Early roles After the war, he traveled to
Hollywood in 1946 to pursue a career as an actor, he made his acting debut in the feature film,
Stars Over Texas as Peddler Tucker. He would later appear in many television series throughout his later career, such as
I Married Joan,
Fury, ''
The People's Choice, The Texan, Rescue 8, Dennis the Menace, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, The Donna Reed Show, National Velvet and The Red Skelton Show''.
The Andy Griffith Show Smith's best-remembered on-screen character was
Otis Campbell, the town drunk on
The Andy Griffith Show, during most of the series' run from 1960 to 1967. When intoxicated, he would often comically let himself into his regular jail cell—using the key which was stored within reach of the two comfortable jail rooms— and "sleep off" the effects of alcohol. Deputy
Barney Fife would often become irritated with Otis and would attempt to either sober him up or rehabilitate him in several episodes. Hal Smith was the opposite of his character. According to longtime friends
Andy Griffith and
Don Knotts, he did not drink in real life. Smith, however, in a 1964 interview with his hometown paper, said he was a “social drinker.” The Otis character stopped appearing in the sitcom towards the end of the series because of sponsor concerns regarding the comic portrayal of excessive drinking. Smith appeared as Calver Weems in the Don Knotts comedy
The Ghost and Mr. Chicken (1966), playing essentially the same town drunk character. Smith would play Otis one more time in the television movie
Return to Mayberry (1986). In the television movie, Otis is the town's ice cream truck driver and is reported to have been "sober for years.” Smith later used his Otis Campbell character in commercial spots for the
Mothers Against Drunk Driving organization, and he appeared as Otis in
Alan Jackson's music video "
Don't Rock the Juke Box.”
Other performances In 1957, Smith played Rollin Daggett in the role of a newspaper man in the early days of Mark Twain in the "Fifteen Paces to Fame" episode of Death Valley Days. He made at least one appearance in the TV series
Perry Mason, the episode titled "The Case of the Treacherous Toupee", (season 4, episode 1), in 1960. He had a small role as a restaurant manager in the 10/01/1960
Leave It to Beaver episode "Beaver Won't Eat". Smith had a cameo role as the Mayor of Boracho in
The Great Race in 1965. He played the industrialist Hans Spear on CBS's sitcom ''
Hogan's Heroes'' (
"The Swing Shift", season 2, episode 21). He portrayed King Theseus of Rhodes in
The Three Stooges Meet Hercules (1965) and later provided various voices for the cartoon series
The New 3 Stooges. In 1967, he played John Wilson in the 1967 episode "The Man Who Didn't Want Gold" of the syndicated Western series
Death Valley Days and Mr. Weber in
The Lucy Show. In 1969, Smith had a cameo role as a drunk driver in the
Adam-12 episode "Log 51: A Jumper – Code Two". Also in 1969, he appeared in the
Petticoat Junction episode "The Great Race". He played Jug Gunderson, a moonshiner that helped the Cannonball train win the aforementioned race. Though his character was never seen drinking or drunk, by the end of the episode, he makes an oath to himself to stop drinking and reform. In the mid-1960s, Smith also had a morning children's show on the Los Angeles television station KHJ called
The Pancake Man, sponsored by the
International House of Pancakes (IHOP) restaurant chain. He reprised the role of the Pancake Man as "Kartoon King" in the 1971 episode of
The Brady Bunch, titled "The Winner". He also played
Mother Goose in the X-rated animated feature film
Once Upon a Girl in 1976. He appeared in two episodes of the Odd Couple the early 1970s
Voice acting Smith also worked extensively as a
voice actor in animated films and television series. His first voice credit was as "Pepe", a boxing rooster, in
Walter Lantz's cartoon "The Bongo Punch" in 1957. Beginning in the late 1950s with such shows as
The Huckleberry Hound Show and
Quick Draw McGraw, Smith became one of the most prolific voice actors in Hollywood, eventually working with most of the major studios and production companies, such as
Hanna-Barbera,
Walt Disney,
Warner Bros.,
the Mirisch Corporation, and
Sid and Marty Krofft, with voice roles on such series as
The Flintstones in which he mostly did the voices of Texas millionaires such as Fred's rich uncle Tex,
Pink Panther,
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh,
