Alexis Smith
Born Gladys Smith in Penticton, British Columbia, Canada, Smith shares a birthname with actress Mary Pickford. Later in life she would say she preferred New York, while her husband of 49 years, actor Craig Stevens, favored California. She was quite tall, standing at least 5'9", and to fit her, the long, stylish dresses that former Warner Brothers star Kay Francis had worn were allotted to her. Besides Smith and Francis, actress Ingrid Bergman was the only other tallest leading lady at that time. After being noticed in a play, Smith was signed to a contract by Warner Brothers Studios. Her earliest film roles were uncredited bit parts and it took several years for her career to gain momentum, but her appearance in The Constant Nymph was well received and led to bigger parts. During the 1940s she appeared opposite some of the most popular male stars of the day, including Errol Flynn in Gentleman Jim (1942) and San Antonio (1945) (in which she sang a special version of the popular ballad Some sunday morning),
Humphrey Bogart in The Two Mrs. Carrolls (1947), Cary Grant in a sanitized, fictional version of Cole and Linda Porter's life in Night and Day (1946), and Bing Crosby in Here Comes the Groom (1951).
Some of Smith's other films include Rhapsody In Blue (1945), Of Human Bondage (1946) and The Young Philadelphians (1959).
Smith appeared on the cover of the May 3, 1971 issue of Time with the announcement that she would be starring in Hal Prince's Broadway production of Stephen Sondheim's Follies. In 1972 she won the Tony for Best Actress in a Musical for her performance. She followed this with the 1973 all-star revival of The Women, the short-lived 1975 comedy Summer Brave and the ill-fated 1978 musical Platinum, which drew decent notices only for her performance and quickly closed.
Smith had a recurring role on the TV series Dallas as Clayton Farlow's sister Jessica Montford in 1984 and again in 1990. She was nominated for an Emmy Award for her guest appearance on the television sitcom Cheers in 1990.
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