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| C. Aubrey Smith | ||||
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| Personal information | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Charles Aubrey Smith | |||
| Born | 21 July 1863 | |||
| City of London, England | ||||
| Died | 20 December 1948 (aged 85) | |||
| Beverley 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 | ||||
| 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/– | ||
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Source: CricketArchive, 23 September 2008 |
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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) was an English cricketer and actor. He was knighted in 1944 for services to Anglo-American amity.
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Early life
Smith was educated at Charterhouse School, and St John's College, Cambridge1 and 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 his nickname "Round the Corner Smith"; W. G. Grace commented that "it is rather startling when he suddenly appears at the bowling crease".2 He played for Cambridge University 1882-85 and for Sussex at various times between 1882 and 1892.3 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.4 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 Anglicism 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 Coleman 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 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 and the 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 Lawrence churchyard in Hove, East Sussex.
Selected filmography
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See also
- History of Test cricket (1884 to 1889)
- 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
References
- ^ a b Anglo-African Who's Who
- ^ Cricinfo Profile: Sir Aubrey Smith
- ^ Anglo-African Who's Who, p337
- ^ 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
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: C. Aubrey Smith |
- C. Aubrey Smith at the Internet Movie Database
- CricketArchive page on Sir Aubrey Smith
- Sir C Aubrey Smith's Grave at www.Findagrave.com
| Sporting positions | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by W. G. Grace |
English national cricket captain 1888-1889 |
Succeeded by Monty Bowden |
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 1 December 2008, at 08:51.
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