Smith was born in New Lisbon, Wisconsin, the son of Mabel Annette Lund and George Smith. Smith's father was a Major during the Second World War and was killed in Europe. Smith's mother was a fan of a country singer named Kurt in the early 1940s. However, she thought "Kurt Smith" was too short a name, so she added "wood". Smith has said that he is likely the only Kurtwood. Smith grew up in the San Fernando Valley and graduated from Canoga Park High School of Canoga Park, California in 1961; he was class president in his senior year. Smith graduated from San Jose State University in 1965 with a B.A. and Stanford University in 1969 with an MFA.
Career
On stage, Smith won three Drama-Logue Awards for his performances in Billy Budd, Idiot's Delight, and Green Grow the Lilacs. In his film career, he portrayed Clarence Boddicker in Paul Verhoeven's science fiction action movie RoboCop and the father role as Red Forman on the Fox sitcom That '70s Show, which ran from 1998 to 2006. After That '70s Show ended, Smith played Senator Blaine Mayer in the seventh season of the action thriller 24, and portrayed Dick Clayton in the CBS series Worst Week. He enjoyed a recurring role as a rogue FBI agent in Seasons 3–5 of the NBC series Medium, appearing in later episodes as a ghost after his character's death. He played the main character Henry Langston in the ABC sci-fi/drama Resurrection which ran for two seasons. Currently, he is a regular on the Amazon original dramedy series Patriot. His other roles included playing Mr. Sue on Fox's "espionage comedy" The New Adventures of Beans Baxter from 1987 to 1989. He also starred as the strict father of Robert Sean Leonard's Neil in 1989's Dead Poets Society. He made a number of appearances in the Star Trek franchise, playing the President of the Federation in ', a Cardassian named Thrax in the ' episode "The Ascent |Things Past", and a Krenim scientist named Annorax in the ' episode "Year of Hell". He also has an extensive voice acting résumé, appearing in computer games such as ', and FreeSpace 2, and on a number of animated series. He played a recurring role on the claymation series Gary & Mike as the vengeful Officer Dick and voiced the dinosaurian military commander character General Galapagos in the Savage Steve Holland produced Fox animated series Terrible Thunderlizards. He played the voice of Bob Johnson on Squirrel Boy and provided the voice of Kanjar Ro in and starred as the sheriff in Last of the Dogmen. Smith appeared on the Netflix show The Ranch as Mr. Peterson, a farmer dying of brain cancer.
Personal life
Smith married Cecilia Souza in 1964. The couple divorced in 1974. Smith then married Joan Pirkle, who appeared with him in Robocop, in 1988. She played the secretary of Jones. Smith has one daughter, Laurel Garner, and one son, Shannon Smith. Smith lives in Lafayette, California.
