America
'No Way Out' actress Mildred Joanne Smith is dead
New York, July 25
Actress Mildred Joanne
Smith, who essayed the role of Sidney Poitier’s love interest in her
lone movie outing "Non Way Out", is dead. She was 94.
Smith died on July 19, her family announced, reports hollywoodreporter.com.
In
the 1940s, Smith starred in such Broadway productions as "Men to the
Sea", "Mamba’s Daughters", "Beggar’s Holiday" (as the love interest of
Alfred Drake), "Forward the Heart" and "A Long Way From Home". All were
short-lived, but she received great reviews.
In writer-director
Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s "No Way Out", Smith appeared as stoic young wife
Cora Brooks. She comforts her husband Luther (Poitier), a doctor just
starting out who is confronted by a racist patient, robbery suspect Ray
Biddle (Richard Widmark), who causes all kinds of trouble.
Smith
suffered injuries that included a broken back and ribs when the DC-6
that was carrying her en route to Newark Airport crashed in Elizabeth,
New Jersey, in February 1952, narrowly missing an orphanage.
Twenty-five of the 59 passengers on board were killed.
After
recovering, Smith concentrated on a singing career and starred with
Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn in a musical revue, “Cockles and
Champagne,†created for the London stage.
Smith was married to David A. Hepburn, a journalist and vice president for WNEW-TV here. He died in 1985.
She
is survived by her daughter Vanessa, son David, stepdaughter Valerie
and grandchildren Brandon, Chelsea, Cole, Kaleo, Sage and Koa.