C. Aubrey Smith


C. Aubrey Smith
Personal information
Full name Charles Aubrey Smith
Born 21 July 1863(1863-07-21)
City of London, England
Died 20 December 1948 (aged 85)
Beverly Hills, California, United States
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, KBE, known to movie-goers as C. Aubrey Smith, (21 July 1863 in London, England – 20 December 1948 in Beverly Hills, United States) was an English cricketer and actor. He was knighted in 1944 for services to Anglo-American amity.

Contents

Early life

Smith was educated at Charterhouse School and St John's College, Cambridge.[1][2] 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". W. G. Grace commented that "it is rather startling when he suddenly appears at the bowling crease". [3] He played for Cambridge University 1882-85 and for Sussex at various times between 1882 and 1892. [4] While in South Africa he captained the Johannesburg English XI.[1] He captained England to victory in his only Test match, against South Africa at Port Elizabeth in 1888-89, taking five wickets for 19 runs in the first innings.[5] 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 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". Decades after his cricket had ended, when he had long been a famous face in films, Sir Aubrey 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 Hollywood fame, "Chap called Smith. Used to play for Sussex."

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 Junior 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 their career by playing Rupert of Hentzau.”

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 what would become known as the Hollywood Raj, a select group of British actors who were seen to be colonising the capital of the movie business in the 1930s. Other movie stars considered to be "members" of this select group were David Niven (whom Smith treated like a son), Ronald Colman and Patric Knowles. Smith became infamous for expecting his fellow countrymen to report for regular duty at his Hollywood Cricket Club, and any 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 a 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 and Gary Cooper. His films include such classics as The Prisoner of Zenda (1937) mentioned above and The Four Feathers (1939).

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".

Sir Aubrey has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 1933, he was on the first board of the Screen Actors Guild.

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

Selected filmography

See also


References

  1. ^ a b Anglo-African Who's Who
  2. ^ Smith, Charles Aubrey in Venn, J. & J. A., Alumni Cantabrigienses, Cambridge University Press, 10 vols, 1922–1958.
  3. ^ Cricinfo Profile: Sir Aubrey Smith
  4. ^ Anglo-African Who's Who, p337
  5. ^ South Africa v England at Port Elizabeth, 1889
  • Wills, Walter H., 1907. The Anglo-African Who's Who, Jeppestown Press, United Kingdom. ISBN 0-9553936-3-9

External links

Sister project Wikimedia Commons has media related to: C. Aubrey Smith

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 978-0241105900


Sporting positions
Preceded by
W. G. Grace		 English national cricket captain
1888-1889		 Succeeded by
W. G. Grace
Preceded by
F. N. Lucas		 Sussex county cricket captain
1886–1888		 Succeeded by
Billy Newham
Preceded by
Billy Newham		 Sussex county cricket captain
1890		 Succeeded by
Billy Newham

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