Roger Smith, an actor remembered for his leading role in the ABC private detective show “77 Sunset Strip,” who shifted his career to manage that of his wife, the actress Ann-Margret, died on Sunday in Los Angeles. He was 84.
His death, at a hospital, was confirmed by Jack Gilardi, Ann-Margret’s agent. He did not specify the cause.
A square-jawed entertainer with wholesome good looks, Mr. Smith fell into acting after a chance encounter with James Cagney. He later appeared with Cagney in “Man of a Thousand Faces” (1957), the biographical film about the horror star Lon Chaney, and with Rosalind Russell in the comedy “Auntie Mame” (1958).
His career peaked when he played a private eye with Efrem Zimbalist Jr. on “77 Sunset Strip” from 1958 to 1963. A crime drama created by Roy Huggins, the show featured Mr. Smith as a glamorous alternative to the shabbier investigators of other series, and Edd Byrnes as Kookie, a heartthrob parking-lot attendant.
Mr. Smith mostly stayed behind the scenes after his marriage to Ann-Margret, whom he began dating in the mid-1960s. Ann-Margret enticed audiences with her earliest films, like “Bye Bye Birdie” (1963) and “Viva Las Vegas” (1964), in which she appeared with Elvis Presley.
But she was typecast, in the parlance of the Hollywood press at the time, as a “sex kitten” and spent much of the 1960s in B-movies.
She and Mr. Smith soon became inseparable, and they married in 1967.
“I knew after the third date that this was the man I wanted to marry,” Ann-Margret told The Los Angeles Times in 1982. “I could already see how protective he was and how he looked after every detail of my welfare — and I loved this.”
Mr. Smith became his wife’s manager and occasional screenwriter or co-star as she grew into a multifaceted actress.
She was twice nominated for Oscars, for her 1971 performance as Jack Nicholson’s needy girlfriend in “Carnal Knowledge” (1971) and as the fragile mother in the rock musical “Tommy” (1975).
Roger LaVerne Smith was born in South Gate, Calif., on Dec. 18, 1932. He attended the University of Arizona on a football scholarship before serving in the Navy.
He was stationed in Honolulu when he met Cagney, who was filming the movie version of the Broadway play “Mister Roberts” (1955). Cagney saw Mr. Smith perform and told him to come to Hollywood once he was discharged.
Mr. Smith also appeared in films like “Operation Mad Ball” (1957) and TV shows like “Surfside 6.” He played the lead in a sitcom version of “Mister Roberts,” alongside Richard X. Slattery, in 1965-66.
Mr. Smith’s marriage to the Australian actress Victoria Shaw ended in divorce in 1965.
In addition to Ann-Margret, with whom he lived in Beverly Hills, Calif., his survivors include a daughter, Tracey Smith, and sons Dallas and Jordan, from his first marriage.
Early in his later marriage, the news media sometimes referred to Mr. Smith as Ann-Margret’s Svengali, suggesting that he manipulated her. But she said that she was happy to follow his lead.
“When he was an actor, Roger felt like a puppet,” Ann-Margret told The New York Times in 1971. “He’s the kind of man who has to be a leader, not a follower. He has to have complete autonomy, which is exactly what he has with me.”
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