J. Scott Smart

Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on November 27, 1902 and his family later moved to Buffalo, New York,^[1] where he was a 1922 graduate of Lafayette High School. He also attended the Miami Military Institute.^[2]

Smart told a reporter that before entering show business, he held thirty jobs in three years, including selling shoe polish, heaving coal on a boat, being a fire chief in a factory, drawing cartoons for a newspaper, and designing ads for an advertising agency.^[1]

When he was twenty-one, Smart began acting in stock theater in Buffalo. He acted there for five years. After that, a friend set up an audition for a program on NBC. The result was Smart's first role on radio, that of a singing waiter on Whispering Tables.^[1] His Broadway credits include A Bell for Adano (1944) and Separate Rooms (1939).^[3]

Smart is best known for his lead as Brad Runyon in the detective show The Fat Man, which aired on ABC Radio from 1946 to 1951.^{[4]: 114-115} (See Laughlin 1994, Dunning 1976, Buxton and Owen 1996.) A regular on The March of Time and The Fred Allen Show,^{[4]: 121-123} he played so many character roles during the early days of radio drama that he became known as the "Lon Chaney of Radio".^[5] He was also an accomplished stage actor and played roles in major productions of A Bell For Adano and Waiting for Godot. He appeared in many movies, including Kiss of Death and the movie version of The Fat Man. In his later life, Smart's roles in radio programs included those shown in the table below.

He was also a member of the casts of The Family Hour^[4] and The Teen-Timers Club^[4]: 327 and was heard frequently on Grand Central Station and Inner Sanctum Mystery.^[8]

Smart married Alice Coy Wright on July 23, 1931.^[9] He was married to Mary-Leigh Smart from 1951 until his death in 1960. They had no children, but were an established part of the local arts community in Ogunquit, Maine.

Smart continued to live in Ogunquit, where he directed a summer theater. He also became a painter and sculptor.^[8]

Smart died of pancreatic cancer in Springfield, Illinois.