One of the first student beneficiaries of UC Foundation generosity was Roger Smith, a senior at Chattanooga High School during the spring of 1969. As a result of that merger, the University of Chattanooga Foundation was created to enhance educational opportunities for students. In 1969, the University of Chattanooga united with Chattanooga City College and joined the University of Tennessee system of statewide campuses. You can say that one union eventually led to their union. If the then-private University of Chattanooga never became UTC-a public institution-their paths may never have crossed. The Smiths grew up in different areas of Chattanooga. “We both enjoy getting back to campus and being involved.”
“We are fortunate that we're able to give resources, but I think what’s more rewarding has been that we’re able to put in time at UTC,” Roger said. It is this attraction to their alma mater that keeps them coming back to campus. “We were friends back-and-forth through the school years but did not get engaged until after he had graduated-when I was a senior.”Īn affinity for their college, UTC, has been a shared point of pride for them since their first days on university grounds. Roger also laughed, shaking his head in mock protest. “I picked him out in an art appreciation class,” Claire said, then started laughing. Smith then was cast in "Auntie Mame," playing star Rosalind Russell's nephew, Patrick, as a young man.For Claire and Roger Smith, their affinity for each other began as students at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Cagney was Chaney, while Smith played Chaney's son as a young man. When Smith's Navy service ended, he signed a contract with Columbia Pictures.Ĭagney recommended Smith for a role in "Man of a Thousand Faces," the 1957 film biography of silent star Lon Chaney. Cagney, who was there making a film, suggested that Smith might try for a film career. He served 2½ years in the Navy Reserve, and in Hawaii he sang at social events. When he was 12 the family moved to Nogales, Ariz., where he excelled in the high school acting club and football team.
#ROGER SMITH PROFESSIONAL#
When he was 6, his parents enrolled him in a professional school in Hollywood where he learned singing and dancing. Smith was born in 1932, in South Gate, near Los Angeles. "But right now I still think it's impossible to be married to a successful actress and have your own career and have the marriage work." "I have this great dream that when Ann-Margret gets out of movies, she and I will co-star in a Broadway play," he told New York magazine in 1976. Critics praised her performance and she was nominated for an Oscar for supporting actress. She broke her sex kitten stereotype in dramatic fashion in 1971 when she appeared in Mike Nichols' "Carnal Knowledge" as the abused mistress of Jack Nicholson. I couldn't exist without a strong man."įor decades Smith guided Ann-Margret's career with great care. "Now in Roger I've found all the men I need rolled into one - a father, a friend, a lover, a manager, a businessman," she told writer Rex Reed in 1972.
#ROGER SMITH SERIES#
Actors Roger Smith, from left, Carolyn Komant and Efrem Zimbalist Jr., tune up for their parts in the TV series "77 Sunset Strip," in February 1961. They were married quietly in Las Vegas in 1967. Meanwhile he was dating Ann-Margret, the dynamic singer, dancer and actress of "Bye Bye Birdie," ''Viva Las Vegas" and other films. When he first gained fame, he had been married to a glamorous Australian actress, Victoria Shaw, with whom he had three children.
#ROGER SMITH MOVIE#
Smith told the Los Angeles Times that the series aimed to show that private investigators were well-trained, serious men, and not the movie and TV stereotype with "dangling cigarettes and large chips on their shoulders." He was chosen for the part because "I don't look like a detective." "77 Sunset Strip" had been created by producer-writer Roy Huggins, who also created "Maverick," and it spawned a host of spinoffs and knockoffs, including "Hawaiian Eye," ''Surfside 6" and "Bourbon Street Beat." It made stars of both men and a teen heartthrob out of Edd Byrnes, who played a colorful parking lot attendant named Kookie.
Evan Agostini / Evan Agostini/Invision/APįrom 1958 to 1963, he co-starred with Efrem Zimbalist Jr. Actor Roger Smith and wife Ann-Margret attend the world premiere of "Going in Style" in New York on March 30. He survived two serious illnesses to have a second career after "77 Sunset Strip" as manager of Ann-Margret, who was his second wife. The actor launched his career in the 1950s when James Cagney spotted him and recommended him for films.
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