Roger LaVerne Smith (December 18, 1932 – June 4, 2017) was an American television and film actor, producer, and screenwriter. He starred in the television detective series 77 Sunset Strip and in the comedy series Mister Roberts. Smith went on to manage the career of Ann-Margret, his wife of 50 years. Early life Smith was born in South Gate, California, the son of Leone Irene (Adams) and Dallas L. Smith. When he was six, his parents enrolled him into a stage school, where he took singing, dancing, and elocution lessons. He grew up in Nogales, Arizona, where his family moved when he was 12. He was educated at the University of Arizona at Tucson on a football scholarship. He won several amateur talent prizes as a singer and guitarist. Career Smith served with the Naval Reserve and was stationed in Hawaii with the Fleet All-Weather Training Unit-Pacific, a flight-training unit near Honolulu. After a chance meeting with actor James Cagney, he was encouraged to try a career in Hollywood. (Cagney had also encouraged other young actors for whom he found roles in two 1956 films.) He later played Cagney's character's son in Man of a Thousand Faces. Smith signed with Columbia Pictures in 1957 and made several films, then moved to Warner Bros. in 1958. On April 16, 1958, Smith appeared with Charles Bickford in "The Daniel Barrister Story" on NBC's Wagon Train. His greatest film exposure was the role of the adult Patrick Dennis in Auntie Mame, with Rosalind Russell. His signature television role was private detective Jeff Spencer in 77 Sunset Strip. Smith appeared in 74 episodes of the Warner Bros. Television series. Due to his popularity on the show, Warner Bros. Records released one LP album by Smith titled, Beach Romance on Warner Bros. Records WS 1305, in June 1959. He left the popular ABC program in 1962 because of a blood clot in his brain. He recovered from this after surgery. Before he obtained a role in another television series, Smith said he had to "fight my way back from a point where I had almost decided to give up acting." He then starred as Lt. Douglas Roberts in the Warner Bros. Television series Mister Roberts, a comedy-drama series on NBC-TV in 1965–1966. He produced two films with Allan Carr, The First Time (1969) and C.C. and Company (1970), which he also wrote. His health declined,