William 'Gentleman' Smith

William Smith
A portrait of Smith by John Jackson c. 1819, in the National Portrait Gallery in London.
Born	1730 London
Died	13 September 1819 Bury St Edmunds
Other names	William "Gentleman" Smith
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1753–1758
Spouse(s)	Kelland Courtnay Miss Newson

William Smith (1730 – 13 September 1819), known as "Gentleman Smith", was a celebrated English actor of the 18th century who worked with David Garrick, and was the original creator of the role of Charles Surface in Richard Brinsley Sheridan's The School for Scandal.

William Smith was born in London in 1730. His father, intending that he should enter the church, sent him to Eton College in 1737 and then to St John's College, Cambridge in 1748. The vivacious spirit for which he was well known at Eton led him into problems at Cambridge. One evening he drank too freely with some friends and, being pursued by a proctor, he unwisely snapped an unloaded pistol at him. He refused the punishment that was imposed, and quit the University to avoid expulsion.

Smith was inclined towards the stage: upon arrival in London, he applied to John Rich at the original Covent Garden Theatre, where he first appeared in January 1753 in the role of Theodosius (in Nathaniel Lee's tragedy of The Force of Love), a performance attended by many of his college friends in a spirit of solidarity. He next appeared as Polydore in Thomas Otway's The Orphan, Southampton in The Earl of Essex, and Dolabella in John Dryden's All for Love. Having taken various subordinate roles in casts led by Mrs. Cibber and Spranger Barry (whose pupil he had effectively become), on Barry's retirement he took on many of that actor's principal parts. If he had defects, they were generally overlooked by his audiences, who admired his upright and independent private life. The poet Charles Churchill, in his "Rosciad" satire of 1761, said of him: "Smith the genteel, the airy, and the smart; Smith should still go to school to learn his part." Smith was at Covent Garden for 22 years.