Mickey Mouse,
Yogi Bear and
Looney Tunes. In 1962, he voiced Taurus, the Scots-accented mechanic of the spaceship
Starduster for the series
Space Angel. According to the book:
Space Patrol, missions of daring in the name of early television, "It's rumored that Gene Roddenberry was a huge fan of the show and patterned ''Star Trek's'' engineer, Mr. Scott, after McCloud's Scottish sidekick, Taurus". He also did voices for the
Hong Kong Phooey series. In 1977, he was the voice of Grandpa Josiah in the cartoon special,
Halloween Is Grinch Night. That same year, he began voicing the Disney character
Winnie the Pooh, replacing
Sterling Holloway, who had provided the voice of the character for many years, beginning with the
Disney Read-Along adaptation of
Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too. He was also very active with doing voices in 1980s; he was Sludge in
The Smurfs, Goofy in ''
Mickey's Christmas Carol'', in Disney's
DuckTales he did the voices of
Scrooge McDuck's rival
Flintheart Glomgold and the absent-minded scientist
Gyro Gearloose and in
Frog And Toad are Friends and
Frog And Toad Together he also did the voice of Toad. Smith also voiced the Disney cartoon character
Goofy after
Pinto Colvig died in 1967 and would voice him up until ''
Mickey's Christmas Carol in 1983. Additionally, he provided the voice of Owl in the two original Winnie the Pooh featurettes (Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree and Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day) and The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh'' in 1977. In the 1960s, he was one of the most sought after voice actors in Hollywood. From 1959 till 1975, he provided the voices for Goliath, Davey's dad and many other characters in
Davey and Goliath. From 1960 to 1961, he was the voice of
Elmer Fudd after
Arthur Q. Bryan died. In 1963, he voiced Dr. Todd Goodheart, Belly Laguna, and Dr. Von Upp in
The Funny Company cartoon series. From 1964 to 1966, he was the voice of Yappee in the Hanna-Barbera cartoon shorts
Yippee, Yappee and Yahooey. He was also the voice of Cosgoode Creeps, Asa Shanks, the Farmer and Mr. Greenway, on
Scooby-Doo, Where are You!. In 1981, he reprised his role as Owl and Winnie the Pooh in the short
Winnie the Pooh Discovers the Seasons. He then voiced the two characters in
Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore in 1983, as well as
Disney Channel's television series
Welcome to Pooh Corner. On the television series
The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh in 1988,
Jim Cummings took over as Pooh while Smith continued playing Owl. The two voice actors sometimes rotated the voice of Winnie the Pooh. In 1991, Smith provided the voice of Philippe the Horse in the Disney film
Beauty and the Beast before his death in 1994. In 1985, Hal voiced Norman Harper, a sick father of wife Jennifer Walters (voiced by D.J. Harner), in a radio drama entitled "House Guest". It aired on the
Focus on the Family daily broadcast on November 23 (the day before Thanksgiving) of that year. He went to voice other roles for other Focus audio presentations, and starting in 1987, Smith was the voice of the main character John Avery Whittaker on Focus on the Family's longest-running radio drama
Adventures in Odyssey, which debuted that year. He was responsible for much of the cast joining the show after he signed on (including
Katie Leigh,
Will Ryan,
Walker Edmiston,
Earl Boen,
Dave Madden and others), and he continued recording episodes until a few weeks before his death, even while his health deteriorated. In an Andy Griffith Fan Interview, published after he died, Smith said that
Adventures in Odyssey was one of the most gratifying things he had done in his life. Additionally, he voiced dozens of other characters during the 253 episodes in which he participated. His role of Whit was later filled by
Paul Herlinger in 1996 and then
Andre Stojka in 2009, after his death. Hal voiced Joe McGee in "The Old Man and the Sea Duck" episode of
TaleSpin. Smith was also very active working in television commercials as various characters. He provided on-screen promotion for
3 Musketeers,
United Van Lines,
Hickory Farms,
Toyota,
Green Giant,
General Mills,
Mattel,
Kellogg's,
Pizza Hut,
Chicken of the Sea,
Ivory soap, Doctor Ross Dog Food,
Pioneer Chicken,
Bell Telephone Company,
Coca-Cola,
Chef Boyardee and hundreds of other advertising sponsors. ==Personal life==