joss Whedon, and directed the premier two-hour movie that launched the WB series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Charles followed this success with Air Bud (Walt Disney Pictures, 1997). This moving and elegant film about a boy and his dog was a surprise hit, and critical success, for Disney and Miramax. The film was produced in Canada and won the 1998 Genie Award the Golden Reel for highest grossing Canadian feature.
Smith continues writing and developing film projects. In 2000, he Executive produced the Victoria based feature film Here's to Life! starring James Whitmore and Eric McCormick, which was nominated for eight Genie awards. In 2001, he Executive Produced the feature film Dead Heat starring Kiefer Sutherland, Anthony LaPaglia and Radha Mitchell, released by Lions Gate Films in Summer of 2002.
Most recently, Smith directed the Hallmark Original mini-series, Roughing It, starring James Garner and Robin Dunne.
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