Alister Smart, actor and director and long-time Play School presenter, has died at age 90.
After he left school, he joined the family business — building, restoring and tuning pianos. This triggered an interest in the instrument and he went on to study at Sydney’s Conservatorium of Music. Frustrated with his results with playing the piano, he soon turned to acting, starting in amateur theatre before joining Sydney’s Independent Theatre Company and Phillip Street Playhouse.
By the late 1950s he went to the United Kingdom, working with a touring repertory company before trying his luck in television. Early TV credits included Theatre 70, Three Live Wires, ITV Play Of The Week, Comedy Playhouse and Emergency Ward 10.
Returning to Australia, he gained theatre work and joined the original presenting line-up on ABC’s Play School, a role that he continued on-and-off for almost 30 years. With production of Play School conducted in concentrated periods of weeks at a time, this allowed him the flexibility to continue to pursue acting roles. He appeared in a number of ABC plays before guest roles in series including Contrabandits, You Can’t See Round Corners, Skippy The Bush Kangaroo, Riptide, The Rovers, Delta, Barrier Reef, Dynasty, Spyforce, Silent Number and Behind The Legend. He starred in ABC dramas Ben Hall and Serpent In The Rainbow and featured in Crawford Productions cop shows Homicide, Division 4, Matlock Police and Ryan.
He played a reporter, Duncan Hunter, in the movie version of Number 96, and would later return for a short run in the series as Frank Hobson, a married man who has an affair with Jane Chester (Suzanne Church).
Despite his friendly persona on Play School, he found many of his acting roles leaned towards “nasty” characters. “Perhaps I’ve got that sort of face, but there’s usually more character to a TV villain than to a TV hero,” he told TV Times in 1975. “I refuse to get too moral about taking roles that might contrast with Play School.” Though the overlap between Play School and dramatic roles sparked some response. A fight scene in Ben Hall with the title character, played by Jon Finch, triggered a letter from a mother of a young child who was desperately upset. “The boy was terribly worried that Ben Hall might have hurt me badly, and I wouldn’t be able to make Play School,” he said.
Further TV acting credits included Wollongong The Brave, The Outsiders, The Sullivans, Glenview High, Skyways, Carson’s Law, Cop Shop, Special Squad and Rafferty’s Rules.
YouTube: Forgotten Television Memories
As a director he worked on many series, including some that he also acted in. Director credits included The Spoiler, The Godfathers, Our Man In Canberra, Scattergood, Skyways, Cop Shop, A Country Practice, Prisoner, Sons And Daughters, Rafferty’s Rules, E Street, Neighbours and Blue Heelers.
Source: Stephen Baggs Funeral Directors, IMDB. TV Times, 8 June 1974, 27 December 1975. TV Week, 2 December 1972.
