Shinning the spotlight on locally born classic Hollywood actress Alexis Smith

Everyone, it is said, was born somewhere, and indeed that's true, but not many big name mid-twentieth century movie stars called Penticton home. While today this sun-kissed, vineyard filled corner of British Columbia boasts a population of over 30,000, back in 1920s that number was more like a few thousand at most (factoring in the surrounding areas). Like much of the province outside Vancouver and Victoria, it was still very much a burgeoning spot that would take a few more decades to grow to a population large enough for it to be called a fully fledged city.

It was during the roaring twenties however, on June 8, 1921 to be exact, that a local couple welcomed a new daughter into the world, whom they named Gladys Smith. Taking to the stage early in life, Gladys was an avid ballerina as a teenager and went on to study drama at Los Angeles City College in California. It was while in LA that Gladys opted to take on a screen name, retaining her surname and swapping in Alexis for the first name she was bestowed at birth (in, part, I'd venture to guess, because there was likely no shortage of other women named Gladys Smith at the time).





While preforming in a play at her college, Alexis was spotted by a Warner Brothers talent scout who just happened to be in the audience, and shortly after, in 1941, signed a contract with the studio. Though Alexis' movie career did not hit the ground running per se, it didn't take too long before she was soon being cast alongside leading names of the day such as Errol Flynn, Cary Grant, and Bing Crosby, in movies such as Gentleman Jim, Night and Day, and Here Comes the Groom.





Tall, beautiful, and confident, Alexis had no problem straddling both the world of Hollywood and of the stage, the latter of which was her first love when it came to acting. During the 1950s and beyond Alexis stared in several plays, including 1955's Plain and Fancy based on the book by Joseph Stein and Will Glickman. Sixteen years later, in 1971, she appeared on the cover of Time magazine for her critically acclaimed role in the Broadway production of Stephen Sondheim's Follies - a role that would go onto land her a Best Actress Tony Award.





Though Alexis Smith never became a Hollywood star of the magnitude of some of her female peers of the day, she was not a flash in the pan or a one hit wonder either. Her acting career (which also included a handful of TV roles) span fifty years, with her last role being as an episode of Cheers in 1990, just three years before she passed away from cancer at the age of seventy-two.





Married to the same man, actor Craig Stevens, for forty-nine years, Alexis spent most of her adult life living and working in America, yet had the distinction amongst her fellow Hollywood colleagues as being the only well-known actress of her day to have been born in Penticton, British Columbia. I don't know if she was able, or had any desire to, make it back up to these parts throughout her life, but I like to think that surely, gorgeous as California is, there must have been times when she yearned - if only a little - for her Canadian hometown.

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Though I’m not sure if any of her relatives still live around these parts, should I happen to run into anyone in town that shares her (albeit rather common) surname, I'll be certain to ask them if they might per chance be related to the city's only female Tony winner, and an all around great mid-century actress, Alexis Smith.