Tom Smith

While most actors like to play cowboy, Tom Smith was one. He was born to a family of poor German farmers who were originally from Germany. The shiftless Smith eventually made his way to California where he got into the motion picture business. Staring in the 1920s, Smith worked in countless westerns. His prowess with a horse, his long hair, and his big bushy mustache was the very ideal image of what an old western outlaw looked like. Smith was so trusted with horses that he was taken across the country in 1930 so he could appear in Raoul Walsh's epic film The Big Trail. Smith did not usually have dialog in the films that he appeared in but his appearance helped him gain work in countless films and television. By the 1930s, he was constantly appearing in Republic films typically appearing in posse or bar scenes. Through his connections, he was able to gain work in some of the better western productions and frequently appeared in higher-budgeted films as his career went on. While most