Kurtwood Smith

Clarence Boddicker seems to be enjoying himself, which makes Kurtwood Smith’s crime boss in RoboCop (1987) particularly unpleasant company. We were unnerved by the pleasure Smith gives him in being cruel. Paul Verhoeven’s savage action film allows that gleeful villainy without losing its concern for the person inside Peter Weller’s metal policeman. Smith’s nastiness helps make that contrast work: the threat matters because there is someone worth caring about. It is a forceful performance in a film that knows how to use it.

In Dead Poets Society (1989), the discomfort comes from Mr. Perry’s authority as a father. Smith’s sternness is well suited to Peter Weir’s school drama, where an adult’s certainty can leave little room for anyone else. There is a limitation here, too: the film’s moral lessons are too tidy, and the severe father risks becoming an easy instruction about whom to resist. We recommend the film for its performances, while wishing it were less eager to settle what we should think. Smith gives that severity weight, but the writing could leave him more room.

The move to That '70s Show (1998–2006) gave his paternal gruffness a warmer use. As Red Forman, Smith balances the no-nonsense father with underlying affection, a useful correction to the idea that severity is all he offers. The long-running role became a defining part of his later career. He reprised Red in That '90s Show (2023–2024), returning to a character who lets him be stern without being merely forbidding.

Repeated casting as stern fathers and villains carries a risk: we can start deciding what a Smith character will be before the performance has properly begun. That is a reason for casting directors to think harder, rather than a fault in the actor. We would welcome another part that gives him as much to enjoy as Boddicker without asking him to repeat it. Until then, start with RoboCop, provided its savage violence is something we can reasonably ask you to sit through.