appeared as Wesley Mason in another film, Rebel in Town, starring John Payne. That same year, he was the lead guest in "The Story of Lucky Swanson" on CBS's fantasy drama, The Millionaire, and as a character called "Utah" on Father Knows Best, the Robert Young situation comedy. He was further cast in 1956 as Steve Maguire in the episode "The Singing Preacher", with Dick Foran in the lead role, on the religion anthology series, Crossroads. He appeared as David in the 1956 episode "Cholera" of CBS's Gunsmoke. In 1957, Smith starred with Fay Spain as a young prizefighter, Tommy Kelly, in the film The Crooked Circle. He was cast as Private Reynolds that year in the picture Tomahawk Trail, starring Chuck Connors. Smith appeared twice on the ABC/Warner Brothers western series Colt .45, starring Wayde Preston. He was cast as The Comanche Kid in "Gallows at Granite Gap" (November 8, 1957), with Virginia Gregg as Martha Naylor and Stuart Randall, later a recurring character with Smith on Laramie, as Sheriff Mort Cory. The child actor Ken Osmond was cast as Tommy. Smith subsequently appeared on Colt .45 as Shelby Taylor in "Point of Honor" (March 21, 1958). In this episode Cameron Mitchell portrayed Dr. Alan McMurdo. In 1958, Smith appeared in the episode "The Irwin Brown Story" of the United States Navy television drama Men of Annapolis. In the 1958–1959 television season, Smith landed a starring role as the blacksmith/deputy sheriff Lane Temple on Cimarron City. The episodes rotated among Smith and two other stars, George Montgomery as Mayor Matt Rockford and Audrey Totter as Beth Purcell, the owner of the Cimarron City boarding house. In 1958, he played the part of Smitty in "Letter of the Weak" in the detective series, Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer, starring Darren McGavin. In 1959, he appeared as Irving Randall in the episode of "A Night with the Boys" of CBS's Alfred Hitchcock Presents. That same year, Smith played a pilot, Joe Walker, in the film Island of Lost Women. In 1959, he was cast as the young rancher Slim Sherman, the lead role on Laramie (1959–1963) with Robert Fuller, Hoagy Carmichael, Robert L. Crawford, Jr., Stuart Randall, and later Spring Byington and Dennis Holmes. From their stint on Laramie, Smith and Robert Fuller developed a lifelong friendship, until Smith's own death in early 1995. On the first episode of the second season