Biography
Paul L. Smith (born February 5, 1939) was an American character actor. Burly, bearded, and imposing, he has appeared in films and occasionally on TV since the 1970s, generally playing "heavies" and bad guys. His most notable roles include Hamidou, the vicious prison warden in Midnight Express (1978), Bluto in Robert Altman's Popeye (1980) and the Beast Rabban in David Lynch's Dune (1984). He is sometimes credited as Paul Smith or Paul Lawrence Smith.
Known For
Complete Filmography
Eric Falk: Sunshine-Judo auf Ibiza
2014
as (archive footage)
Featurette about the 1980 film "Gefangene Frauen" starring Eric Falk and Erwin C. Dietrich.

D.R.E.A.M. Team
1999
as Vladimir Corzon (as Paul Smith)
J.W. Garrison, the head of a top-secret sub agency of the United Nations, discovers that a team of terrorists, led by the murderous Oliver Maxwell, pl...

Maverick
1994
as The Archduke
Bret Maverick is a gambler who would rather con someone than fight them, and needs an additional $3k in order to enter a winner-takes-all poker game b...

Desert Kickboxer
1992
as Santos
A kickboxing cop abandons the violent life after he accidentally kills his opponent during a match. After quitting, he heads for the Arizona desert to...

Eye of the Widow
1991
as Elko
A new international terrorist group attack the castle of an Austrian prince during his party, but one of the guests, a contractor, deals with them. Th...

Crossing the Line
1990
as Joe Kapinski
A rich kid, with a fondness for fast bikes, is blamed when a motorcycle accident puts his best friend in a coma.

Caged Fury
1990
as Head Guard
Kat arrives in Los Angeles to audition for movies. However, after meeting a sleazy producer, she and her new friend find themselves in a women's priso...

Caged Fury
1990
Associate Producer
Kat arrives in Los Angeles to audition for movies. However, after meeting a sleazy producer, she and her new friend find themselves in a women's priso...

Ten Little Indians
1989
as Elmo Rodgers
Ten people are invited to go on an African safari, only to find that an unseen person is killing them one by one. Could one of them be the killer?

Sonny Boy
1989
as Slue
A small-town car thief and his transgender wife come across an abandoned infant; they amputate his tongue and train him for a life in crime.

The Hired Gun
1989
as Wounded Man
A hardcore former mercenary in Africa is commissioned by a neo-Nazi organization to bring secret documents from WW2, hidden at an American military ba...

You're Famous
1989
A woman goes streaking in a race track, a senior citizens' seminar features a pre-sex demonstration, public toilets' walls fall apart, and other candi...

Crazy Camera
1989
A candid camera comedy where hidden camera films unsuspecting street passers-by reacting to comic situations the filmmakers set up.

Terminal Entry
1988
as Stewart
The USA is attacked by a large group of well organized terrorists who communicate through a computer network via satellite. A bunch of highschool kids...

Death Chase
1988
as Steele
After a man's sister is killed by two gunmen who seemingly come out of nowhere, he manages to find and kill them. He then discovers that the men he ki...

Outlaw Force
1988
as Inspector Wainright
Some punks go into a small town and start hassling the gas station owner; Billy Ray Dalton a friend of the owner pulls a shot gun on them and tells th...

Gor
1987
as Serbus
American professor Tarl Cabot is transported via a magical ring to planet Gor, where he must help an oppressed country overthrow its evil king and his...

Haunted Honeymoon
1986
as Dr. Paul Abbot
Radio personalities Larry Abbot and Vickie Pearle are stars of a mystery show. Since they announced their engagement, Larry has been plagued by speech...

Sno-Line
1985
as Duval
A New York City district attorney secretly runs a cocaine-smuggling ring in Texas. When the mob tries to move in on his operation, he goes down there ...

The Protector
1985
as Mr. Booar (uncredited)
Billy Wong is a New York City cop whose partner is gunned down during a robbery. Billy and his new partner, Danny Garoni, are working security at a fa...

Crimewave
1985
as Faron Crush
Fed up of his business partner, Ernest Trend hires the services of two exterminators. When things go drastically wrong and they murder the wrong man, ...

Red Sonja
1985
as Falkon
The tyrant Gedren seeks the total power in a world of barbarism. She raids the city Hablac and kills the keeper of a talisman that gives her great pow...

Dune
1984
as The Beast Rabban
In the year 10,191, the most precious substance in the universe is the spice Melange. The spice extends life. The spice expands consciousness. The spi...

