In an interview with Tim Tal in 2010, Smith said:
“It was a pleasure to work with Arnold. We enjoyed each other’s sense of humor. The film Conan the Barbarian was the beginning of a big movie career for Arnold, which led to his governorship of California. In Arnold’s day, he had the best physique around. That he proved by his winning the Mr. Olympia contest numerous times. And of course, it was great working with John Milius, who I worked with again on Red Dawn, as well as my friends and fellow cast members, Franco Columbu, Sven-Ole Thorsen, and Ben Davidson.”
“The one thing about Schwarzenegger that I will never forget is that nobody could double him, be his stunt double, because of the shape he was in. He did all his own stunts. He worked 12 hours a day and then he walked two miles. Then he would work out for two hours.”
The Fight Scenes of a Legend
William Smith took part in two of the most memorable fight scenes ever seen on film. In the low-budget, 1970 film Darker Than Amber, he and Rod Taylor threw the fake fighting out the window and fought for real in the film’s climactic scene.
“Fight choreography and staging went out the window when Rod decided to really hit me. And so the fight was on. That was a real fight with real blood and real broken bones. Rod is a skilled fighter, and, at the same time a real scrapper. Now that was a good fight!”
In the fight, Taylor broke three of Smith’s ribs and Smith broke Taylor’s nose. But the two later acted together in The Deadly Trackers in 1973.
Yet, his scrap with Eastwood in Any Which Way you Can will go down in film history. In the movie, Smith and Eastwood played bare-knuckles fighters whom promoters are trying to get in the ring. Although the two meet and become respected friends, they end up having a go at one another that stretches across half of Jackson, Wyoming.
Smith said of this fight scene, “The fight in Any Which Way You Can with Clint Eastwood, was the longest two-man fight scene on screen, at the time. It was very well choreographed. It was a very mobile fight in the fact that it moved from one area to the next. Clint was great to work with. He was quite an accomplished on-screen fighter.”
A Fighter and a Poet
William Smith also published a book of poetry in 2009, The Poetic Works of William Smith. In one of the poems, The Reaper, he wrote:
“You’ve done some bad and you’ve done some good
You wouldn’t change things even if you could
‘Cause through the years, you’ve run a good race
The Reaper chased and couldn’t keep your pace
So toast those that live and those that die
And while you can, spit in the Reaper’s eye.”
Willaim Smith was inducted into the Muscle Beach Venice Bodybuilding Hall of Fame and was an honorary member of the Motion Pictures Stuntmen Association.
RIP Mr. Smith, one of the most iconic badasses.
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