Movie roles are sometimes based upon what the audience expects to see. If the role called for the tall stereotypical Englishmen with the stiff upper lip and stern determination, that man would be C. Aubrey Smith, graduate of Cambridge University,a leading freemason and a test cricketer for England. Smith was 30 by the time he embarked upon a career on the stage. It took another 20 plus years before he entered the flickering images of the movies. By 1915, Smith was over 50 in a medium that demanded young actors and starlets. For the next ten years, he appeared in a rather small number of silent movies, and after that, he faded from the scene. It was in 1930, with the advent of sound, that Smith found his position in the movies and that position would be distinguished roles. He played military officers, successful business men, ministers of the cloth and ministers of government. With the bushy eyebrows and stoic face, he played men who know about honour, tradition, and the correct path. He worked with big stars such as Greta Garbo,Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Shirley Temple. As for honours, Smith received the Order of the British Empire in 1938 and was knighted in 1944. He continued to work up to the time of his death.
Around Hollywood, Sir Aubrey was perhaps best known as team captain of the Hollywood Cricket Club. In fact, the club's home field and clubhouse in Los Angeles' Griffith Park was named for Sir Aubrey in 1933. Although the Hollywood Cricket club wasn't particularly successful on the field, it did feature numerous British emigre actors of the era. Was the inspiration for the Commander McBragg character on the Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales cartoon TV show. Brother-in-law of playwright/novelist Cosmo Hamilton (married Smith's sister). In the late 1880s, while he was mining for gold in South Africa, he developed pneumonia and was wrongly pronounced dead by doctors. His only (cricket) Test Match appearance was the 1st Test against South Africa at Crusaders Ground, St George's Park, Port Elizabeth on 12-13 March 1889. It was actually a 3 day match but finished early. He was the best of the England bowlers picking up 5-19 off 13.2 overs (154 balls as these were 4-ball overs) in the first innings and 2-42 off 25 in the second. He scored 3 runs in the first innings, batting at no. 8, and was not required to bat in the second as England won the match for the loss of only 2 wickets. He captained the England side. This was England's first tour to South Africa and, during it, he took 134 wickets at an average of 7.61. He stayed in South Africa after the tour and captained Transvaal. His knighthood, in 1944, was for services to Anglo-American amity.