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Evelyn F. "Eve" Smith (31 August 190528 August 1997; age 91) was an actress who played the elderly patient in the Mercy Hospital in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.

Early life[]

Smith was born in DeLand, Florida, and grew up primarily in Jacksonville. According to her obituary, Smith was briefly involved in vaudeville until the early 1920s, after which time her father directed her to only sing in the Baptist church. In 1933, she married A.Y. Smith, an Air Force officer, and became a housewife. Smith's husband, who according to military records was an Air Force colonel, died in an airplane crash in Oregon in 1949.

Acting career[]

In 1945, at the age of forty, Smith landed her first acting credit and appeared in the film Caesar and Cleopatra, which also starred Jean Simmons. She did not hold another screen role for nearly forty years, when she began appearing in television, starting with a 1982 episode of Cheers, also starring Keone Young. Cheers later prominently featured Kelsey Grammer, Kirstie Alley and Bebe Neuwirth.

Film roles soon followed, and she appeared in Romancing the Stone (1984, with Vince Deadrick), The Bad Seed (1985, with Richard Kiley, David Ogden Stiers, and Chad Allen), Elvira: Mistress of the Dark (1988, with W. Morgan Sheppard, Phil Rubenstein, and Dick Miller), Who's Harry Crumb? (1989, with Manny Perry), and Love Hurts (1991).

Additional television appearances included guest roles on Highway to Heaven (1984, with Daniel Davis), The A-Team (1984, with Dwight Schultz, Richard Lynch, Stephen Liska, and Susanne Wasson), St. Elsewhere (1985, with Deborah May and Gary Armagnac), Moonlighting (1986, with Whoopi Goldberg), Growing Pains (1988 & 1989, with Andrew Koenig and Betty McGuire), and Married... with Children (1989).

Smith made two appearances on Night Court, starring John Larroquette with a recurring guest role by Brent Spiner. Smith appeared once in 1985 and then four years later in the 1989 episode "Yet Another Day in the Life ". In the latter performance, the episode guest starred Roy Brocksmith, Kelly Connell, and Bruce French. A scene in the episode further depicted a group of Star Trek convention attendees arrested after having a fight about which was the better series, Star Trek: The Original Series or Star Trek: The Next Generation. During their exchange, mention is made of both the Vulcan death grip and tribbles, before one group uses a transporter to beam out of the court room.

Smith was also one of several Star Trek guest stars to appear on the 1980s series The Facts of Life, along with William Windom, Kenneth Tigar, Roger Perry, Paul Comi (who appears in the same episode as Smith), Clyde Kusatsu, Robert DoQui, Nicholas Coster, Nehemiah Persoff, Clive Revill, Robert Hooks, and Ian Wolfe. Armin Shimerman also made a brief appearance in the show's seventh season premiere episode.

Stand-up comedy work[]

Eve Smith SAG

Eve Smith's Screen Actors Guild membership card in 1987

Smith began working as a stand-up comic in the 1970s, appearing in Florida comedy clubs, before landing billets in Las Vegas, beginning in 1978. She thereafter performed comedy at the Frontier Hotel lounge, Playboy Club, Caesars Palace, and the Sahara. Through her work as a stand-up comic, Smith was named Comedienne of the Year for two consecutive years.

In 1989, Smith retired from both comedy and acting and settled in Fort Lauderdale, where she died in 1997. [1]

External link[]

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