Ralph Smart(1908-2001)
- Producer
- Writer
- Director
Ralph Smart was born to Australian parents in the London suburb of
Chingford, some ten miles northeast of Charing Cross. He began his
professional career in films as an editor, writer and director of
documentary shorts in 1927. Smart collaborated on the screenplays of
some of Michael Balcon's early films at
Gaumont-British, before moving 'down under' to make propaganda films
and documentaries for the Australian government during the Second World
War. After the war, he worked as producer or producer/director on two
seminal films shot by Ealing in Australia:
La route est ouverte (1946) and
Bush Christmas (1947). From the
mid-1950's, he was active again in Britain, affiliated with ITC as
writer/producer/director of several popular TV period adventures,
notably
Robin des bois (1955),
The Buccaneers (1956) and
William Tell (1958). His best
known contribution came about in the 1960's, when he created the action
series Destination danger (1960) and its
incorruptible lone wolf protagonist John Drake, played brilliantly by
Patrick McGoohan. After the show was
cancelled in 1966, Smart returned to working as a freelance
screenwriter on the short-lived Australian-based series
Aventures australes (1969), starring American
actor Ty Hardin. Smart settled down in Bowen,
Queensland, where the show was filmed and died there in February 2001
at the venerable age of 92.
