Reid Smith
American actor (1949-2001)

Reid Bryce Smith (May 8, 1949 – October 16, 2001) was an American film and television actor.
Smith was born in Burbank, California, the son of June, a secretary for actress Maud Adams, and Verne Smith, a model and announcer. He had three sisters. When Smith was five, his father left and he had to work to help support his family, appearing in his first television advertisement at the age of six. He attended Notre Dame High School and the University of California, where he earned a bachelor's degree, later returning to study for a degree in business. While at university he restored and traded cars.
Smith made his film debut in 1970, appearing in the film Blood Mania. In 1973 Smith was a regular cast member of the NBC crime drama television series Chase, playing the role of Officer Norm Hamilton. After the series ended in 1974 he guest-starred in television programs including Columbo, Mork & Mindy, The Six Million Dollar Man, Riptide, The Dukes of Hazzard, Knots Landing, Remington Steele, Dynasty and Bonanza. In 1980 Smith co-starred in the CBS western miniseries The Chisholms, playing Lester Hackett.
“Reid Smith” enters the record as american actor (1949-2001). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Reid, Smith and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Reid Smith” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Reid, Smith and American provides the most credible route into that argument.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7309989. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1949, 2001, 1970 and 1973.
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This entry incorporates text from “Reid Smith” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.