Paul L. Smith

Paul L. Smith was an American-Israeli actor, a burly and bearded man who usually played heavies and bad guys in feature films and occasional television work. Born in Everett in 1936, he got his first acting job at 24 in Otto Preminger's 1960 epic Exodus, shot in Israel. He returned to that country in 1967 and stayed six years, working in films and television made there, and directed two features, a 1970 documentary called Milhemet 20 HaShanim and the 1972 crime drama Jacko Vehayatzaniot. Between 1973 and 1977 he made a run of Italian films alongside Michael Coby. His best known roles were the prison guard Hamidou in Midnight Express (1978), Bluto in Popeye (1980), Gideon in Masada (1981), Glossu Rabban in Dune (1984) and Falkon in Red Sonja (1985). He also appeared in established series including Hawaii Five-O, Barney Miller and Wonder Woman. He died in 2012.