We cherished the girls, grog and laughter

April 22, 2024 3:01 PM

The Poetry of Actor William Smith. You may be familiar with William Smith as a "that guy" from hundreds and hundreds of movie performances, usually the heavy, such as bare-knuckle brawler Jack Wilson in 1980's Any Which Way You Can. But his poetic contributions have gone largely unnoticed, and courtesy of his still-up website -- Williams passed in 2021 -- you can read poems like The Reaper or thrill to these poems read in Williams' own roadworn voice.
posted by Shepherd (9 comments total)

It's cowboy poetry!

A distinguished genre. Probably best heard read out loud around a campfire than written in a book, or on a screen.
posted by heyitsgogi at 3:39 PM on April 22, 2024 [2 favorites]

Poetry, huh? Well, who knew!

I just saw William Smith play a bad guy (didn't he always?) in a little remembered post-apocalypse scifi picture from 1975, The Ultimate Warrior. Actually not that bad.
posted by 2N2222 at 3:55 PM on April 22, 2024

oh, wow. nice find, never knew he'd wrote cowboy. just reading the lyrics you can kind of form a pretty good song. could you imagine Bill Murray, who's been known to read poetry, and him singing a cowboy piece. or scene from Waiting for Godot.
posted by clavdivs at 4:56 PM on April 22, 2024

I kept scrolling but didn't see what's arguably his best known work, weird. I only remember a few lines, sadly, maybe somebody here knows it and can link?

Any damsel that's in distress
Be outta that dress when she meet Jim West
Rough neck so go check the law and abide
Watch your step or flex and get a hole in your side
Wiki wiki wild
Wiki wild wild west

posted by phunniemee at 5:32 PM on April 22, 2024 [3 favorites]

i had no idea that Dalton Wilcox was a real guy
posted by dis_integration at 6:25 PM on April 22, 2024 [2 favorites]

Great. Now I have to wonder if William Smith ever ____ed a hole in the earth ...

Damn you, Wilcox. Damn you ...
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 6:47 PM on April 22, 2024 [2 favorites]

Oooh, one of my favorite professors in college LOVES cowboy poetry and performed it for my entire cohort once. I don't remember what he performed but now I want to ask him if he likes any of these poems. I certainly do.
posted by The Adventure Begins at 9:31 PM on April 22, 2024

I had SUCH a crush on him from his '60s Western series Laredo. It was kind of my first fandom, even if I didn't know what a fandom was at that point. He wore the tightest buckskin pants and shirts that streeetched across his muscles. I didn't see him around for a while until suddenly he was everywhere, on all the talk shows, because of the miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man. I think it was one of those talk shows where I found out he spoke three languages fluently and a lot more that were less fluent but still passable and I swooned. I think I also remember him talking about writing poetry, but I didn't recall it being cowboy poetry, that's pretty nifty considering where I first saw him.
posted by kitten kaboodle at 10:06 PM on April 22, 2024 [3 favorites]

VAMPIRES VAMPIRES!

TEETH AS SHARP AS NEW BARBED WIRE

wait..this isn't Dalton Wilcox...?
posted by Kitteh at 4:40 AM on April 23, 2024 [1 favorite]