William Smith (Kimo) has passed away

https://deadline.com/2021/07/william...-o-1234789592/

He died on 7/5, age 88, no cause of death given.

Smith spoke about working on H50 in an interview with Shock Cinema Magazine several years ago:

https://archive.org/details/ShockCin...ge/n3/mode/2up

SC: I remember when you were on HAWAII FIVE-0 [1979-1980].

Smith: Yeah. I replaced James MacArthur, who quit the show because Jack Lord wouldn't let him have a dressing room. [Someone I know who knew James MacArthur showed this to him, and he said this was utter bullshit. - MQ] He had to change in the prop truck for eleven years. Bless his soul, though — Jack, he died, but he was not a nice man. I don't know what was the matter with him. He had the world by the tail, but he didn't get along with anybody. Everybody on the show would come to work saying "Another shitty day in paradise!" (Laughs) He would throw a luau at the end of each month at this big huge restaurant right on the main boulevard in Honolulu, and he would have one room for the white folks and another room for the Samoans and the Tahitians. It was totally separated, racially separated! All the Teamsters were Samoan guys, and the Samoans are all over six foot and all over 300 pounds, y'know? The Teamster captain was a guy named Earl Miller, and I asked Earl one day. "Why do you put up with that separation bullshit?" And he said "I don't step on my wallet, brah.'"(Laughing) They call everyone brah. But that was the third longest running show of all time — GUNSMOKE, BONANZA, and HAWAII FIVE-O, in that order. I did the last GUNSMOKE ever done ["Hard Labor." 1975].

I can't help but be bummed about this. On top of everything else he did, he was a USAF veteran, I believe he specialized in linguistics.

I've watched several of his other roles and I've been impressed with his acting chops. I haven't really watched "Red Dawn" for him but apparently he was the Russian leader and didn't need help with the Russian language - that's all him! :)

As far as Five-O goes, he got the short end of the stick from just about every angle, in my opinion. The last season is horrible, mostly due to awful scripts, and he essentially stepped in as a replacement for someone who was pretty irreplaceable (both character and actor). I don't think anyone really recognized that fact until it was too late.

With his passing, that leaves us two cast members still alive, right? Al Harrington and Sharon Farrell?

RIP Mr. Smith, you will be missed.