{{short description|Canadian actor, writer and comedian}} {{Infobox person | name = Steve Smith |honorific_suffix = {{Post-nominals|country=CAN|CM|size=100%}} | image = File:Steve Smith as Red Green riding in the 2012 Golden Days Parade.jpg | caption = Smith as Red Green, riding in the 2012 Golden Days Parade in Fairbanks, Alaska, representing ''Red Green'' local affiliate KUAC-TV | birth_date = {{Birth date and age |1945|12|24}} | birth_place = Toronto, Ontario, Canada | death_date = | alma_mater = University of Waterloo | spouse = {{Marriage|Morag Smith|1966}} | children = 2 | birth_name = Steven Smith Jr. | occupation = Actor, writer, comedian | years_active = 1979–present | awards = Order of Canada }}
'''Steven Smith Jr.''' {{Post-nominals|country=CAN|CM}} (born December 24, 1945) is a Canadian actor, writer, and comedian.<ref name=NYT>{{cite web|title=Duct Tape Forever|url=https://www.nytimes.com/movies/movie/282789/Red-Green-s-Duct-Tape-Forever/overview|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160308204540/http://www.nytimes.com/movies/movie/282789/Red-Green-s-Duct-Tape-Forever/overview|url-status=dead|department=Movies & TV Dept.|work=The New York Times|author=Tracie Cooper|date=2016|archive-date=2016-03-08}}</ref> He is best known as the co-creator and star of the sketch comedy show ''The Red Green Show'' (1991–2006), for which he portrayed the titular character.
==Early life== Smith was born in Toronto on Christmas Eve 1945. Before turning to comedy, he studied engineering at the University of Waterloo and then worked a variety of jobs. He was an elementary schoolteacher at Gladys Spears Public School in Oakville ON for at least two years, 1967-68. In 1979, he began to produce, write, and star in ''Smith & Smith'', a sketch comedy series with a cast consisting of Smith and his wife Morag. The show was produced for Hamilton, Ontario's CHCH-TV and syndicated to other television stations in Canada, and featured the first appearances of the Red Green character.
==Career== [[File:Red green.jpg|thumb|upright=0.75|Smith as Red Green at Kirtland Community College, Roscommon, Michigan, April 5, 2014]] In 1985, Smith created the family sitcom ''Me & Max''. After the first season the Smiths went back to sketch comedy, creating the series ''The Comedy Mill'', which ran for four years. Smith was a writer on ''Offside'', a sports comedy series for CTV, head writer for Global's ''Laughing Matters'', and the TV pilot of ''Out of Our Minds'' with David Steinberg. He wrote three episodes of CBS' ''Top Cops'' series.
In 1991, Smith co-created ''The Red Green Show'' and portrayed its titular character; the series ran for 15 seasons and 300 episodes until its end in 2006. In 1997, Smith was credited as his alter-ego, Red Green, in the "Pavement" episode of the Cartoon Network/Adult Swim show ''Space Ghost Coast to Coast''. In 2002 the full-length movie ''Duct Tape Forever'' was produced.<ref name=NYT/> Smith writes a syndicated newspaper column as Red Green, distributed by Newspaper Enterprise Association. In 2009, as a public service announcement by the Ontario Provincial Police and the Ontario Power Generation, Smith supplied his voice to a talking fish, warning of the dangers of illegal fishing near government hydro dams. In 2004, Smith hosted a show on Space called ''Steve Smith Playhouse''.
Smith has performed as Red Green on several tours, including the "Wit & Wisdom" Tour (2013), "How to Do Everything" Tour (2014), and the "I'm Not Old, I'm Ripe" North American Tour (2016). The 2019 North American tour, "This Could Be It", began in March 2019 and ran until the end of October, with shows in 34 U.S. cities and 29 Canadian cities.<ref>{{cite web|title=Red Green - The Official Red Green Web Site|url=http://www.redgreen.com|work=Red Green}}</ref>
==Personal life== Smith and his wife Morag have been married since 1966 and have two sons, Dave and Max. They also have six grandchildren.
On February 17, 2006, Smith was made a Member of the Order of Canada. On June 13, 2011, he received an honorary Doctor of Letters from McMaster University.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://dailynews.mcmaster.ca/story.cfm?id=7978|title=Paul Martin, Buzz Hargrove among honorary degree recipients for Spring convocation|work=mcmaster.ca|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110929154627/http://dailynews.mcmaster.ca/story.cfm?id=7978|archive-date=2011-09-29}}</ref> On February 24, 2023, he was inducted into the Canadian Comedy Hall of Fame as a Creator and Performer, the first inductee in two categories. <ref>{{cite web | url=https://canadiancomedyhall.com/2023-cchof-inductees/ | title=» 2023 CCHOF Inductees }}</ref> ==See also== * List of University of Waterloo people
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== {{Commons category}} * {{IMDb name|810019|Steve Smith}} * {{Twitter}} * {{facebook|redgreen|Steve Smith}} * [https://www.youtube.com/redgreentv ''Steve Smith''] on YouTube * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IO_cJjrwY0&spfreload=10 ''Steve Smith''] on George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Steve}} Category:1945 births Category:Canadian male film actors Category:Canadian male television actors Category:Canadian male voice actors Category:Canadian television personalities Category:Canadian satirists Category:Comedians from Toronto Category:Living people Category:Canadian stand-up comedians Category:Male actors from Hamilton, Ontario Category:Male actors from Toronto Category:Members of the Order of Canada Category:University of Waterloo alumni Category:Writers from Toronto Category:Canadian sketch comedians Category:20th-century Canadian male actors Category:20th-century Canadian comedians Category:21st-century Canadian male actors Category:21st-century Canadian comedians Category:Canadian male comedians Category:Canadian television show creators Category:Canadian satirical television show creators