Operation Shtreimel
1984
This wacky comedy takes place in the weeks leading up to the Allied invasion of Normandy during World War II. With the Allies uncertain as to what th...

Jungle Warriors
1984
as Cesar Santiago
A group of models fly into the jungle of some South American country to look for a photo location. Their plane is shot down and they are captured by a...

Pieces
1982
as Willard
A frustrated Boston detective searches for the maniac responsible for mutilating a number of university coeds.

When I Am King
1982
as Sir Blackstone Hardtack
Two children move to a dream world of magicians, witches and an evil Gypsy.

The Salamander
1981
as The Surgeon
An Italian policeman investigates a series of murders involving people in prominent positions. Left behind at each murder scene is a drawing of a sala...

Popeye
1980
as Bluto
Popeye is a super-strong, spinach-scarfing sailor man who's searching for his father. During a storm that wrecks his ship, Popeye washes ashore and wi...

Going in Style
1979
as Radio Announcer
Three kindly old men decide to light up the dimming twilight of their lives with a last blaze of glory – by sticking up a Manhattan bank in broad dayl...

Disaster on the Coastliner
1979
as Jim Waterman / Victor Prescott
A deranged engineer, bent on revenge for the deaths of his wife and daughter, sets two passenger trains on a collision course, and con-man William Sha...

The In-Laws
1979
as Mo
In preparation for his daughter's wedding, dentist Sheldon Kornpett meets Vince Ricardo, the groom's father. Vince, a manic fellow who claims to be a ...

Midnight Express
1978
as Hamidou
Billy Hayes is caught attempting to smuggle drugs out of Turkey. The Turkish courts decide to make an example of him, sentencing him to more than 30 y...
The Three Hostages
1977
as David Warcliff (as Saul Eden Smith)
Retired British solider Richard Hannay is recruited by British intelligence in an attempt to recover three hostages taken prisoner by a shadowy crimin...

Return of the Tiger
1977
as Paul the Westerner
Chang Hung, an agent who works for a rival organization, and his female partner devise an elaborate plan to take out a heroin ring led by the nefariou...

21 Hours at Munich
1976
as Guttfruend
A dramatization of the incident in 1972 when Arab terrorists broke into the Olympic compound in Munich and murdered 11 Israeli athletes.

The Diamond Peddlers
1976
as Simone / Toby
Bumbling crooks Butch and Toby pose as priests in order to elude being arrested by the authorities in Africa. Butch and Toby deliver a statue of the V...

Conspiracy of Terror
1975
as Pound Supervisor
A husband-and-wife detective team investigate the existence of lethal Satanic cults , while the husband battles with his Orthodox Jewish parents who h...

We Are No Angels
1975
as Raphael McDonald
Two wannabes rig a fight with a large prize fighter to buy a car.

Convoy Buddies
1975
as Butch
Toby and Butch are a couple of bumbling crooks who get a truck driving job hauling insecticide from Italy to France. Unbeknownst to the clueless duo, ...

Carambola's Philosophy: In the Right Pocket
1975
as Len
Len and Cody are two friends who can not spend more than two minutes without arguing. These crazy gunmen snatched a Confederate colonel charged an arc...

Alcohol: The Choice
1974
A teenager is faced with pressure from peers to drink and his decision about the use of alcohol. The young man is assisted by a youth minister in maki...

Carambola!
1974
as Len
Coby is an ex-soldier and billiard champion. He and his friend Len accept the sum of 50,000 dollars to investigate the trafficking of arms across the ...

Gospel Road: A Story of Jesus
1973
as Peter
Johnny Cash appears in and narrates this retelling of the story of Jesus' Life, Death and Resurrection.

They Call Me Shmil
1973
as Shmiel
Professional big-dude Paul Smith in an Israeli-produced action-comedy that looks to take inspiration from the Hill/Spencer comedies.

Tel Aviv Call Girls
1972
Director
Jacquo, a shady owner of a Las Vegas nightclub in Lower Haifa, also runs a brothel and gambling den. His business thrives with an entourage of women, ...
Nahtche and the General
1972
Comedy which revolves around the exploits of Nahtche and his constant success in disentangling himself from the grip of the persons who are after him ...

Fishke Bemilu'im
1971
as שמיל

Madron
1970
as Gabe Price (uncredited)
A nun, the only survivor of an Indian massacre of a wagon train, is taken in by a cantankerous old gunfighter.